On a lighter note, it struck me recently how many art supplies I get at Home Depot, and I’m amused to share that list here:
- odorless mineral spirits (at a fraction of the price at an art-supply store)
- razor blades in the zillion-pack (great for scraping off the glass palette)
- MDF boards (what I mount my canvas on for painting)
- wall scrapers (I use a large one for spreading glue on a canvas before mounting it to the MDF panel, and a smaller one for applying molding paste when I want to texture a canvas)
- housepaint brushes (for applying gesso)
- latex gloves
…too bad I can’t get quarts of Gamblin paint for the price of a quart of Behr!
Tags: methods & materials
Entries (RSS)
May 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hey, why not just paint with house paint?
After all, exterior house paint has almost certainly gone through more rigorous quality control and environmental testing and is probably more durable than most of the artists paint on the market.
I propose a test (and a toast). Do a painting with Behr exterior house paint and one with what you think is the best quality artists oil color. Do them on the same base material — eg, exterior plywood.
Then stick them outside for a year and see which holds up better: ie, least amount of fading, least peeling, etc.
my money is on the house paint.
PS, my suggest to “paint with house paint” is not entirely tongue in cheek. I have seen old oil paintings in museums and it is clear that time has not been kind to most of them *even inside). They get all cracked and faded. I suspect that acrylic is probably a lot more durable, since it is basically plastic.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:17 am
There is a lady that sells Gamblin Paint on Ebay for pretty cheap. Its all real too. I’ve been getting it from her for a while now if she has the colors I need. Big and small tubes. Just type in Gamblin Oil Paint on Ebay and the list will come up. She has it posted every week.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Joe, thanks a million for the tip! I wonder where she gets the goods…
Larry, I’ve heard it rumored that an artist who shows in Jackson - someone who paints quite large - does use house paint and house brushes. And as you note, it’s basically plastic, whereas oil paints continue going through (chemical? compositional?) changes for some time.
So why use oils? for me, there’s no other medium that lets me get the insane vibrancy of color, in both transparent and opaque applications, with the gorgeous wet-in-wet effects. House paint ain’t gonna do it, sadly.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Just got to see some of your “insane”vibrancy of color” at the Ernest Fuller Gallery in Denver, where I stopped over for a couple of days before getting home yesterday. Met Mr. Fuller himself, who, when I told him that I had taken your workshop, showed me the original of the Very Painting that graces the masthead of this blog. which was a nice treat! I loved the big bison, “Tatanka”, too. Lovely gallery space with lots of well-presented, excellent work.
Also saw the Bateman show at The Wildlife Experience and spent two days sketching and photographing at the zoo. Personal favorite may have been the two eight week old spotted hyena cubs, but the lions really put on a show and are very fit for zoo cats. (Care to blog about using captive animal reference sometime?)
I totally agree with you about oils. The problem with plastic paint is that it is, well, plastic, with none of the brush feel (cue goosepipples) of good quality oil paint. One of the things that drives me nuts about latex house paint is that it is specifically formulated for use with a roller, not a brush. So, painting window and door trim and such is a pain because of inconsistent coverage. I painted a entire room in the Victorian we used to own with a brush because using a roller would have left a texture on the historically re-done plaster walls (major earthquake, 1992). I won the battle, but geez, it would have been so much better to have had the nasty, wonderful old oil-based paint. But that’s an old One Shot-using sign painter talking.
Larry, I would have to say for myself that I’ve seen many 200-500 year old oil paintings at museums like the National Gallery in London that look just fine after all this time. It sounds like the ones you’ve seen may have been done with inferior materials or have been improperly conserved. Historically, the only media that might be more permanent than oil paint is tempera, because egg yolk is used for the pigment binder and we all know what happens when you let egg dry on a plate.
But, Julie, if HD sees your blog entry, they’ll probably set up an art supply section and raise the prices on everything you’ve listed.
We don’t have a Home Depot (yet). I have to make do with the local hardware store. ;-(
May 12th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Susan, thank you for the very kind words on the work in Denver! Ernest is a wonderful dealer and I thoroughly enjoy doing business with him. I will indeed post about captive animal reference at some point - it’s on the list of topics (which is always open to suggestions!).
There are always concerns that we as artists need to keep in mind when it comes to the materials we use (aha, another potential blog entry) so that we are doing our best to ensure our collectors will have the same artwork in 10 or 100 years as they did at time of purchase. I do not know about the longevity ratings on exterior latex and whether it is subjected to the same lightfastness tests and ratings that artist materials are. Inquiring minds would be interested…but in any case, I thoroughly, totally agree that I dislike painting with plastic. I used acrylics for a while, but as soon as I discovered oils the acrylics were toast.
Now, acrylic MEDIA definitely have their place, and I’ve been having fun with textured substrates. But that’s a topic for another time.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Julie,
Since you were kind enough to share your shopping list, do you think you could tell us about how you actually prepare your supports? That was just enough info to make me curious…
Thanks,
Sandi
May 14th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Julie: i can see your point about the “vibrancy of color”.
And, Susan, as far as
“One of the things that drives me nuts about latex house paint is that it is specifically formulated for use with a roller, not a brush.”
look on the positive side.
just think how many paintings you could crank out if you used a roller!
They could offer a whole line of different sizes — even teeny tiny ones for detail work.
One final comment: I forget what his name was Bob, something or other. All I remember is that he used to paint trees — “happy trees” — on the TV with a large house painting brush, and he got simply “marvelous” results (in a matter of a few seconds!) though I honestly don’t know whether he also used house paint.
And just between you and me, I think he had sniffed a few too many paint fumes over the years — which would seem to indicate that he probably was not using latex.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Sandi - stay tuned and I’ll do a blog post soon on prep and archival stuff.
Larry, I think it was Bob Ross - wasn’t it he that painted those tasteless generic landscapes with a mountain, some birds, some trees, a fence, a cottage, etc?
May 14th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
yes, that would be him
but tasteless?
watch it.
before i took your workshop, he was my biggest art influence (you may take that as a compliment)
I was simply fascinated by the way he painted things with such a large brush — and with his happy trees …and big hair, of course