Page 5 - Mediums
Painting mediums are used to modify the rate of drying, increase gloss, improve flow or add texture, mediums as an additive to color. Working with oils, solvents, mediums, and varnishes for painting requires an in-depth understanding of paint. The wide range of oils, mediums, and solvents to control color makes choices difficult.
Impasto is paint laid on a canvas or panel in quantities that make it stand out from the surface and is usually thick enough that brush or palette knife strokes are visible. The first known use of the word was in 1784, from the Italian impasto, the noun of the verb impastare, “to put in paste.” The heavy viscosity and slow drying time of oil paint make it a suitable medium for the impasto painting technique. Watercolor and tempera paint are not satisfactory for this technique because they lack these properties and do not form continuous films surrounding pigment particles.
We are often asked about the use of clove oil to retard the drying of oil paint. Like many others, you may have heard that it darkens upon exposure to light. Clove oil works well as a retarder, but there is a note of caution: over time (a long time), it does darken as it dries. It starts off light but can eventually turn black. This is over the years and depends on the amount of direct light. We recommend using slower drying oils to retard drying—walnut or modified oil—instead of adding clove directly to paint.
Francisco Benitez considers himself an atemporal archaeologist who excavates lost and forgotten styles of painting long assigned to the shadows to reveal the ever-transient nature of the human psyche. Trained in a rigorous atelier program at the Art Student’s League in New York, he frequented museums and copied old master paintings to master their techniques and conceptual strategies.
Welcome to Natural Pigments' Glossary of common and not so common Paint and Art Terms. Here we hope to give you a brief definition of various art terms which might be unfamiliar. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, please contact us.
Natural Pigments congratulates Julio Reyes upon winning the Draper Grand Prize at the 2012 International Portrait Competition for his painting Tread Softly. The finalists in the competition were announced at The Art of the Portrait conference Gala Banquet on Saturday, May 26, 2012, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel.
Natural Pigments congratulates David Gluck for his painting, The Trapper, which won an Exceptional Merit award at the 2012 International Portrait Competition. The top finalists in the competition were announced at The Art of the Portrait conference Gala Banquet on Saturday, May 26, 2012, in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel. The painting The Trapper depicts a man David befriended when he moved into an old factory district in Toronto. When David knew him, the man did not have a job or home, but he kept himself extremely busy collecting scrap metal.
