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CHEMISTRY through Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

What is Paint?

History of paint?

Before the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s made paint commercially available to individuals, artists needed to make paint fresh each day before commencing their work.  Types, techniques, colors and styles of painting available to individuals change over time due to what materials are available, what the latest trends are, and the properties of the different types of paint. 

Today with synthetic fibers readily available not only are new types of paint and techniques available to artists, such as acrylic paint, but there are also new colors available such as Prussian Blue.

What is paint?

Paint is simply pigment suspended within a liquid.  Depending on what vehicle is used, the paint has different qualities and can do different things, i.e. oil paint has different properties than watercolor, etc.  Below are definitions of the main types of paint abbreviated directly from www.artlex.com.

paint - Pigment (Finely powdered color material which produces the color of any medium. Made either from natural substances or synthetically) which is dispersed into a liquid, called a vehicle, which includes a binder (The ingredient in the vehicle of a paint which adheres the pigment particles to one another and to the ground. It creates uniform consistency, solidity, and cohesion.) to make it adhere both to itself and to the surface to which it is applied.

Types of paint? (abbreviated directly from www.artlex.com)

acrylic paints - Synthetic paints, with pigments dispersed in a synthetic vehicle made from polymerized acrylic acid esters, the most important of which is polymethyl methacrylate. First used by artists in the late 1940s, their use has come to rival that of oil paints because of their versatility. They can be used on nearly any surface, in transparent washes or heavy impasto, with matte, semi-gloss, or glossy finishes. Acrylic paints dry quickly, do not yellow, are easily removed with mineral spirits or turpentine (use acetone if those don't remove enough), and can clean up with soap and water

casein paint - A paint much like opaque watercolor in which casein -- a milk glue -- is its binder. Casein is a white, tasteless, odorless protein precipitated from milk by rennin. (pr. kay-seen)

enamel - A vitrious, either transparent or opaque, protective or decorative coating made from silica (a kind of glass) heated in a kiln or furnace, and fused onto metal (usually copper or gold), glass, or ceramic ware. It is often applied as a paste which solidify in firing as areas of color. Also, an object, usually very small, having such a coating, as in a piece of champlevé, cloisonné, bassetaille, or plique-a-jour.

encaustic - The medium, technique or process of painting with molten wax (mostly beeswax), resin, and pigments that are fused after application into a continuous layer and fixed to a support with heat. This achieves a lustrous enamel appearance.

Greek artists were painting with encaustic as long ago as the 5th century BCE. Over the intervening centuries, encaustic was overtaken by many other types of paint -- including tempera, oil, and acrylic paints -- each of which was cheaper, faster, and easier to work. Artists experimented with encaustic in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it wasn't until the 20th century that its use has really revived. Only with the availability of portable electric heating devices for the melting of the wax has the use of encaustic become sufficiently accessible. Encaustic has become so versatile indeed that many contemporary painters consider it an attractive painting medium again. Modern painters who have used encaustic include Robert Delaunay, Antoine Pevsner, Diego Rivera, and Jasper Johns.

Once applied to a surface, encaustic paint doesn't need to dry. Instead, it needs to cool. Because it cools in minutes, additional coats can be added almost immediately. Once its surface has cooled, encaustic paint presents a permanent finish, and yet the painting can be revised and reworked at any time -- whether seconds later or years later. It is a particularly durable paint, because wax is waterproof and over time can retain all the freshness of a newly finished work.

Encaustic painting does not require solvents of any kind. As a result, a number of health hazards are reduced or eliminated.

fresco - A method of painting on plaster, either dry (dry fresco or fresco secco) or wet (wet or true fresco). In the latter method, pigments are applied to thin layers of wet plaster so that they will be absorbed and the painting becomes part of the wall.

gouache - A heavy, opaque watercolor paint, sometimes called body color, producing a less wet-appearing and more strongly colored picture than ordinary watercolor.

oil paint - Slow drying paint made when pigments are mixed with an oil, linseed oil being most traditional. The oil dries with a hard film, and the brightness of the colors is protected. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas. They can have a matte, semi-gloss, or glossy finish. To look at examples of works in oil paints, see the articles under the names of every period from the Renaissance onward.

pastel - Pigments mixed with gum and water, and pressed into a dried stick form for use as crayons. Works of art done with such pigments are also called pastels.  Chalk is similar to pastel, but more tightly bound.

tempera and temper - A paint and process involving an emulsion of oil and water. It was in use before the invention of oil paints. Traditionally it involves an egg emulsion; thus the term egg tempera. The pigments or colors are mixed with an emulsion of egg yolks (removed from their sacs) or of size, rather than oil, and can be thinned and solved with water. Also known as egg tempera and temper. A varnish for tempera paints, called glair may be prepared by mixing egg whites with a little water, then beating them, and applying once the bubbles are gone.

watercolor or watercolour - Any paint that uses water as a medium. Paintings done with this medium are known as watercolors. An exception to this rule is water miscible oil paints, which employ water as their medium, but are actually oil paints.

Colors of paint?

The list of paint colors available is lengthy, but there is a basic list which are used most frequently by artists which all have different properties related to opacity, drying time, cost, etc.  Below is a list of colors, their properties, and their source abbreviated directly from http://webexhibits.org/pigments/.

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Purple

Brown

Black

White

How to make paint?

Making most paint is not complicated.  Simply add a medium such as oil to a dry pigment.  Mix thoroughly and voila!  However, there are many lessons that one learns from doing this experiment that it is not all that simple.  For example, acrylic paint dries extremely quickly, but the safety associated with this medium as well as the possibilities it holds makes this paint extremely popular among artists.

Objectives

Possible objectives: