How to Paint Permanent Pictures

IT is astonishing that, in these days of progress, no corresponding advance has been made in practical instruction in the composition of pigments, mediums and all material necessary to the production of permanent works of art, whether they are easel paintings, or water colors for the adornment of the home or public places, or in tempera and fresco for decorations. There is not, to my knowledge, a regular course of lectures on this subject at any of the Art Schools in England, Italy, France or America, in which students are taught what materials to use and what to avoid. During an experience of more than thirty years in the manufacture of pigments and mediums for all types of painting, I have investigated the methods, analyzed the material and demonstrated the folly of most of the procedures in common use to-day, and feel that there is a demand for a little book of this kind, which painters can use, and from which art students can acquire a sane method of producing permanent results. If the painter once knows, either mechanically or unconsciously, the pigments that are absolutely permanent, and the principle involved in producing paintings which will not crack, fade, darken, peel, blister or decompose, his or her mind can be taken up completely with the artistic effect to be produced, without thinking for a moment of either the mechanical or the scientific side of the question, and without his or her artistic feeling being disturbed during the process of painting. It is quite natural that a man in my position, who has met many painters and who has discoursed with them on this subject, has had many of them confess time and again that the practical and technical side of painting has always disturbed their peace of mind whenever they have been in the midst of serious work. And so, the object of this book is to convey to the painter, in simple language, and without going into any abstruse science of any kind, the reasons why certain materials should be used and certain materials should be avoided. I wrote a book which went into the subject of all the pigments and all the mediums in a more scientific manner and in that book I gave what is regarded as the simple permanent palette. But it is obviously essential that a more complete and practical dissertation on this subject will be of benefit to those who have selected artistic painting as their life work. I have heard, time and again, the statement that we do not know in this age how to make the materials which the older and great masters used. It has been dinned in my ears frequently that our materials are so worthless that uniform and permanent results cannot be obtained. Nothing is further from the truth, and all one has to do is to see the enormous amount of permanent painting that exists outside of the artistic field to realize that the science of paint making is more perfect to-day than it ever has been.

Dettagli