R&F Handmade Paints

This past June at the 6^th Annual International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, I had the opportunity to sit in on Richard’s session about the adhesive properties of different substances and their compatibility with encaustic paints and mediums.  There was an abundance of information about a variety of different materials and it was all pulled from real-world testing done here at R&F.   (Read more about testing here)   One thing that really struck me more than anything else is that it is not the binder that dictates whether or not a ground is suitable for encaustic - it is how you use it.

To be clear, very early on we were advising artists against the use of encaustic over acrylic mediums.   From 1988 (when Richard began advising artists) until 2007, that was perfectly sound advice.   We did not feel that the acrylic mediums and grounds that were on the market at that time had the porosity or “tooth” necessary for encaustic paint to reliably adhere to a substrate.   Then in 2008, after quite some time in development, we introduced our acrylic based “Encaustic Gesso”.  But how does this work?

Acrylic is bad, right?

Well, no.

Used properly, acrylic is a very reliable, and durable binder.  It has wonderful adhesive properties and flexibility. Carefully tweaked with some other materials, it is quite suitable for use with encaustic paint.  What I took away, more than anything else, from Richard’s presentation in June is that it is not about the binder.

Think of it this way: For years artists have quite successfully used traditional rabbit-skin glue gesso as a ground for encaustic.  Rabbit-skin glue by itself is a slick, non-porous, brittle medium.  On it’s own it is not a very good ground for encaustic.  When you combine it carefully with the right proportion of solid materials (titanium, chalk, etc) it becomes a very suitable ground for encaustic.  So, one more time:  it’s not about the binder.

The reason I feel confident about this (like all our products) is that we test them.  Again and again, until we feel confident about their performance.  Then we test them some more.

When we developed our Encaustic Gesso, (and later, when we worked with Ampersand to create Encausticbord) we wanted something that was absorbent and felt like watercolor paper but could be brushed on smooth and dry quickly with little effort.  We also wanted something that was not soluble with water after it dried since many artists combine encaustic with other media.  And we wanted a gesso that had excellent adhesion on all kinds of substrates and would be flexible and durable to withstand changes in the environment over very long periods of time.   After a lot of hard work and lots of testing we got all of these things.  And some acrylic.

One of the most frequently asked questions about encaustic painting is “What is the right surface to paint on?”  The mechanics of adhesion in oil and acrylic are well established but there is no equally standard body of knowledge about the adhesion of encaustic to various surfaces.

In 2008, when we worked with the chemists who helped us develop our Encaustic Gesso, it was necessary to test its performance. We needed to know how well the gesso adhered to a panel and how well encaustic paint would adhere to the gesso. This became all the more crucial when we partnered with Ampersand Art Supply to create a machine-made panel based on our Encaustic Gesso.  Encausticbord™ had to be both durable and seductively inviting to work on.  It was also important that it would be suitable for multi-media use since encaustic is so often used in conjunction with other mediums and materials.

Once it was clear that the Encausticbord™ worked well with oil, water, and wax based mediums, we applied a series of systematic tests for durability that we had used when we released our brushable Encaustic Gesso.

The first and simplest test, of course, is to freeze a painted panel and then slam it to see if the paint will break off.  We have been using “The Freezer Test” since the early nineties when we needed a simple way to help artists determine compatibility of their substrate with encaustic.  This mainly tells you how well the painting should hold up under acute impact when shipped in cold weather.

The longevity of a painting however, depends on many variables, the most important of which are the gradual fluctuations in temperature and humidity that take place over long periods of time in normal conditions for exhibiting or storing artwork.

To simulate this, we have developed a procedure of cycling painted panels through freezing and thawing periods to exaggerate those fluctuations in temperature. We follow this with quantifiable stress tests designed to detach any areas of paint that became vulnerable from the repeated contraction and expansion of the freezer test.

We repeat these tests using a range of colors, because, as most of you who work in encaustic know, every pigment has a characteristic effect on the wax (as it does on other mediums). Umbers, for example make the wax very hard and brittle. Cadmiums make it soft. Titanium white can make it gummy.  Each family of colors has to pass the test for a ground to be considered suitable for encaustic.

How dependable are these tests? It’s fairly easy to say if you’re talking about a couple of decades. Most of us have experienced how materials behave in that amount of time.  We know from the Fayum portraits that beeswax will last 2 millennia and longer. Yet our modern pigments differ from the ancient ones.  The supports and grounds we work on are also different. This is why it is important to continue developing tests to simulate fluctuations in the environment over time.  It is important to test the effects of temperature, humidity, light, vibrations, pollution, and phases of aging in the medium that over time can break down the structure of the paint and cause the separation of one material from another.

The methods used in these tests do not result in predictions, only educated guesses. What they can do is separate materials with short-term durability from those that promise to survive much longer.

—

One last word about shipping in cold weather:  Most artwork is fragile in extreme cold, even work that is made with materials that easily withstand normal temperature fluctuation. The best precaution in any instance is careful packaging and, when feasible, expedited shipping time.

Last Saturday, January 15th, was the 23rd anniversary of R&F’s founding in the now proverbial basement in Brooklyn. But what’s so special about a 23rd anniversary? It’s not a marker like a 20th or a 25th anniversary. I have to admit even we didn’t pay much attention to it here.

But then I got to thinking how much this year really does represent something very special in R&F’s history. This was the year that we collaborated with Ampersand Art Supply to create Encausticbord^TM, and that led to the introduction of the Encaustic Center, a fully integrated selection of encaustic paints, tools, and supports now available in art supply stores around the country.

Our 1st anniversary represented our continuation of commercial encaustic paint begun by Torch Art Supply in the late 1940s, which was for many years the only commercial encaustic paint in the world. But it was, particularly back then, a specialty paint relegated to the back corners of most art stores.

Original Torch Art Supply encaustics

R&F’s original hand cut encaustic cakes

Our 23rd anniversary represents the establishment of encaustic paint as a mainstream art material. While the symbol of a 20th anniversary is china and the symbol of a 25th is silver for R&F the Encaustic Center signifies this milestone in our history.

R&F's encaustic paint is available in three sizes (40 ml., 101 ml. and 333 ml.)

The Encaustic Paint Center

There are so many questions that keep popping up about the materials that we use, where they come from, and how they are processed.  When we talk about beeswax,  terms such as Pharmaceutical grade, bleaching, refined and filtered are commonly used.  This blog seeks to offer up the materials definitions that are most important to you.

Worker honeybee with wax scales from Beeswax: Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products by William Coggshall & Roger Morse, published by Wicwas Press, 1984.

Beeswax is secreted by wax glands in the bee’s abdominal area and used to create the honeycombs of the hive. Pure beeswax is composed solely of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Its natural color when it is secreted is white. When beeswax is harvested from the hive it is often contaminated with impurities, which discolor it. At this stage it is called unrefined or crude beeswax.

Crude Beeswax from Ethiopia

Unrefined or crude beeswax is colored in a range of earthy hues from yellow to black. This coloration is caused by pollen, propolis (resin), and dirt. If you use unrefined wax for its color, it is important not to assume that the color is permanent because the color  is organic matter, which is not necessarily stable in light and is subject to fading, darkening, or a color shift. (See below for variations of crude beeswax)

Crude Beeswax Domestic

Crude Beeswax from New Zealand

These are reasons why you would most likely want to use decolorized, white beeswax for encaustic. You may wonder how does the wax get whitened? Artist manufacturers avoid the term ”bleached beeswax” because it implies the use of chemical bleaches. But the wax industry uses the term for the mechanical as well as the chemical methods of decolorizing beeswax.

Chemical bleaching is not the best choice for artists for two reasons. For one, chemical bleaching (which uses either potassium permangenate & phosphoric acid or sulfuric acid or various peroxides) does not always mean removing the colorant. In many cases it simply masks it. It is often used to whiten colorants that non-chemical bleaching can’t, but these colorants can later return to their original color. Furthermore, chemical bleaching can be harsh on the wax, creating free fatty acids and making the wax more reactive to pigments and pollutants.

Sun bleached beeswax plant from The Chemistry and Technology of Waxes by Albin H. Warth, published by Reinhold Publishing Company, 1956.

Sun bleaching exposes the wax to the ultraviolet light of the sun, which breaks down the colorants. This is a gentle and effective method of decolorizing the wax. The process, however, is expensive on an industrial scale because it requires so much space, but it is also the most accessible method for artists who want to bleach their own wax on a small scale.

Filtration is a process in which the wax is forced under high pressure through filters of activated carbon and clay that absorb the colorants and take out all foreign matter. Filtration is preferable to chemical bleaching because it maintains the structural integrity of the wax. It is also, in the long run, the least expensive and the most practical of the three methods. It is the best choice for artist material.

Example of a Filter

Pharmaceutical grade beeswax is a standard set by the government that certifies that the wax meets certain chemical requirements and that it is pure beeswax. The chemical standards (such as its ability to be saponified) are of importance to the cosmetic and pharmaceutical use of beeswax. For the artist, the real importance of pharmaceutical grade beeswax is that it is a guarantee that the beeswax has not been adulterated with other waxes (such as paraffin or microcrystalline), rosins, stearic acid, or tallow. However, the term pharmaceutical grade does not refer to the method by which it has been decolorized. Artists should seek out wax that is both guaranteed 100% beeswax and filtered or sun bleached.

And, in case you’re wondering, R&F uses only pharmaceutical grade filtered beeswax.

This blog is an amplification of comments that I originally posted on www.AMIEN.org.

There’s still time to sign up…

Ultramarine Blue Pigment

Ultramarine Blue has a fabled history. It is naturally derived from the semiprecious gemstone lapis lazuli. It gets its name from the Latin, meaning beyond the sea, since the best source of lapis was in the northeastern corner what is now Afghanistan. (more…)

viridian and diarylide yellow

In a previous blog, I noted that most inorganic pigments are opaque, except when a molecule of water is bonded to the pigment crystal. That “water of crystallization” makes an inorganic pigment, like viridian, translucent.

On the other hand, (more…)

Christine Marmo

(more…)

The thing about color that every artist comes to understand is that colors do not exist by themselves in the abstract.  (more…)

A pigment is just a chemical that, due to its chemistry, absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects those wavelengths it doesn’t absorb. What it reflects is its color. Sounds simple enough. But when you think about it, it’s almost surreal that the chemicals that compose a color in no way look like it. (more…)