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Tag Archives: painting

In: News

ENL Watercolours, Basic Sets

When it’s about travelling or working outside the studio place it’s always handy to have a special set of colours. ENL Basic watercolour set contains fifteen essential colours in 2ml pans. I made this set based on my personal experience as well as in accordance with classical art school traditions:

  • Hansa Lemon – PY3 ** st
  • Primary Yellow – PY154 *** ∆ t
  • Carrot Orange – PO5, PY1 ** ∆ t
  • Pyrrole Red – PR254 *** ∆ t
  • Quinacridone Magenta – PV19, PR122, PW18 ** ∆ t
  • Violet – PV19, PB29 *** ∆ t
  • Ultramarine – PB29 *** G st
  • Phthalomarine – PB15:3, PB29 *** ∆ t
  • Emerald Green – PG7, PW18 *** ∆ t
  • Sap Green – PG8 ** ∆ t
  • Yellow Ochre – PY42-43 *** G st
  • Burnt Sienna – PBr7 *** G st
  • Red Ochre – PR101 *** G st
  • Umber Deep – PBr8 *** G t
  • Mars Black – PBk11 *** G t

The set comes with a small tin box that can easily accommodate all the colours. To secure the pans, small round glue pads are provided.  Unwrap the paint, adhere a round sticker to the bottom of the pan and insert it into the bottom of the box. Paints fit quite tight, so I’d recommend unwrapping all the colours first and arranging them to find the right position to fit all the colours.

The stickers are removable and reusable, meaning if you want to replace this or that colour with another one, it’s easily doable.

These basic colours can re-create technically all the colours from the spectrum as well as shades. However, every artist is unique and may want to create their own sets. With the purchase of 15 or more paints, we’re giving the case as a gift.

We’re in search of other options for packaging that would be light in weight, plastic-free and not too expensive.

 

Oil Painting
In: News

RUSART Naturals Oil Brush Cleanser in Use

We’ve already talked about different ways how to clean brushes fro oil paints. Most ways are either toxic, or messy, or both. Elena, RUSART’s owner, is very sensitive to turpentines and solvents. Even a short exposure to those chemicals “rewards” her with sever headaches that last a day or two. Working mostly with oil paints, Elena developed a very simple and efficient formula for cleaning brushes – RUSART Naturals Oil Brush Cleanser.

Just three simple natural ingredients:

  • Lemon essential oil
  • MCT coconut oil
  • Glycerin

Mixed in right proportion, they provide amazing results. This all natural medium cleans your oil brushes in seconds and keeps them soft, flexible, as if they are brand new. It’s a cleanser and conditioner at the same time.

We recommend to use gloves while cleaning, as lemon oil (as well as many citrus natural oils) applied on skin and exposed to the sun may form pigmentation in your skin.

Watch this short video that shows how to use it:

How to use watercolour medium
In: Practice

How To Use Watercolour Medium?

If for oil or acrylic painting we have many mediums to choose from that serve in a different way, watercolour medium sounds a little bit weird: why watercolour needs a medium? There is no texture to build, there is no need to increase or decrease drying time? Why do I need medium for watercolours?

In fact, most watercolorists paint without any mediums added. However, there are some situations when medium helps us improve painting performance.

What is watercolour medium?

Generally speaking, watercolour medium has arabic gum as a main component. Traditionally, all watercolours had arabic gum as a binder. However, with time in mass production arabic gums was partially replaced with other sugar-based ingredients (such as dextrin) to reduce costs.

Arabic gum is a natural sap from certain kinds of Acacia trees. It’s used a lot in baking and RUSART, for example, buys food-grade arabic gum from grocery vendors to make sure high safety standards. Bakers add arabic gum to icings, chewing gums, fillings etc. as it acts as stabilizer preventing sugar from crystallizing, as well as emulsifier, providing even and smooth consistency of products.

For artist’s purposes, we use arabic gum solution with some additives. For our RUSART Naturals watercolour medium we use a small amount of honey and glycerin as plasticizers and essential oils as preservatives. 

We performed a few tests  with RUSART Naturals watercolour medium and, now, sharing the results with you.

Watercolour medium separates painting zones

 We applied watered down watercolour medium first on one half of the paper sheet and let it dry. Then we applied paint in wet technique on bare paper and on top of medium applied.

As you can see, watercolour medium prevents paint from bleeding, creating quite obvious borders between the colours.

Why? Arabic gum works like glue and holding agent, not for watercolours only. For example, for hot enamelling techniques, when artists spread glass powder on metal surfaces, they use arabic gum based holding agent, if they desire to affix enamel to certain areas.

Watercolour medium helps with washing out lines

We gave experimental pieces sometime to dry and then we used just water and squirrel imitation brush to wash out paint.

Paint came off effortlessly from the paper WITH medium, leaving behind completely white lines. Without medium paint didn’t come off in full. 

Why? Watercolour medium created a fine film between paints and paper that prevent paints from being absorbed by cotton fibre. SO, if you’re planning to correct your painting a lot, or you’re working with synthetic organic pigments (hanza yellow, naphthol red, pyrrole red, Phthalo blue or green etc.) use watercolour medium to be able to correct your lines after application. All synthetic organic pigments have stronger staining properties than mineral pigments. 

Mineral pigments don’t show that dramatic difference. Also, if your paper contains less cotton, watercolour medium’s effect will be less intense.

Watercolour medium makes some colours look brighter

As you see from the picture, colours at the top half look more intense than at the lower part of the paper. Also, you can notice beautiful flow patterns that medium helps create. However, there is a reverse side of that. Excessive use of arabic gum leaves shine and slightly tacky finish.

Why? Arabic gum is technically sap, and medium made with this gum can be considered as water-based varnish, that changes optical properties of the painting layer.

Watercolour medium helps covering oily surface 

Watercolours are water-based and grease or oil on paper surface repel watercolours. Do you remember kindergarten experiments with painting in watercolours on top of lines made with wax/oil crayons? 

Unfortunately, when we touch paper with hands, some grease from finger tips can stay on paper and affect painting outcome in unexpected way.

Arabic gum helps make your work smoother. We made an experiment. First, we drew some lines and smudged them with soft pastel. And even soft pastels can contain oils or waxes. Then we used watercolour medium and spread pastel powder with a brush. Left side doesn’t have any medium applied, and you can see that spreading is not that smooth, as well as some oily spots show off.

The right side looks softer and has no visible oil stains.

Why? Arabic gum here works as the finest film, covering oil and everything else, taking only smallest particles into the layer.

 

Make your own experiments and open new opportunities with arabic gum medium! But use it wisely. As you see, it may have some “side effects”.

(c) RUSART

Granulation in Watercolours
In: Paints

Granulation in Watercolours

Watercolour is a very unique medium, and as result we see depends on many factors:

  • paper
  • amount of water used
  • paint quality
  • brushes and
  • mediums.

Today we’ll take a closer look at granulation. 

What is Granulation

Generally speaking, we observe granulation in watercolours when pigment particles don’t evenly cover the paper during or after painting. Granulation implies sedimentation and sometimes flocculation.

These two processes are very similar to each other, but not the same. While the sedimentation occurs when pigment particles separate from each other and naturally fill imperfections in paper or settle down on a surface, the flocculation happens when pigment particles form some random textures and patterns. Heavy mineral pigments combined with high pigment load allow you to achieve both, sedimentation and flocculation.

Why Granulation Happens

Chemistry and physics explain everything. As watercolours (like any other kind of paint) contain binder and pigment, here we get relationship between their masses, particle sizes and densities. When pigment is lighter and finer than the binder we get smooth washes, and when pigment’s particles are bigger and rougher, we get granulation. It happens because binder can’t hold particles well together and water that we use during painting breaks the adhesion between them.

What Pigments are Granulating

As rocks, metals, and other minerals are usually heavy, natural mineral pigments tend to show more granulation, such as:

  • cobalts blue and green – PB28, PG19 etc.
  • cadmiums ed and orange – PO20, PR108 etc.
  • earth green PG23
  • some ultramarines PB29
  • Siennas and umbers PBr8, PBr12, PY43 etc.
  • Oxide iron black PBk11
  • Van Dyke NBr8

PBk11 shows very strong granulation that explains this pigment’s use in many mixes to achieve granulation properties. For example, in such mixes like Payne’s Gray, forest green, deep blue or deep brown colours.

Also, paints made from semi-precious stones are very granulating, such as malachite, lapis lazuli, sodalite, serpentine etc.

For the smoothest washes man-made synthetic organic pigment would be the best choice. Their particles are so fine that a lot of milling cycles required to achieve good bond between the particles and a binder. Here are some examples of smooth (non-granulating) pigments:

  • phthalo blue and greens PB15, PG7
  • Pyrrole red PR254
  • Hanza yellow and orange PY65, PY3, PO5
  • Quinacridones, including reds and magenta PR122
  • Perylene Red PR149
  • Alizarin Crimson NR8

As you could notice, bright yellow and red colours are normally smooth, while blues and blacks have naturally more granulating options. 

How to Increase Granulation in Watercolours

There are many ways how to show more texture in your watercolours:

  • Use more water. As water dilutes binder using more water provokes sedimentation
  • Add granulating pigments. Adding colour containing PBk11 while mixing will increase granulation
  • Use textured paper for sedimentation and smooth paper for better flocculation. As heavy particles tend to fill the gaps and holes, pigment will settle down in “dents” in paper. To show flows of particles we should use smooth paper to direct the paint.
  • Add granulating medium

Experiment with your paints to achieve desired appearance. Most of RUSART Naturals watercolour paints are granulating as we prefer non-toxic mineral pigments for our paints when it’s possible. If mineral pigments are toxic or not ethically sourced we use synthetic man-made pigments. 

Characteristics of Watercolour Paints
In: News

Characteristics of Watercolour Paints

Watercolour is one of the oldest but still innovative painting medium with a lot of characteristics. These glue-based paints still have more interesting to offer, while techniques and results vary from light and translucent washes to very intense and deep lines. As watercolours offer working with transparency of layer, texture of paper, paper composition, softness of a brush used, for more predictable results watercolour paints have many parameters that may or may not be listed on a tube or pan. And with more new pigments appear on the market in manufacturers’ disposal new parameters arise.

  1. Transparency
  2. Light fastness
  3. Granulation
  4. Staining
  5. Stability

We will talk about each parameter separately in other articles; here we will cover just general meaning.

Transparency

The same pigment depending on pigment grit, place and method of extraction as well as additives and fillers used. Transparency shows how much the colour is capable to cover the previous layer of paint. The more transparent the colour the less intense it covers.

Lightfastness

This term now is gradually being replaced with weather resistance as not only the light cause fading and other changes in colours. Mostly, we pursue colours with high lightfastness as neither artists to collectors like to see paintings faded.

Granulation

If the first two characteristics refer to all paining mediums, granulation, staining and stability belong mostly exclusively to watercolours. Granulation is a process in appearance when little particles of pigment show visible grains. Some people like granulation while the others avoid. Granulation is neither good or bad, just a property of a paint. Granulations looks amazingly in washes, but may be not that predictable in mixing colours.

Staining

Natural mineral pigments, such as ochres, siennas, umbers, cobalts etc, belong to true pigment “category”, when pigment and binder make mixtures that can be completely washed out and removed with water. However most modern pigments, especially organic ones, work mostly like dyes. They don’t make a homogenous mixture with binder. Instead, they colour something (another pigment, paper, plaster etc.). Such pigments can be staining, especially if the paper is very absorbent, like pure cotton. When you make a line it not always can be washed in full as paper gets coloured.

Stability

This refers mostly to property of keeping the colour in mixtures as well as showing uniformed colour while painted. For example, some pigments mixed together do not make even colour. This is fair especially when we mix mineral pigment with organic synthetic ones, Then the resulting colour may not be stable, however it doesn’t mean it will fade with time as it can have highest lightfastness. At the same time some mineral pigments made from natural stones (labradorite, malachite, lapis lazuli, serpentine etc.) even without any mixing with other colours may show unexpected shades depending on amount of water and medium used.

How to Clean Brushes from oil paints
In: Practice

How to Clean Brushes From Oil Painting?

Here we’ve collected many ways how to clean brushes after oil painting and prolong their life.

What artists really don’t like about oil painting is that it’s messy. Cleaning brushes, maintaining workspace neat takes much more efforts than when you work with watercolours or acrylics.

Rinsing in turpentine or white spirit, or mixture of both

Turpentine and white spirit are  quite different, when we’re talking about painting. However, when it’s about brush cleaning, we can treat them as the same substances. Technically, they just break up oil and that’s how your brush comes out clean and neat. As both turpentine or white spirit are toxic, never pour liquid into toilet bowl or sink. Recycle properly, when possible. If special disposal or recycling is not available, just pour liquid into a jar, fill it with paper towels or cloth enough to absorb most of the content, close your jar tightly and dispose.

Pro’s:

  • easy to get and use
  • cheap
  • can be used during painting process, as well as for final brush cleaning after use

Con’s:

  • very toxic
  • can be smelly
  • requires special disposal
  • can damage delicate hair (kolinsky or other soft hair)

Rinsing in vegetable oil

If you’re lazy and paint frequently, you can use just regular vegetable oil for cleaning your brushes. Fill a glass jar with with 2 inches of oil and simply rinse your brushes there. Remove paint residue with paper towel. To prevent brushes from hardening, keep your brushes immersed in oil until the next use. Oil can be reused as paint will simply settle down on the bottom of the jar. Make sure that your brushes are suspended and don’t touch the bottom of the jar with oil to prevent brush damage.

Pro’s:

  • easy to get and use
  • cheap
  • can be used during painting process, as well as for final brush cleaning after use
  • non-toxic

Con’s:

  • doesn’t clean your brush in full, so you should keep your brush soaked in oil all the time

Rinsing in vegetable oil and freezing

If you’re planning to make a long break between oil painting, or don’t want to keep your paintbrushes soaked in oil all the time, after rinsing your brushes in oil you can wrap them with a plastic bag and place in a freezer. 

Pro’s:

  • easy to get and use
  • cheap
  • can be used during painting process, as well as for final brush cleaning after use
  • non-toxic

Con’s:

  • doesn’t clean your brush in full, so you should keep an eye on your brushes

Cleaning with dish soap

As dish soap is a good degreaser, you can simple wash your brushes in it. After full cleaning, leave your brushes horizontally to dry completely before the next use.

Pro’s:

  • easy to get and use
  • cheap
  • non-toxic

Con’s:

  • can be used only after painting session
  • requires long time for full drying before the next use
  • doesn’t work for delicate brushes (kolinsky etc.)

Dry cleaning with paper towels

Some artists use just paper towels and wipe the brushes until they get completely dry and paint removed.

Pro’s:

  • non-toxic
  • can be used during painting process, as well as for final brush cleaning after use

Con’s:

  • requires a lot of paper towels, so this method is not environment friendly
  • doesn’t work for delicate brushes

 Different  manufactured brush cleansers

Please refer to their instructions for pro’s and con’s.

RUSART Naturals Oil Brush Cleanser

If you really care about your brushes, try RUSART Naturals this easy-to-use cleanser for oil paint brushes. This all natural medium cleans your oil brushes in seconds and keeps them soft, flexible, as if they are brand new. It’s a cleanser and conditioner at the same time.

How to use Rusart Naturals Oil-Based Brush Cleanser:

  • Wipe paint residue from your brush with a paper towel or cloth
  • Shake a jar well before every use
  • Wash your brush in this solution for 5-10 seconds or until clean
  • Remove product leftovers with a paper towel or cloth

The solution can be reasonably reused even if looks soiled. Don’t forget to shake a jar before every use.

Pro’s:

  • non-toxic
  • cleans in seconds
  • works even for delicate brushes
  • brushes can be stored for a long time after use

Con’s:

  • price
  • intended to use after work, not as a cleanser during painting.

(c) RUSART

In: Manufacturing

How to choose right canvas for your goals – Part II (Support)

Support for your canvas is another important “ingredient” of a successful painting. Your canvas can be stretched on wooden bars or glued to a cardboard or wood, or can be used as canvas paper. Let’s take a look for these options and see how they work.

Stretched canvas

Stretched canvas has many benefits before other kinds of support:

  • Framing is not required for such paintings
  • Paintings look more presentable and expensive
  • Restoration gets easer

In general, I prefer stretch canvas over other options. However, not all stretchers are the same. There is something we can choose and something we can’t test when purchasing.

As artists, we can choose depth of canvas: is it gallery or regular. I’d suggest for canvasses longer than 24 in gallery stretchers, because narrower canvas can show signs of deformation with time. Large canvasses (over 60 in) should have extra supporters, that keep corners strait.

Also, a good support literally stretches the entire canvas, meaning the stretching bars are not completely flat and have sort of ledge (see pic.) 

All these are things we can choose and check before buying.

However, there is something we can’t check before making a purchase – that’s quality of wood itself. Quality stretching bars should be made of hard wood, such as oak, fir, birch, beech or harder sorts of pine. Most Canadian-made stretching bars are made of pine. Also, good stretcher should be fully kiln dried and have relative humidity between 8% and 15%.

Cheaper canvasses are made of softer wood and normally not fully dried. With changing environment (temperatures and humidity indoors), these bars change their shapes, get crooked and can show cracks. That’s the main problem of cheap wood. 

Sometime ago I got very expensive paintings of Russian Avant-Garde that were not treated respectfully by a previous owner and were stretched on wood plank from a construction store. As a result, frames got crooked and even caused damage of painting layer. So, now I have to restore them.

Stretched cavas in general is more expensive option than any other kinds of support for canvas. Especially after 2021, then lumber prices jumped up incredibly. For that reason artists look at other alternatives.

Canvas on Board

Canvas on cardboard is another option for artists. However, it can hold only small sizes (up to 16 in) otherwise painting will cause cardboard deformation. Canvas on cardboard also requires framing that adds extra costs and may eliminate and savings against buying stretched canvas.

If for acrylic painting canvas on board can be a good alternative to more expensive canvas, for oil painting this option is unlikely to work well. The problem is in polymerization of oil in the binder.

Cardboard is a very absorbing material and literally drains oil from your painting causing colour fading, unpredictable and uneven drying time as well as faster aging.

Canvas Paper

Canvas paper is an option to test colours or to make sketches on the go, but, unfortunately, for more valuable works it’s not an option at all. Usually, canvas paper is more fragile than normal canvas, has acrylic emulsion  primer rich in chalk to create a thicker look. All these makes further stretching impossible without damage to a painting layer.

In addition to that, for oil painting we have all the problems with uneven drying, faster aging and fading, because chalk is very porous and absorbs oil.

How to choose right canvas
In: Practice

How to choose right canvas for your goals – Part I (Canvas)

When you paint on canvas, the canvas itself is the first thing to take care of. There is no one best canvas for all the goals as all they have different properties and price, but you can always choose something that fits your goals and budget. 

First of all, canvas itself as a fabric. Here we have different options: linen, cotton, polyester and different blends.

Choice here is not straight forward, as always, but generally speaking, the thicker the fabric the more weight it can hold, meaning the more paint and medium you can apply without risk of deformation.

Polyester canvas – when to use?

Polyester or cotton-polyester blends are the cheapest options that you can find even in dollar stores. They are very thin and usually have bigger gaps between threads leading in quality loss. Polyester is technically plastic and can’t absorb anything, meaning sizing and primer may not get a proper binding with the fabric. On top of that this canvas is usually very fragile and rips off easily. So, this kind of canvas is a good choice for children’s paintings, playing with paints or doing exercises and practicing some fast techniques. This kind of canvas is not working for any painting that you want to keep for a longer time.

Cotton or linen canvas?

Cotton and linen canvasses normally is a good choice for professional paintings, provided canvas is thick and properly treated before and after stretching. We’ll talk about that in separate topics. Generally speaking, we’re looking for thick canvas preferably with double thread. That’s something you can check on the back of the canvas (see the pic.).

Double-thread canvas is kind of weaving where one or two threads are doubled. For painting the best option when longitudinal thread is thick and single and weft thread is thin and double. This kind of weaving provides the strongest support, is thick and have smallest gaps between the threads. 

Normally linen canvas is thicker than cotton one, and that’s why more expensive. Not all artists can afford painting on linen. But it’s also not always necessary.

If you’re painting in layering techniques and not using heavy paints, a proper-quality cotton canvas is a very good choice. However, for heavy impasto painting linen canvas will provide a better solution as it’s stronger and more durable.

How to choose right canvasFine grained or coarse grained canvas?

There is no one universal recipe here either. Choice of texture depends on your techniques. If you’re working in fine layering and glazing techniques, the smoother the surface the better. Especially that’s very important for portrait painting. So, fine grain and even extra priming would be the right option here.  

For impasto techniques as well as working the involves different pastes, and textures as well as for palette knife painting coarser surface will fit better. The smooth finish is incapable to hold a large amount of paint.

Although, many mediums now can be applied on canvas, we’ll take a closer look at acrylic and oil paint application as the most traditional ones nowadays.

Choosing canvas for acrylic painting

Acrylic paint is quite universal and easy-going, so most of the canvas will work well for acrylic. Choose the material, finish, size and priming that fits your goals for this or that particular painting and enjoy your creative process. Acrylic forms one non-separable layer with primer on canvas, which makes painting process seamless.

Choosing canvas for oil painting

Oil is the most complex medium and requires more skills, knowledge and experience. Here the way how the canvas was treated and primed matters a lot. We’ll have a separate article on this matter too, but for now let’s assume that the canvas is well sized and primed.

Here we have two different kinds of primers that can be used: acrylic or oil. Acrylic primer is universal and can be used for both acrylic and oil. However, to create a better binding with canvas and to prolong the life of finished oil painting (increase time of polymerization) in this case we’d suggest to start the first layer with underpainting that will create a shield between canvas and your actual paintwork.

Acrylic primer normally contains a lot of chalk inside, which is very porous and “drains” oil from painting layer. To prevent this we should create a layer that links acrylic and oil. It should be a painting layer containing  gums inside, that “seals” the pores and crates the perfect adhesion for oil paints.

However, based on my experience, the best primer for oil paints is oil primer. As oil priming doesn’t work for acrylic and also takes much longer time for canvas preparation at manufacturers’ side, less and less of them offer this option. Oil primed canvas has a lot of misuse that also forces manufacturers stop making them.

Oil primed canvas should be treated as an oil painting that is standing alone for a long time. That means if you choose oil primed canvas, treat it with retouching medium first for a proper adhesion.

That’s a very basic information regarding choosing canvas for your painting. In Part II we’ll pay attention to other aspects of canvas, such as support for it. You’ll get answers on the following questions: What is the difference in use of stretched canvas and canvas on board? How do proper stretchers look like?

(c) RUSART

Why oil paints separate
In: Paints

Why oil paints separate?

Most oil paints separate and there are many reasons for that, good and not really. There are few myths around it, that I (Elena Nahum Leroy) am going to start with. I’m working with oil paints as an artist, tester, seller and manufacturer, so I have a good chance to get full oil paints experience from different sides.

Myths about oil paint separation

Myth: Oil paints separate because they are old

Truth: Separation in some oil paints can start as soon as in a few days after they are made. 

 

Myth: Oil paints separate because pigment is heavy and it sinks to the bottom of the tubes

Truth: It’s partially true. Some mineral pigments such as titanium dioxide, cobalts etc. are really heavy and it’s a challenge to keep them “floating” in the oil without “sinking”. However, in a modern paint technologies a lot of pigments are manufactured and in fact much lighter than oil and separation still happens there. 

And now, real reasons…

 

Oil paint separation from deep inside

Oil is a quite complicated medium. I’d say it’s the most sophisticated art medium that I’ve ever used and tried. Apart from most of other mediums, painting in oil requires knowledge of chemistry and painting technologies to succeed. History knows so many examples of oil paintings made even by great and famous artists that were ruined with time because of wrong application. We’ll talk about that too, in other articles. Now, back to the point.

Generally speaking, oil paints have binder (oil), pigments (natural or synthetic), most likely will have fillers, and may have gums, solvent, beeswax or other additives. And separation can be caused by reaction between any of these components. So, even at this point it’s clear that everything is much more complicated than it seemed before. We’ll cover just most common (not all) reasons for separation in oil paints.

Wrong pigment/binder proportion

If you mix pigment with oil that wouldn’t be enough to create good oil paints, because the pigment is not connected to oil yet. We need to apply pressure and physically bind pigment and oil together with a muller (hand-processed) or a roller machine (industrial method). Some pigments require 5 or even 8 cycles to bind with oil properly. And here we have the first reason of separation.

Different pigments have different oil absorption rate. For example, titanium white takes up to 30 g of oil for every 100 g of pigment, while pyrrole red absorbs up to 70 g for every 100 g of pigment. That’s their normal absorption rates. 

However, even the same pigment may have different grit for a reason (read about that in our special topics). And finer pigments require more oil to fill gaps between finer particles to create proper binding and make paints look and feel smooth and even. But absorption rate remains the same, it’s chemistry. So, in fact we have to add more oil than needed and then we have to remove this extra oil. Else, extra oil will separate from the paint with time.

Why oil paints separatePoor grinding

Another very common reason for oil separation is poor grinding. Different pigments require different number of grinding and milling cycles and even if oil-to-pigment proportion is observed well, insufficient time of grinding may cause quite fast separation.

Weight of pigments

Some pigments are much heavier than oil. These include titanium dioxide, cadmiums, cobalts and some mineral pigments extracted from semi-precious stones, such as lapis lazuli or amethyst. With no fillers added they will separate naturally and this doesn’t mean the paints are bad. However, to create a better look, these pigments will be most likely “diluted” with fillers to create smoother consistency that, when properly done, will technically prevent separation.

Why oil paints separateFillers

However ,the leadership in separation causes belongs to fillers. Oil naturally makes colours look brighter that creates a temptation to add a paste, colour it and sell as a tube of oil paints. This temptation goes stronger, when legislation doesn’t  to disclose the full list of ingredients. As a result, some paints (student grade) have just 3-5% pigment load, for example. 

Barium Sulfate is most popular filler for oil paints due to its low cost and physical properties. First of all, it’s very heavy, which makes it the perfect adulterant for oil paints. Due to its weight Barium Sulfate make tubes feel heavier simulating a high pigment load. Also, its oil absorption rate is just 11, meaning for 100g of the powder we’ll need just 11 g of oil to create a good mixture. So, added to synthetic pigments Barium Sulfate will take extra oil and make oil paints look thicker, imitating higher pigment concentration. That’s another thing that buyers love – thick paints.

However, this trick also have a flip side. Barium Sulfate is very heavy and settles down dragging pigment with it and causes separation. 

So, there could be many reasons why oil paints separate and separation is not always a sign of old or poorly made paints. Test paints, compare them and choose the right ones that work better for your goals. Price here is not always the main indicator.

Titanium White PW6 pigment
In: Pigments

Pigment Guide: Titanium White (PW6)

Let’s take a closer look at pigments that we’re using and what properties they have and how they affect your paintings. 

Colour Index: PW6

Colour Constitution Number: CI 77891

Food colour index: E171

Titanium White As Pigment

Titanium white is one of the most used colours in acrylic and oil as we use it for mixing colours, as is and as a colour extender for some colours. The pigment itself looks like a brilliant white powder that due to its heavy weight and other characteristics reminds extra fine feta cheese by appearance. 

Chemically speaking, it’s just titanium dioxide (TiO2). Mixed with oil or acrylic gives pure opaque white colour with slightly cold undertone. Titanium dioxide has remarkable optical properties, with a very high refractive index close to that of diamond.

White colour is one of the most essential colours in oil and acrylic painting as artists use it a lot for mixing most of the time. An average painting contains over 60% of white, that’s why the right white colour choice is very important.

Titanium White History

Titanium white is quite new type of pigment, compared to many other historical colours, like ochres or umbers. It replaced most other kinds of white only in 1916, when became part of mass production. 

Thanks to titanium white “discovery” oil painting moved from “toxic” medium to a safe one. Before titanium white  was discovered artists widely used lead white that caused mental health and body disease, including cancer. Lead white settles in bones and accumulates with the time,. However, this fact helped historians find Caravaggio’s remains.

Just reminding you a short story of this great artist, who influenced Velazquez, Rembrandt and other famous artists and masters. Entered Rome in his 18-19, he apprenticed some artists, changing them quite fast, learning new things. Sometimes in 7-8 years he started his own career. With a good luck and great talent, Caravaggio worked for some of the most important patrons of the day, including Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the banker Ottavio Costa. They commissioned a lot paintings and promoted Caravaggio as an artist.

How all these related to lead white? Being a genius artist, Caravaggio had a very unstable temper. Some researchers relate this to lead white exposure. So, after many smaller violent incidents where Caravaggio was involved, it happened that he killed a man during a street fight. He got arrested and as punishment he had leave Rome for good. 

Caravaggio and lead whiteCaravaggio moved from one place to another across Italy, begging pardon and a chance to return to Rome. Eventually, he got granted this right in exchange of all the paintings he ever done. A deal is a deal. But then for some reason (was it just a bad luck accident or a planned action – nobody knows), a ship with all his paintings left to Rome before Caravaggio boarded. So he got stuck in Port’Ercole. After that moment his life and death was a mystery.  And here lead white helped find Caravaggio’s body. In 2010 body remains were identified as Caravaggio’s based on time, locale and lead concentration in bones.

And now, back to titanium white – it was such a relief for painters when a better and safer white was discovered. In oils titanium white is pretty stubborn, when you try to make paint from it. It forms very tacky and heavy clamps that not easy to bring to a smooth paste consistency. That’s why manufacturers often mix titanium white with zinc white or some fillers. And here another story begins…

Titanium White Additives

There are no legal requirements to indicate the full list of ingredients on a label. That’s why titanium white can have many other filling agents inside that may even make a tube feel heavier. So, Titanium white may include:

  • PW3 Basic Lead Sulphate White
  • PW4 Zinc Oxide White
  • PW7 Zinc Sulphide White
  • PW10 Barium Carbonate
  • PW18 Marble Dust or a lower grade chalk composition
  • PW19 Kaolin
  • PW21 Barium Sulfate

Titanium White Manufacturing and Toxicity

What about toxicity, titanium white as is in paints is non-toxic. Its stability caused a very wide range of use beyond art materials. Only 28% of titanium dioxide is used for paints, 10% used for plastic, and about 6% for bleaching paper. The rest 56% belong to other industries, such as food, sun screens, other cosmetics (toothpastes) and other. Ingested, TiO2 has been identified as possibly carcinogenic, but this doesn’t stop manufacturers from using it in food.

Where titanium dioxide is coming from? It’s extracted and processed from natural minerals, either ilmenite, rutile or titanium slag. Titanium pigment is extracted by using either sulphuric acid or chlorine. The rutile contains up to 95% of TiO2, while ilmenite has only 45-60%.

What about the main manufacturers, here market belongs to China. About 2.3 million metric tonnes a year is produced there. That also explains why Chinese paints go much cheaper than ones made in other countries. The second place belongs to South Africa with about 1 million metric tonnes produced. Canada takes the fourth place here (680 thousands) and the USA produces just 100 thousands metric tonnes a year.

Titanium White Properties

And now, finally, practical use. Titanium white is opaque, which is very beneficial when you’re working with light tints or when mixing colours that require great coverage. Some manufactures add titanium white to yellow colours to increase their coverage properties, as well as to many other mixes.

Titanium white also makes wonderful greys and many other tints. Lightfastness is excellent.

Drying time in oil depends on many factors, but generally speaking it dries moderate slowly. Titanium White works well with most oil mediums, containing gums, petroleum products or turpentines. The dry film is thick and flexible, without tendency to cracking.

(c) RUSART

How To Read Paint Labels
In: Paints

How To Read Paint Labels

That’s very important to know what you’re buying and some information about your paints is available on labels:

  • paint name
  • grade
  • pigment used
  • binder
  • lightfastness
  • transparency
  • safety note

Paint name

Although there are many common names for paints we used to see around, there is no standard on how to name a colour. The spectrum contains millions of colours and all they can be named differently. 

Some manufacturers use traditional and most common names, such as cadmium red medium, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue etc. These names stand for pigments used and it’s easy to understand what is inside the tube.

Some names can be unique due to marketing goals or multiple pigment used. For example, Australian Grey or Australian Leaf Light by Art Spectrum or Portland Grays by Gamblin or Raw Umber Leningrad by Nevskaya Palitra. 

Also, the same pigment treated differently can provide a wide verity of hues, shades and transparency level. One of champions in that is PY42 Iron Oxide Yellow ,which has about 100 different names.

Paint grade

Paint grade is also a very questionable category as there is no standards of marking paints student or artist grade. For RUSART, we split paints into 4 categories: children, student, artist and professional. Most manufactures offer 2 categories: student and artist grade.

The main difference in paint grading is pigment load, quality of pigments used as well as fillers and mediums added.

  1. Children grade. We have a special article about art supplies for children. Generally speaking, the main criterium here is safety. Pigments used here are non-toxic and must have certain certification and labelling. Normally we talk about watercolours here and they contain a lot of dextrin (sugar) and starch instead of more expensive components.
  2. Student grade. Safety is not the main criteria here. Usually these paints lower budget for everyday use and practice. Pigment load normally lays between 3 and 20%. All the rest are fillers and binders. Cobalts and cadmiums are normally hues here, which means not real. Although professional artists prefer to use higher quality brands, student paints are still very helpful for underpainting and sketching due to there lower price.
  3. Artist and professional grade. That’s the main target for professional artists. Binders and pigment load vary, but most paints still contain fillers. If earlier information on pigment load was available in safety data sheets, for now it’s hard to find real numbers. According to our experience, pigment load in artist grade paints is between 15-70%. We will talk about pigment load in a special article.

Pigment used

One of the most important information for colour choice. Paint tube will indicate colour index (CI) that stands for chemical characteristics of pigment used. CI will start with N or P. ’N’ stands for ‘Natural’ and ‘P’ stands for ‘Pigment’. Then a colour identification comes: 

  • Y – Yellow
  • W – White
  • B – Blue
  • Br – Brown
  • Bl – Black
  • R – Red
  • V – violet
  • G – green
  • O – Orange

Index doesn’t show exactly the colour or a colour wheel. For example, PR101 is rather red-brown than bright red or PY42 is ochre but still refers to yellow colours.

Then index itself comes. It’s just a number. You can check pigment index names and their technical characteristics here >>

Transparency

This normally has 3 categories: transparent, semi-transparent and opaque. Usually manufacturers include a symbol – a square. If the square is empty the paint is transparent, if it’s half-filled – semitransparent and if the square is black the paint refers to opaque category.

Lightfastness

Nowadays that term is getting replaced with weather resistance, meaning how much paint will change its colours with time under different conditions: exposure to light, UV, moisture, temperature etc.

Safety note

Working with some pigments may involve some risks. For example, cadmiums and cobalts are known to contribute into cancer development. Emerald green (PG21) is extremely toxic and poisonous. Once used as a rat poison and to preserve wood. It was called a trendy color that killed many in victorian society. 

Some other pigments, such as zinc white, can be harmful for environment and are not supposed to be disposed into water or soil. Paints intended for sale in the USA should have safety warning for such pigments. In Canada paints may or may not contain such warnings.

And some other things that you should keep in mind:

  1. Not all ingredients used in paints will be on the label
  2. Term ‘acrylic emulsion’ or ‘acrylic dispersion’ combines many chemical ingredients, including ammonia and solvents and these ingredients will not be listed separately
  3. Oil paints may contain lead or barium sulphate fillers that will not be shown on the labels either
  4. Manufacturing date is normally absent on paint labels

As you can see, labels can give a lot of information on what’s inside. However, some very important things can be still omitted.

In: News

Watercolours – What’s Inside?

Watercolour paints have much longer history than oil and, of course, acrylics. It appeared in China in the 2nd century AD, when paper was invented, because no paper no watercolour painting.

As any paint watercolours consist of pigment, binders and other ingredients. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Pigments for watercolours

Although pigments are kind of universal for many kinds of paints, not all of them work well for watercolours. 

Normally, mineral pigments bind well with Arabic gum (watercolour binder), but most synthetic pigments require special attention. Synthetic pigments, such as phthalo blue and green, naphthols,  quinacridones, hanza, pyrrole, benzimidazolone and others tend to be finer than their mineral cousins. With water added these pigments form lumps that very hard to break into a smooth paste. That’s why manufacturers have to add more fillers and extenders to create a reliable homogeneous paste. 

Also, most synthetic pigments need a base to stick to and it’s not that easy to find information what was used as a base for a certain paint. That’s why performance may differ from brand to brand.

More information about different kinds of pigments and their use we’ll post in our News and Article section.

Watercolour Binder

Arabic gum is a traditional binder for watercolours. It’s a natural gum made from sap of certain kinds of acacia trees. Those trees are harvested in Sudan and throughout the Sahel, from Senegal to Somalia.

Arabic gum is a very safe ingredient and has a broad use in food industries. For example, bakers add it as a thickener to icing, fillings as well as to soft gums and candy. For RUSART Naturals watercolours, we buy food grade arabic gum to make sure it’s pure.

Some people think that honey is another kind of binder used for watercolours. That’s not true. Honey is a never-drying agent so watercolours based on honey will remain sticky and never form a smooth film. 

However, some manufacturers do ass honey in watercolours to keep paints moist and soft. Here we come – humectants.

Humectants and Plasticizers for Watercolours

Watercolour pains based on Arabic gum only will get dry within quite short time. They will look like a piece of chalk that’s hard to use. To keep paints soft (even for watercolours in pans), we have to add humectants, such as honey, glycerine, methyl cellulose, or corn syrup. 

These agents prevent paints from excessive dryness and increase flow. 

Preservatives

As you can see, watercolours have a lot of natural ingredients inside that in contact with water may start growing mold. Especially that’s important for watercolours in tubes, that keep moist for longer time. 

To prevent growing mold we need preservatives. Normally, manufacturers use formaldehydes or phenols to keep paints fresh. Another olden way to fight mold is using essential oils. That’s more expensive, but a safer way that we use in our RUSART watercolours.

Fillers in Watercolours

If you think that’s the least important part in the paints, you’re terribly wrong. Yes, for artists fillers is something they’d rather avoid (when possible) to keep colours clear and vibrant. However, pigments are expensive, market is competitive and only specialists or really professional artists will notice a difference. So fillers are technically the main ingredient for most student and artist grade watercolours. Professional watercolours normally have lower level of fillers.

Also, some pigments cannot been used without fillers because they don’t get the right consistence and need a base to for smooth texture. However, for most mineral pigments fillers are not necessary.

Manufactures use many chemicals as fillers. For watercolours the most common ones are dextrin (and other cheap sugars), chalk, clays, barium sulphates. Normally, these ingredients are not listed on the labels.

Oil Painting Essentials how to choose oil painting supplies
In: Practice

Oil Painting Essentials

All oil painters have their own lists of oil painting essentials for everyday work. There are many tools, mediums, brushes and many colours available so it’s very easy to get lost. Especially, for beginners. 

On top of that oil paints are quite expensive and not everyone can afford buying more supplies than really needed. Let’s see what you’ll really need to start and what can wait till a better moment. Below you can find some recommendations based on our practice and experience. It may be different from what other artists think and use as all artists are different and have heir own preferences.

Different techniques require different brands of oil paints

  1. Alla Prima. Technique implying working wet-on-wet and finishing a painting during one approach. Most impressionists and a lot of contemporary artists use this technique. For this technique you need good selection of basic colours, especially reds and yellows. Student grade colours have lower pigment load as well as may have some white inside those colours that can “melt” and provide some muddy look. Your choice should be focused on opaque paints that provide pure colours. So, you’ll need artist and professional brands of oil paints, such as (from our shop) Gamblin, Master Class, Old Holland, Dartecor, Art Spectrum and other brands.
  2. Flat technique doesn’t require too much paint to use and you can make few layers one on top another to enhance the colours. You’ll need to mix colours though, but not in big quantities. So, for underpainting casual brands (Ladoga, Rosa Gallery etc.) would work well, and for top layers – professional ones (MasterClass, Gamblin, Art Spectrum etc.). 
  3. Impasto. Here you’ll need thick paints and probably you’d be interested in saving 🙂 The thickest but still not too expensive brand is Art Spectrum. The other brand with very high viscosity is Old Holland, but it may be too pricey for bulk use. One of the options is using wax-based medium that created texture, but wax has it’s own drawbacks that will be discussed in other articles.
  4. Glazing and multi-layering. Here you need minimum fillers and maximum pigment load, so use professional brands only, such as Old Holland or Dartecor.

Different techniques require different oil colours choice

  1. Old Masters’ techniques imply a lot of glazing and working with transparent, but still intense, colours. They usually used monochrome underpainting in combination of white and earthy colours and then many glazing layers with transparent paints. That’s how their painting shine and make an impression of glass between two realities. So, here you’ll need titanium white, burnt and raw sienna, raw umber, ochres, and transparent yellows (hanza yellow, Indian yellow etc.), reds (alizarin crimson, pyrrole red etc.), blues (ultramarine and maybe some phthalo shades), greens (nicosia green, phthalo green), and earthy kids of mars. 
  2. Landscapes. Opaque colours are important here, so choose red, yellow, and orange cadmiums, oxide chromium for green, blue and turquoise cobalts, titanium white, and a variety of earthy colours. It’s also good to have good purple, such as cadmium purple, for accents and shadows.
  3. Portrait. Your choice will be pretty much the same as the Old Master’s techniques plus some opaque colours, depending on your style.
  4. Still lives and flowers. Bright and opaque colours are must have. You’ll need more kids of yellow (cadmium yellow lemon, medium and deep, Indian yellow, hanza yellow), reds (cadmium red, alizarin crimson, quinacridones), pink and magenta colours (quinacridone rose, magenta, cadmium purple), good blues (ultramarine, phthalo, cobalts), green (chromium oxide, phthalo, cobalt), and purple (ultramarine violet, cadmium purple). You’ll also need titanium white and good selection on earthy colours (yellow and golden ochre, burnt sienna, burnt or raw umber etc.). 
  5. Abstract. Here everything depends on the style, but definitely a lot of titanium white and opaque colours we discussed above.

Different techniques require different brush choice

  1. Impasto. For this technique you’ll need a brush that holds a lot of paint. Natural hog bristle brushes preferably with shorter hair for more controllable application would work the best.
  2. Glazing. Your focus will be soft brushes. Everything depends on particular technique, but most likely you’ll need to have a couple of kolinsky sable brushes in your collection. 
  3. Flat. Synthetic brushes would work best of all. Some of them are softer, while the others stiffer – choose what matches your hands. Hog bristle may be too stiff and kolinsky or squirrel may seem too soft. 

Do I need palette knife?

You may or may not use palette knives for painting, but we still recommend to have one medium size metal palette knife for mixing colours and cleaning your palette or scraping paints from your painting in case of failure.

What kind of palette to choose?

For oil painting you’ll need a flat palette. Everything else is a matter of taste: oval, rectangular, plywood, wooden, glass, plastic, wax paper or foil… Many choices are available now.

Do I need oil mediums?

You’ll definitely need painting oil (linseed or another one depending on properties you want to achieve). All other mediums are extra. Read more about different mediums in our knowledge base.

How to choose support?

We always recommend to begin with primed and stretched canvas for oil painting. However other options are always possible. We’ll explain the difference between different types of canvas and how to choose a good one in our articles.

What is a budget?

It’s possible to make a very small trial set for oil painting under $100, but if you want full size tubes and brushes that last longer, your budget for basic kit will be between $150-200. It can go higher, of course, if you buy top-quality paints and larger size of canvas. For some brands, a brush can cost you $70+ or a tube of paints – $100+ (such as Lapis Lazuli). 

(c) RUSART

Elvira Kravenkova
In: Artists

Featured Artist: Elvira Kravenkova

Elvira Kravenkova (FB: https://www.facebook.com/ekravenkova) became part of RUSART team in 2017 as an art teacher and art instructor of special courses. Now, Elvira is still with us testing our products and helping us improve our formulas.

Elvira’s background

Elvira Kravenkova is a Russian-born Canadian artist, based in BC.

Elvira’s painting style is still influenced by traditions of Russian realism and impressionism; the styles she loves.

In the early 1990s, she started to exhibit her paintings as an emerging artist in Moscow, Russia.

In 1998, Elvira relocated to Canada where she continued her art education with amazing artists and instructors. Learning from Anatoli Badriashvilli (Badri) at his studio and Mandy Boursicot(Classical Realism Atelier) enhanced Elvira’s progress in graphics and painting.

Elvira’s career

Elvira teaches in her studio and was invited to instruct students on fundamentals of drawing and painting and Human Anatomy at private art school in Vancouver.

Since 2013 she is a Member of The Federation of Canadian Artists.

Since September 2013 she became a member of The Vancouver Life Drawing Society.

Elvira started to show her artworks again since 2013. Since then she participated in many Canadian and International shows, including juried shows, where she’s got several International Awards.

Her works are in private collections in Australia, Canada, the USA, Italy and Russia.

You can find Elvira’s works in 33 Contemporary gallery on Artsy  , in Federation of Canadian Artists gallery as well as in Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art (WMOCA), Wausau, WI.


Lean more how to become our featured artist >>

Non-toxic art supplies for children: safety
In: Manufacturing

Art Supplies for Children: Safety First

When we buy art supplies for children, the first thing we think about is safety. With this in mind we search for “nontoxic” labeled on art and craft supplies for children and easily find it! Let’s learn more what this label really means.

What “nontoxic art and craft supplies for children” mean?

All art supplies for children by retailers located in the USA and Canada must undergo through third party tested certification for toxicity. However, term “toxic” is limited by ingredients that cause “adverse chronic health effects” and “acute and/or chronic health hazard”. 

One of the most common organization that certifies products internationally is Art & Creative Materials Institute, Inc. (ACMI). Their certification split products into two categories:

  1. The AP (Approved Product) – art materials that are safe and that are certified by a medical expert to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to people or to cause acute or chronic health problems..
  2. The CL (Cautionary Labeling) Seal – products that are certified to be properly labeled for any known health risks and with information on the safe and proper use of these materials. The CL seal is not allowed on any children’s materials.

Safety labels for art supplies ACMI

Everything sounds very good and if you look at AP label you can safely use it for children, of for yourself. We thought the same way before we realized some other things… We found AP label on paints (especially sets) containing cadmiums, cobalts, ammonia, formalin, ethylene glycol and other chemicals. If paints with some of these chemicals are to be sold in California, they may have special “warning” labelling. 

Where to find more information?

Normally, all art supplies should accompany with Manufacture’s Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), where composition and chemicals have to be disclosed. However, most manufacturers keep a list of ingredients secret and MSDS contain only general information, like “no hazard known”.  

For example, the biggest supplier of children art materials in North America, Crayola, doesn’t show ingredients at all. We even can’t tell what kind of pigments are there and what they use to prevent paints from growing mold. You can find MSDS here: https://www.crayola.ca/about-us/crayola-msds.aspx 

There are many reasons why manufacturers hide ingredients, from literally hiding something to just protecting themselves from competitors. RUSART finds this practice dishonest and as children may use paints and other supplies in many ways, including licking and painting on their skin, knowing a full list of components is very important.

Why knowing ingredients of paints IS important?

Nontoxic is not always nontoxic

First of all, term “toxic” is much broader than standards determine. Even ASTM D-4236, the standard practice of labeling art materials for chronic health hazards, is saying that “1.8 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.” 

That means, even if you see a label “conformed to ASTM D-4236”, you and yourself are in charge of use of the product. That’s your responsibility if something goes wrong.

Misuse can occur

Secondly, all art and craft paints are assumed to be used properly. So, paints – for painting on paper (or other listed support), pencils – for drawing and paper etc. But what if your child accidentally ingests paints? And that’s a very common paint “misuse”.

A lot of paints for children contain dextrin and corn starch as a filler, so paints may taste yummy for them to lick. As a white colour or as a filler companies use titanium or zinc oxides. Titanium oxide is quite safe chemical (read more in our knowledge base), but zinc oxide when ingested may cause some unwanted effects.

Cadmiums and cobalts usually are not an issue for kids paints for economical reasons. These pigments are so expensive, that manufactures would never use them for children.

Hidden chemicals

Another big issue is formalin, which is a very commonly used preservative in paints. In some countries, such as EU and Russia, it’s legally prohibited to use it in paint-manufacturing. But it’s not prohibited to sell paints containing formalin. That’s why, when you buy non-toxic paints from China, no one can guarantee they have no formalin. Similar issue you can find with phthalates.

Allergies

And, what’s very important, that’s even paints come out absolutely non-toxic, they still can cause allergies. And knowing a list of ingredients helps a lot. Paints for children may contain wheat, honey, and other allergens. These ingredients are essential for natural paints but should be avoided with those who has certain allergies.

Conclusion

  • Non-toxic label doesn’t guarantee that a products is really “non-toxic”
  • Check with MSDS
  • Choose art materials that disclose lists of ingredients
  • Stay informed with RUSART Newsletter
John Aitken - how everything started
In: Artists

Meet our supporter: John Aitken

John became RUSART’s customer in 2018, when RUSART shop was much smaller and represented mostly manufacturers from Russia. John was always open to try new products, from artist’s and professional point of view. 

In 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when all non-essential businesses got closed, Elena, RUSART Owner, started working on oil painting mediums, watercolour paints and oil paint recipes. John was (and still is) one of the main testers of experiments outcomes. His professional feedback, support, and reliable honest advice helped Elena more than a lot.

Elena is very grateful for John’s input and contribution in her product lines development. 

What “Being an Artist” Means for John

Apart from crafts, which should move towards being “perfect”, art at its most basic is “making special”, but not perfect. For John, art is the special that comes with a perverted ways of seeing. 

“I’ve always seen things… in ways others may not. But it’s not just personal catharsis. It’s an intersection that mediates my minds and a viewer. It’s also a compulsion.  The world is awash in art. But I need make my art  to feel like..to cut thru the shit.”

The Science of Arts

Apart many other artists, John came to art from science.  And as such he felt, as he said “humbled by technically gifted maker”. He often felt he was making his stuff to better feel for “real” artists and not presume to be one himself.

And it’s hard these days, as art as an art and art as a business are different. As history shows, good art may not bring any rewards for years or decades. Or it may even never happen. There were and are so many really talented artists whose names we’ve never heard, but they deserve that.  

John joined an artist run centre. “In a hard spot of life finding a home. – he said. – ”Come stay with me..you are one of us” screw galleries, critics. When some says that it resonates always.”

John as an Artist

John made conceptual art, designed furniture, made a lot of photography, sound art, books. He sees that as his retirement fun game of high end business that he affords himself: the Churchill’s aspect of playing with paint, and have the money to explore pigments, think of pigments and history. 

So, for Join painting is not about the results; it’s about The thinking, intent, the doing.

“Most painters fade with age..as I do…but it’s not like singing or playing an instrument…I can fool myself and fake it..without hurting anyone!”

Most artists will fade, but let’s shine today to inspire the others tomorrow! 

In: Artists

Featured Artist: Rose Kamma Morrison

Rose Kamma Morrison is a Canadian BC-based artist with an interesting artists’ path and a very strong personality. Elena, RUSART’s owner, “met” Rose online in 2020, right after COVID-19 pandemic started. Elena made her first samples of paints and Rose responded to volunteer call to test her paints. Since then Rose inspires Elena with her strong personality and uneasy artist’s path.

“My horizon is broader than my tunnel vision.”  – Rose Kamma Morrison

Rose was diagnosed at 16 with Usher’s Syndrome (deaf/blind) has taught her to look, feel and create. She has an interest in all things outdoors.

Rose is happiest when enjoying the experience of running, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, skiing, kayaking and traveling. Living on the West Coast of Canada, the mountains, byways, forest, ocean and lakes have become her playground. When away from these outdoor pursuits, Rose loses herself in the world of her arts, using watercolour, pencil, ink, mix media and photography.

Featured Artist: Rose Kamma Morrison During her school years, Rose took advantage of all art classes becoming familiar with different mediums and later taking art courses at a local College.
 She refused to allow Usher’s Syndrome to define her; she would rather express beauty in her art, this is how she views her world.

Before retiring,  Rose was an Interior Decorator/Paint Consultant.  Her greatest achievement is raising her beautiful daughter, Emily. She is with a wonderful man, Chris Morrison, who is the pillar of her strength and supports her in all things she’s doing.  He taught her all things are possible.  “My love and friend”. –  Rose says.

Rose is always thankful to her mother who refused to believe that she should be in an institution. It is because of her Rose flourished. And because of her dad, Rose has the passion for the outdoors, sports and sense of adventure.  All these people are the reason for who Rose is today.

Featured Artist: Moon Night and Tree Rose MorrisonWith continuing loss of vision it has taught her a lot about grief.  Grieving can be interpreted  in artistic form, however abstract or surreal loss may feel, it is unique to all and all to experience.

You can find Rose’s works on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RTKMorrison/ or on Instagram: @rosetkmo

How to use copal medium in oil painting
In: Practice

Copal in oil painting

There are many different kinds of additives and enhancers exist for oil painting (including copal resin) and all they have their own use. In general, we can identify 6 kinds of materials that can be added to oil paints. All they have different purposes and use.

Oil paint main chemicals:

  • different kinds of oil (linseed, walnut, poppyseed etc.)
  • Natural resins, rosins and gums (turpentine gum, ambers, copal, dammar etc.)
  • Synthetic resins (alkyd)
  • Solvents (white spirit, turpentine oil etc.)
  • Waxes 
  • Essential oils

Let’s talk about copal resin and medium based on this gum. Based on our researches, old masters, including Leonardo, were using a lot of different mediums, experimenting with oil paints. One of them was amber. 

Amber varnish for painting

Amber varnish is one of the oldest ones. People from Ancient Egypt used it for tombs. They preheated amber composite with torches or iron and then polished to desired shine and transparency. In Renaissance times amber varnish were also in a wide use to add some strength to painting film. With the time heating got replaced with chemicals and instead of melting gums, manufacturers started dissolving it with white spirits and turpentine oil.

However, amber is quite expensive ingredient. You can tell it looking at prices of jewelry that contains amber. So, artists were in search of a less expensive substitution to amber and found some other resins that work similar. And one of the was copal. 

Copal as an amber substitute

Copal is resin extracted from trees in the Burseraceae family, that provide many other kinds of intense resins, such as frankincense or myrrh. Polymerized, these resins provide qualities close to amber. 

Copal, apart from other resins used for oil painting, penetrates inside painting layers and forms one substance with it. This property makes oil film (after drying) stronger and more resistant to chemicals, moist and other environmental influences. Also, it brings more elasticity to a layer making it resistant to physical damage. Just add some of copal medium to your paints.

Leonardo da Vinci used copal gum mixed with sunlight bleached walnut oil as a painting medium, in search of perpetual varnish. And RUSART recreated one of his recipes of copal oil medium based on manuscripts found.

You can also use copal medium as varnish, when applied on top of your painting. However, restorers don’t like that as copal varnish is not removable and seals your painting for good. So, if any restoration will be needed, it cannot been performed. So, use copal as a painting agent, but avoid using it for top layers to prolong time of your artwork.

(c) Elena Nahum Leroy

Meet our supporter - Kathy Van Gogh
In: Artists

Meet our supporter – Kathy Van Gogh

Meet our supporter – Kathy Van Gogh

Kathy Van Gogh contributed a lot into RUSART development, as an artist, tester and raw materials provider.

Elena, RUSART owner, and Kathy met in 2019 in Vancouver, BC, right before Art Vancouver art fair, where Kathy was displaying her beautiful artworks and teaching a to of workshops. As a teacher, Elena taught a pastel workshop there too.

As a professional artist Kathy helped Elena in testing natural watercolours, providing with honest and reliable feedback as well as sharing her experience with other artists. In 2020 when Kathy retired and closed her furniture paint business (see below), she generously donated a lot of raw materials as well as packing supplies to RUSART. 

Elena is very grateful to Kathy for her huge contribution into RUSART small business.

Who is Kathy Van Gogh?

Kathy van Gogh has been a professional visual artist since 2001, although as most artists would tell you, she has been obsessed with colour and creativity all her life.  Her formal training began in the USA and in Canada. To further hone her skills, she travelled to Italy and France. There she learnt from the authentic Masters of ancient art forms including:

  • ornamentation,
  • marbles,
  • wood grains,
  • gilding,
  • plaster work,
  • paint making
  • and just about every other branch of what is generally referred to as decorative art.

Kathy’s Career as an Artist

Initially, she opened her design company called FAKE IT, so-called because her work includes making walls look 2000 years old or transforming drywall into beautiful jaw-dropping finishes.  Kathy has completed hundreds of projects in some of Vancouver’s most prestigious homes. Her work has been featured in many publications including Home Makeover Magazine, Designer Baths, The Sun, The North Shore News, The Province, The Richmond News and many others.

In 2007, Kathy opened the only teaching studio for this art form in all of Western Canada, Studio van Gogh.  Now, as a recognized leader and innovator in the industry, Kathy has travelled all over the world teaching her methods and artistry to others.  

The next natural evolution of her business and art acumen led her to create a line of products called van Gogh Furniture Paintology.  These are designed specifically to refinish furniture.  Essentially, Kathy has taken all her knowledge from the once exclusive world of decorative painting and made it accessible to everyone with her Fossil Paint line of fun and artistic products.

These days, Kathy confines her work to canvasses and has closed her furniture paint business.  Her work can generally be described as abstract impressionism. And she works in acrylic, watercolour, plasters and inks as well as her own handmade paints and plasters.

Kathy’s motto: Leave you Mark!

KathyvanGogh@telus.net 

Want to become our supporter – welcome!

Art lessons with a professional artist - all levels to advanced welcome
In: News

“My goal is to help you discover yourself as an artist” – Elena NL

Elena Nahum Leroy is an art instructor, teaching drawing and painting art lessons since 2009 (in-person and online). Here you can find the most frequently asked questions regarding her way of teaching and what to expect from the classes with her.

What is Elena’s teaching experience?

Elena has been teaching classes since 2009 and she has crossed the line of 2000 students since that time. In winter 2020, right before COVID-19 restrictions, she had about 80 students she was personally teaching on weekly basis and her school RUSART Fine Arts Co. had over 200 “weekly” art students in total.

What are Elena’s mediums?

There are many 2D art mediums:

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • soft pastel,
  • oil pastel,
  • drawing,
  • ink,
  • markers,
  • coloured pencils,
  • collage,
  • mixed media.

Depending your level, Elena can help you with the mediums.

Art classes in Ottawa region - children, youth, adults, portfolio preparationBeginner’s level means you have never used this or that medium before or had some experience playing around (like paint parties). Elena can introduce you absolutely all listed mediums all the way from the beginning to upper intermediate level.  

Upper intermediate means you can freely work in a certain medium, but you still need professional advice on your ideas, material use, colour balancing and finishing your project (like portfolio preparation). Starting from this point Elena can help you with

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • soft pastel,
  • oil pastel,
  • drawing,
  • coloured pencils,
  • collage,
  • mixed media.

And if you need assistance at Advanced level, when you can freely work in a certain medium, but need deeper knowledge of techniques, materials, pastes, archival properties etc., Elena can help you with:

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • drawing, and
  • mixed media.

Oil Painting Lessons for Youth and Adults in OttawaWhat is Elena’s goal of teaching?

“I’m sure that if you decided to take art classes you’re already an artist inside and my role is to help you to find yourself.” – That’s what Elena is saying about her way of teaching.

Art is not a science and what works there may not work here. Yes, there are a lot of rules to know, but following the rules is not the key. For example, we can find “mistakes” in master pieces by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Eduard Manet, Edgar Degas and many other masters and famous artists. But their work are masterpieces regardless “mistakes”. The soul, not the rules, brings a picture to life and makes it look remarkable. So, the goal of art sessions here is to let another artist – YOU – to appear.

How your regular art lesson will look like?

You with your teacher will choose a project for your art lessons together. A project that matches your tastes, goals, and skills. Elena will tell you different ways of how this project can “go” and you choose which way looks better to you. Elena will explain what to do step-by-step to create your very own artwork in YOUR WAY. You’ll learn basics of composition, perspective, material use, and mixing colours.

The more projects you make with Elena the more styles and techniques you’ll try and learn. The goal here is to introduce as many styles and techniques as possible, so in the future you can choose what you like better and find yourself in arts. Even if you find this or that style too challenging or not a good match to your personality, at least you tried it and made a choice. Normally students prefer starting with realism (academism) as the classical way to study.

Pencils Drawing Private Lessons in ON and QCWhat about homework and independent practice?

Sometimes you’ll be asked to start painting or drawing from what you see, with no instruction for a short time, but with a thorough feedback from Elena. It may be a little bit frustrating at first to work on your own, but only this helps develop observation skills, wake up your mind, reveal your artistic personality, and eventually will make you independent.

If a painting or drawing implies repetition, you may be offered to do repetitive things at home, provided you have time and space for the homework. Yes, we’re trying to save your classroom time.

Does Elena paint for her students?

You may see big improvements after the first sessions or it may take some longer time, but you’ll definitely see progress from the first lesson. It may parents and friends think that Elena is drawing or painting for her students. This myth was completely gone after she switched to online art
lessons during pandemic times. There is no way she can touch your work via zoom.

But still she can make some demo on your work when it’s really needed or she can make finial touch if asked by a student. All these are the same for both kids and adults.

Does Elena help with portfolio?

Elena’s students get awards, participate in art shows and even sell their paintings! And yes, Elena also helps prepare portfolios for universities, colleges and art schools.

Where can I learn more about Elena Nahum Leroy?

 

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