The following technique was taught to Brigid in the mid-70's by Ernst Fuchs...

brigidmarlin.com/Pages/Mische.html




Timea :


Tthe use of pressed wood masonite - you can compare it to blotting paper - it is like a sponge - so if you use it (not recommended)-you need to be sured that you seal it with a glue or something else. A: to puffer it against humiditu and B: to prevent your binding media being sucked up by it - leaving your first coats deprived of binding medium. The great disadvantege of press boards are is that not only do they contain crappy chemicals (sometimes formaldehyde)and a possibly lousy glue -they are as mentioned very sensitive to climate changes (if you leave one in a moist celler -it will quickly crumble apart)- so it tends to extend when it is humid and shrink when it is dry - the colour on top - especially the tempera might crack during these processes and if there is not enough binding media or too much binding media- this cracking or craquelure leads to flaking.

On the images Brigid completely covers each chromatic layer with the next - which is one way to do it - The way I have seen it at the Academy in Vienna resembles the technique of the german artist Maximilian Pfalzgraf: to overpaint each layer - but not in a complete coating -but with the brush in a way that some of the underlying red colours keep shing through at the warm areas (cheek...) and some of the blues in the shadow areas (corner of the eyes, under ears....etc) and white where you want to have your middle tone such as the flesh colour in the face (carnation) standing up firmly...
see:
www.silosgallery.com/images/ca...nique.html

My conservation teacher in Vienna has been involved in the conservation work of the Fuchs paintings which were vandalised in the church of Hetzendorf - mische technique on parchment and those also showed some flaking (not too long after the actual making of them...)- the reason again might be that also parchment is strongly reactive to climate changes... ( www.pfarre-hetzendorf.at )

It seems to be worth to investigate for a stable, light and not too expensive support... Any ideas to this subject are most welcome...!

This link - is to the descriptions in English (-; - of the Fuchs' paintings on parchment
www.pfarre-hetzendorf.at/fuchs...-e.htm
I really do love parchment and the idea to paint on it ---


Daniel :

wow, Timea those links are extremely instructional !

Interestingly the difference between Brigid's and Pfalzgraf's mische approach is what I have been naturally experimenting with. In the archangel Michael piece I've moved from just mechanically applying the various full glazes of red yellow blue to working more locally.

It would seem, especially if these is a long wait between each layer, that laying one complete glaze across an entire piece, atop of each other, especially if the previous layer has already hardened, would create more suseptibility to rapid cracking, where as using slower drying glaze medium (more stand oil) so that the various layers and touches can bond with each other across levels would be overall stronger.

Brigid loves her Damar resin for the slickness it lends a glaze.

Again, thanks for those links. Maximilian Pfalzgraf's work is super and his pages are very exciting to read up on.



Timea :

I had a thought - while writing on my thesis - lead white...
Brigid uses "Titan white" a modern pigment (introduced around 1900) completely different from the only white pigment the old masters used - Flake white - (lead white produced with the stack method).

Lead white has some great advantages (beside that it is poisonous and hard to get...):
A: it greatly speeds up the drying process of oil
B: in combination with oil it creates a 'lead soap' when aging - later makes the layers more transparent after some time - so you would have a chromatic effect -your coloured layers would reflect through the white layers - whereas with Titan white you cover up what you have painted before...
Just an idea....

Before I made lead white- i talked to DR Kremer in Germany (colour mill) and I was suprised to hear that quite some painters make their lead white themselves...

Dammar - yes I agree - too much resin layers might have two disadvantages - they can become brittle and get dark with time (yellow - like the varnish on old paintings...)

I will have a chat with Nicola Costara about dammar --- she is the head of painting cons in the V&A and a great source of knowledge - and she mentioned tome time ago that it would be great to make a practical workshop...