Random Facts
This month's random fact covers the extremely colorful history of paint. By definition Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. Cool huh? So where did paint come from you ask? And what was in it? Well, Cave paintings drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide, and charcoal may have been made by early humans as long as 40,000 years ago. Ancient painted walls at Denerdera, Egypt, which were exposed for many ages to the open air, still possess a perfect brilliancy of color, as vivid as when they were painted about 2,000 years ago. Paints today just don't hold up like the used to!
The Egyptians mixed their colors with some gummy substance, and applied them separated from each other without any blending or mixture. They appeared to have used six colors: white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. They first covered the field entirely with white, upon which they traced the design in black, leaving out the lights of the ground color. They used minimum for red, and generally of a dark tinge. Paint was made with the yolk of eggs and the substance would harden and stick onto the surface applied. Pigments were made from plants, sands, and different soil types. As for it's use as an artistic medium, since the Renaissance, siccative (drying) oil paints have been the most commonly used kind of paints in fine art applications; oil paint is still common today. However, in the 20th century, water-based paints, including watercolors and acrylic paints, became very popular with the development of acrylic and other latex paints. Milk paints, where the medium is derived from the natural emulsion that is milk, were popular in the 19th century and are still available today. Egg tempera is still in use as well, as are encaustic wax-based paints.
The official story behind paint? It's been around as long as people have and will continue provide color to the world probably long after we are gone. So grab a brush or a roller and whatever color strikes your fancy. Find yourself a canvas, or even just a wall and leave a legacy of color to the world.
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