• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Margret E. Short Fine Arts

Margret E. Short Fine Arts

Portland, Oregon artist Margret Short - a modern day master of 17th Century Dutch art using the chiaroscuro technique to create still life and floral paintings.

  • Home
  • About
    • Margret E Short Bio
    • Resumé
    • Artist’s Statement
    • Artist Resources
    • The Lessons Series
    • Oregon Honor
  • Commission
  • Prints
  • Events
  • Galleries
  • Projects
    • Quintessential Blue
    • Iso-LACE-tion: A Thirty Day Painting Project
    • Indigenous Naturals Project
    • Lessons from the Spider Woman
    • Girl Jazz Singers
    • Lessons from the Pharaoh’s Tomb, Part 1
    • Lessons from the Pharaoh’s Tomb, Part 2
    • Lessons from the Low Countries
    • Greek Pigment Project
  • Contact
  • Blog

Oil Change

December 21, 2010 by Margret Short

As I said in the previous post, the Egyptian artists mixed pigment with egg or acacia sap which is also known a gum arabic.  Both are binders for a water based paint. Another binder for water based paint is acrylic or egg yolk or even sometimes the whole egg. Often egg is used as a binder in oil painting also.

The equivalent to this in oil painting is linseed oil or whatever oil is used such as poppy seed or walnut. The binder holds the pigment particles together. Otherwise, if you just mixed the dry pigment with water and painted on your substrate, the pigment would not adhere to the surface and would fly away in the wind. It must have a glue like substance such as the acacia sap, egg, acrylic, alkyd, or oil to make it stick.

gomma-arabica

Acacia resin.  Image courtesy Wikipedia

Tagged With: acacia sap, acrylic, alkyd, binders, egg, gum arabic, how to make paint, linseed oil, oil, paint making, pigments, poppyseed oil, walnut oil

Chiaroscuro Painting

Oil painting with the chiaroscuro technique illuminates the focus area with a strong light. All other areas are painted with less detail, lower values, and intensity of color giving a mysterious appearance. By putting one or two objects in the important focus area, a strong but simple composition will emerge. Combining these oil painting techniques with a selection of superior natural pigments and oil paints result in the beautiful and evocative quality known as Chiaroscuro Painting.

Footer

Sign up for Margret’s Newsletter

Join Margret while she explores imagery and pigments used since 3500 BC!

Email Address:

Recent Blogs

Doing the Mazurka with Emma Sandys

Adelaide Labille-Guiard; Folkdancing Backwards

The Queen of Capri Waltzed Backwards in Button Boots: Sophie Gengembre Anderson

Dancing the Rigaudon Backwards: Rachel Ruysch

Dancing Backwards with Elisabetta Sirani: 1638-1665

[More Blog Posts]

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

Looking for Something Special?

© 2006 - © 2025 Margret E Short, all rights reserved