'In this article I would like to tackle the subjects of the health and safety side of painting.

'As pastimes go, painting must rate as one of the safest. Yet, any painter reading the latest technical books on pigments and other art materials may well wonder how they have survived thus far, and may be considering giving up painting to take up something safer – perhaps hang gliding or bungee jumping.

'The pages are littered with such comments as ‘considered toxic; ‘suspected carcinogen’; ‘do not breathe dust’; ‘hazardous’; ‘may contain traces of a known carcinogen’; ‘extremely toxic’. I have incorporated this information on the chart in this issue and you will note that some colours previously thought of as harmless, now have a hazardous rating'.
 

Leslie, egg tempera on gesso panel, (13x11") (Private collection)
This was begun as a demonstration at Boscombe Art Circle in Bournemouth and completed in my studio.

'There have been rare examples where people have died as a result of working with art materials. A pupil of the French Salon artist, Bougereau, died from the effects of inhaling or ingesting flake white pigment (he ground the colour for his master). There are instances where sculptors have died from lung or throat diseases, no doubt at least partially due to the inhalation of dust created during their work processes. I know of an excellent watercolourist who died from cancer of the mouth. He always used to point his brushes in his mouth. It may be a coincidence, but it is an unusual siting for cancer.

'The fact is that if you understand the risks you guard against them. Ignorance and abuse of the materials is almost certainly going to cause problems sooner or later. I once heard that a leisure painter decorated her two-year old’s birthday cake with watercolour because she had run out of cake colouring. She wanted a nice orangey-red and reached for the expensive vermillion. Fortunately one of her circle heard of this and put her wise to the fact that she had painted a poison – mercuric sulphide, which is what true vermillion is – on the cake. Because of its toxicity, expense and occasional performance problems it has been withdrawn by most manufacturers'.

Children and pets

'There is no reason why painting should pose a hazard to anyone, providing a sensibly hygienic practice is employed. Simple rules, like washing your hands – paying particular attention to the fingernails – after painting and before eating or smoking, will largely reduce any risk. If you have broken skin on your hand or perhaps a cut, it should be covered by a material which is impervious to paint and solvent. If you use your hands to manipulate the paint you would be wise to use plastic, or surgeons’, gloves because some pigments can be irritants to the skin and you could inadvertently transfer colour to food.

'Your studio set-up should be made as safe as possible. Don’t leave paints and solvents where children or pets can get at them – or paintings either. A student friend of mine found her cat licking the paint off an egg tempera painting which had been put aside to dry. My Labrador, Molly, if she gets the chance, will disperse half the contents of the studio bin over the floor, so I make sure that anything hazardous goes straight outside to the wheelie bin.

'Make sure that there is adequate ventilation in your painting room and you should have few problems. However, solvents, and especially turpentine, may cause allergic reactions by skin contact or inhalation of vapour. Prolonged and repeated skin contact can cause sensitisalia, the inability to tolerate chemicals on or near the skin.

'Where pigment becomes airborne there is a good chance that it will be breathed in. Pastel manufacturers have gone a long way in eliminating hazardous pigment from their ranges, but all pigments are chemicals and the inhalation of a cocktail of chemicals, no matter how harmless they may seem, is not a good idea. If paint is aerated by spraying, the overspray could be inhaled. In industry, under Health and Safety at Work legislation, premises which carry out processes involving dust or airborne particles, such as paint overspray, are required to have extraction.

'Although I wouldn’t suggest that such measures be taken by the leisure painter in a home environment, perhaps it may be sensible, in a pastel class, for students to wear appropriate masks over nose and mouth. A glance at your handkerchief may indicate whether or not this is necessary.

Jeanette at the Sink, oil on gessoed board, (9x7") (Private collection)

Sensible caps

'Finally, I would just like to mention the use of paints by children. Artists’ paints are made for an adult market. If you have a child who is interested in painting he or she should be given his/her own set of paints, if a type which are specifically made for children.

'Rowney make Junior Poster Colour sets and also Junior Painting Boxes. Most toy shops will also sell paints specifically made for children. Until the age of 14, paints for children should comply with the Toys (Safety) Regulations'.

Packaging

'The packaging of paint has changed little since the invention of the collapsible tube in the mid 19th century, probably because the tube s an excellent and generally trouble-free container.

'However I would like to suggest that many painters, particularly those who have arthritis, do not find the caps of paint tubes the easiest of devices to remove. I believe the time has come to re-think caps. It was like a breath of fresh air when Chroma produced their range in tubes with sensible caps. These are of a similar diameter to the shoulder of the tubes and allow a good grip. The extra diameter also means that less effort is needed to remove caps which have been ‘welded on’ by paint in the screw threads.

'Labelling is getting better, with more information, but even now some manufacturers do not put any indication of the permanence of the colours on the packaging. I would treat these with suspicion. It would be much better if all manufacturers used a common permanence labelling. Perhaps the American ASTM ratings could be used, as these are almost universally accepted as reliable'.

Boxed sets

'These provide a convenient way of purchasing paints. The range available varies from hand-built, inlaid, hardwood cabinets, fitted out with top quality paints, brushes, medium and accessories at a price of more than £1000, right down to blister-packaged tubes or pots costing no more than a few pounds. Many of the boxed sets are designed as starter sets, perhaps to be bought by friends or relatives with little or no knowledge of art materials'.

More versatile

'The novice, or uninformed buyer, if confronted with boxes of, say, seven tubes would probably go for the box which offered white, chrome yellow, vermillion hue, French ultramarine, chrome green, raw umber and black, rather than the box which contained white, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow hue, vermillion hue, alizarin crimson, French ultramarine and phthalocyanine blue.

'The first box set would appear to offer the greater range of colours and would therefore seem to be the better buy, but wait – how could you make a purple or violet? You couldn’t. The second set – of which the uninitiated would say ‘why on earth do you need two yellows, reds and blues?’ – is the most versatile of the two, being capable of producing good, vibrant, secondary colours and almost any other colour that would be needed. The first set also included chrome colours, both impermanent and hazardous.

'We are fortunate in Britain to have two manufacturers who lead the world for quality in artists’ materials: Daler-Rowney and Winsor & Newton. We must not forget, however, that they are businesses in competition, both with each other and the rest of the world, and their ranges reflect demand.

'Take Daler-Rowney’s Introduction to Artists’ Oil, for instance. The colours shown in the catalogue are titanium white, lemon yellow, French ultramarine, burnt sienna, cadmium red, yellow ochre, sap green and lamp black. How can you get a purple or violet with these colours? Why is the impermanent sap green used in preference to viridian or monestial green, which are vastly better pigments and are in the same price band?

'In all the Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd sets and six-tube Cotman sets, a clean purple is not provided for. The objective of a beginners’ set is to introduce people to painting.

'Unfortunately, the six colour mixing system is not the most common taught theory for beginners. A set based on this system is therefore inappropriate. Instead, the three colour system is used in addition to a green, yellow earth and white to provide a wide spectrum for the beginner. Where the number of colours exceeds eight both manufacturers are able to provide a range using the six colour system and further supplementary colours'.

The Leather Jacket, acrylic on canvas, (30x24")

Secondary colours

'If I were asked to make a set of eight oil colours I would select the following: flake white, cadmium yellow pale (or hue), raw sienna, permanent rose, French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, phthalocyanine green and mars black. This range would enable orange and purple to be mixed from the yellow, rose and ultramarine, and vibrant greens could be mixed from the phthalocyanine green and yellow, while muted greens could be obtained by mixing the green with either the raw or burnt sienna. The additional colours would be useful and would appear similar to the imperfect range to the beginner.

'If I were to recommend a set of five colours, I would retain the white, cadmium yellow pale, permanent rose and Mars black, but substitute phthalocyanine blue for the French ultramarine because – despite phthalo blue’s green bias – it does, in combination with permanent rose, make excellent purples. Permanent rose’s blue bias does not prevent its mixture with cadmium yellow pale 9which is fairly neutral in bias) from producing vibrant oranges and even a scarlet. Do, when you contemplate buying a quarter set of only a few colours, check that you can make all three secondary colours, taking into account the biases of the primaries.

'Manufacturers have no excuses for putting fugitive colours in boxed sets – particularly starter sets. When I bought a box of 30 Rembrandt soft pastels, I found to my dismay that two were fugitive. These I threw away because, as I stated in Colour Workshop 8, once the wrapper has been removed it can be difficult to remember which pastels are the fugitive ones. I then had to spend more money.

'I have been told by the sales departments of British manufacturers that they welcome feedback on their products and, if you have some comment which could be used in a positive way to improve their performance, they would be pleased to hear from you. Further to this, if you have any concerns about your materials, the makers’ technical experts would be only too pleased to help you'.
 

Further reading
Those of you who are interested in the technical and craftsmanship aspects of painting may find the following books useful.

• Ralph Mayer: The Artists’ Handbook of Materials & Techniques published by Faber & Faber 1991
• Reed Kay: The Painter’s Guide to Studio Methods & Materials published by Studio Vista, 1973
• Colin Hayes: The Complete Guide to Painting and Drawing Techniques & Materials published by Phaidon, 1978.
• Lynton Lamb: Materials & Methods of Painting, published by Oxford Paperbacks, 1976.
• Michael Wilcox: Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green, published by Collins, 1989.
• Artists’ Materials, Which, Why & How by Emma Pearce, A & C Black, 1992, is a particularly comprehensive, no-nonsense book.

This feature is taken from the October 1994 issue of Leisure Painter