Lead priming

[Richard Budig]

Would someone please tell me about lead priming?

Primarily, which paint/lead primer do you use? Plain old flake white? Over a glue sized canvas? Lead white on a pre-primed canvass, such as a Fredrix?

I read in a Richard Schmid book about how he lead-primed his canvas, but in a later book, he said had quit doing that. But, when he was doing it, he said he bought a lead carbonate paint from a hardware store somewhere. Hmmm?

Up to now, I've been using acrylic primed canvas, or priming my surface with acrylic gesso. I'd like to know more. I did a search here, but I'm still confused . . . not a surprise coming from me.

[Sharon Knettell]

Ricard,

This is one of the most confusing areas of painting, among a myriad of confusing issues.

Lead is supposed to be the most durable and flexible, but you have let it cure for 6 months or more.

The Artist Magazine, this month, has a good article on sizing and priming canvasses.

Read the standard in the field, Ralph Mayer's book , " Methods and Materials for Artists".

[David Boles]

A tubed flake white would probably work, but it will be a fatter than the stuff made specially for grounds. There's only a few places that make lead grounds anymore. Off the top of my head Williamsburg does, I think Vasari does and Studio Products makes a lead primer in black oil.

Schmid used a Dutch Boy product if memory serves. Its not made anymore which may well be why he quit using lead grounds. As I understand it the SP primer is similiar to it.

If you're starting with raw canvas it will need a glue sizing to keep the oil from attacking the canvas fibers. I'm told that is not necessary if you use polyester since it is not a natural fiber, but cotton or linen definitely size. On the other hand you can use an acrylic preprimed canvas and just put a coat of white lead over it. You'll probably get an argument from a purist on that, but for experimentation purposes at least it works quite nicely. Before you go out and buy primers and canvas you might want to try putting a layer of flake white on a couple small preprimed canvases just to see it you like the feel of a white lead oil ground. I think at the very least you'll find that is easier on brushes.

One last thought just occured to me. Do not sand a lead ground. You run the risk of breathing lead dust and getting a layer of it over everything. Most definitely a bad thing. Handled correctly lead is not a problem to use. Being suspended in oil you should be able to brush it out smoothly enough that sanding really isn't necessary anyway.