An Egg Tempera Day

I did a workshop well-nigh egg tempera with Ruth Stage today.  This is a fight of a ikon post service with random jottings of things I learned today

Egg Tempera paintings past times Ruth Stage
New England Art Club Exhibition 2014, Mall Galleries

The 24-hour interval came inwards iv parts

1. instruction past times Ruth on materials together with how to brand egg tempera together with the supports to pigment on
2. a review of her work
3. we all had a acquire at ikon on the gesso boards she brought for us
4. a review of the egg tempera paintings inwards the National Gallery

Things I learned well-nigh egg tempera today

Ruth has been ikon inwards egg tempera since her studies at the Royal Academy Schools. In 2013, i of her egg tempera paintings won the Lynn Painter Stainer Prize (see Lynn Painter Stainer Exhibition 2013: Review)

Ruth prefers to pigment with egg tempera because it doesn't scent (ie skillful for those who convey problems with solvents), has a skillful finish, dries speedily together with looks different. It too has the wages of getting to a greater extent than robust with age.

Ruth uses:

• Kremer Pigments from AP Fitzpatricks inwards Bethnal Green Road
• a 50:50 mix of egg together with H2O for her egg base. I establish this made for much easier mixing with the pigment together with much easier application to the gesso board.
• a fabulous brush past times German Brushmaker Da Vinci which has a real long grip together with a real long filbert belly which holds a lot of paint. Jackson's Art import them from Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany but they're non listed on their online website. I establish it online together with it is described every bit an Ox Hair Rigger, long length with abrupt needle quest | Series 1287 - for fossil oil together with egg tempera paintings. This pdf file gives yous the measurements for the dissimilar sizes for serial 1287 - Ruth typically uses a size 12.  You tin acquire some feel of size from the brushes inwards my photograph amongst egg cartons!

She recommends:

• breaking the egg nether a tap every bit this helps to take the white of the egg
• prick the egg yolk with a pivot or mash the yolk out through your fingers leaving the egg sac behind
• using a dissimilar plastic spoon for each jounce of pigment to avoid contamination
• only mix a tiny fight of pigment every bit it dries speedily on a palette
• wiping a gesso board with a damp stuff earlier yous start to take whatever film, dust or contamination
• using similar watercolour ie she would non recommend edifice low-cal pigment on summit of dark
• only using a pair of layers of sparse pigment - together with waiting for the get-go layer to dry out earlier adding the second. 
• thinking well-nigh where to seat the pigment earlier applying it every bit it cannot live moved around inwards the same means other paints tin - at that spot is at i time working 'wet inwards wet' with egg tempera
• scratching out to create texture or to add together inwards a novel colour
• choosing dependent champaign affair which volition operate the require fore a dissimilar approach to ikon with egg tempera. If yous click the link inwards Ruth's mention (at the summit of this post) yous tin run across a gallery catalogue of her operate for a solo exhibition together with how she uses calligraphic mark-making over a apartment wash.
• working upright most of the time

Here nosotros are ikon subsequently lunch

NEAC Egg Tempera workshop inwards the Mall Galleries
Mine's the large i inwards the foreground - I'm ikon from a sketch of Chartwell nether the table!

Did yous know that the Wilton Diptych is painted inwards egg tempera?

"Richard II presented to the Virgin together with Child
past times his Patron Saint John the Baptist together with Saints Edward together with Edmund" ('The Wilton Diptych') c. 1395-9
Egg on oak, 53 x 37 cm

Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano (c.1438-40) past times Paolo Uccello
Egg tempera with walnut fossil oil together with linseed fossil oil on poplar; 182 x 320 cm

Or that Uccello's ikon of the Battle of St. Romano is a ikon inwards egg tempera?  Or that it's possible to purpose fossil oil with egg tempera - inwards this instance walnut fossil oil is mixed inwards for the light-green pigment of the foliage.

The back upward was made from well-nigh viii planks, was modified inwards the 15th century, together with has a real thick priming of ii layers of anhydrite inwards mucilage with a sparse layer of gypsum inwards egg tempera on top. Drawing, both freehand together with with a take edge, together with incising were observed and, unusually, some incised lines were applied into the paint, piece graphic lines of pigment were used to reinforce the image.

Egg tempera was the principal medium, with walnut fossil oil added for light-green pigment to give some gloss.

You tin find out to a greater extent than well-nigh Egg Tempera on the website I constructed next my get-go egg tempera workshop at the V&A dorsum inwards 2006 - see Egg Tempera - Resources for Artists . Plus the links below are to my previous blogs posts well-nigh the V&A workshop

• Class at the V&A: The back upward together with the drawing 27 November 2006 Introduction to ikon with egg tempera on a gesso panel.
• Class at the V&A: the pigments together with the grinding 28 November 2006 ... at the V&A: the pigments together with the grinding.
• Egg tempera degree at the V&A: ikon with egg tempera 29 November 2006 So far I've looked at what I learned well-nigh the back upward together with the drawing, the pigments together with the grinding to create the egg tempera pigment - at i time nosotros acquire to the actual painting!

Note: The workshop was organised past times the NEAC Drawing School together with held inwards the Mall Galleries during the Annual Exhibition of the New English linguistic communication Art Club. It was i of the activities inwards the Galleries this week

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