Some questions asked, answered, and avoided

Dufaux 5


Hi Stape.

Do you have any words of wisdom on traveling with oil painting supplies? I'm flying to CA from MA next week for a workshop and plan to check all gear in a separate suitcase. I'm leaving all flammables behind, but am still a little worried that a young TSA agent will pull a nutty at the gate and confiscate my paints.--------------- Gustave Whitehead

Gustave:
I think I have written about this before, I don't remember, but here is what you need to know. You can fly with your paints, but not with volatile solvents. That would include painting medium also. You CANNOT however carry them on, you must check them in your luggage. This is not a maybe, if you try to carry them on, they will be disallowed.

I think their are now so many plein air painters traveling about that the security personnel see paint all the time. But to be extra safe you might want to include MSDS information sheets that are made available by Gambin, you can put that in with your paints. You can find them here Click on the color you want, and at the bottom of the description is a link for each color.

There is another way too, that I have used. I go online to Jerrys or one of the other suppliers and buy everything I think I will need upon arrival at my destination, but instead of giving my home address I give them one at my destination, a friend, dealer or the hotel where I am staying. If you do this well before your trip, when you arrive everything you need will be there in its little box, waiting for you. At the end of your trip you throw it all back in its box and mail it to yourself at your home address. That works real well. You will, still have to pack your easel and brushes for the flight but that is all...............................Stape:

Dear Stape

Gruppe used Rose Madder (deep) I think. What is that color most like today?

Pierre-Jean Robiquet

Dear PJ;

It is most like Winsor Newton Rose madder genuine. The Winsor Newton from Jerrys costs 35.69 for a 38 ml. tube, that is very expensive paint. I used it for several years and it has a lovely roseate color. I know of nothing with the same sweet glowing look. Some companies make a rose madder hue. I have never found one I liked. Perhaps a permanent rose is as close as you can get, that would be Quinacridone of course. You would never mistake it for the real thing though. Alizarin crimson is close also but lacks the subtlety and warm glow of the real thing. Rose Madder is NOT a permanent color.

madder plant, above

Rose madder is extracted from the root of the madder plant, it contains both the colors alizarin and purpurin. Purpurin is the more orange of the two and gives genuine rose madder its pleasing warm undertone. In the late 19th century alizarin was produced synthetically. It was in use until fairly recently. it was traditionally thought to be permanent but recent scholarship has disproved that. Today it has been largely replaced by quinacridone, developed in the late 1950's by Dupont, which is a cleaner, more permanent pigment. Quinacridone is a lightfast extremely durable red to violet color and comes in many shades across that range. When you buy permanent Alizarin, (and you should) quinacridone is what you get...Stape

Dear Stape:
Whats the deal with Alex Katz?

I have no idea.