Hello!

Do you know what makes all the painting media similar? Be that watercolour, gouache, acrylic, oil, and even pastel and colouring pencils? – The pigment that gives its colour.

And do you know what makes them different? - The binding agent that holds pigments together.

The pigment is the universal ingredient of any paint. Pigments are substances that give paints their colour. However, pigments are useless on their own. Ground powdered pigments have to be thoroughly mixed in some kind of binder or vehicle that will hold them together and make them stick to the painting surface.

It is the binder that imparts its qualities to the paint. Pigments mixed with diluted Gum Arabic become watercolours, and mixed with linseed oil – oils, and if we add pigments to melted beeswax – we will have encaustic paints.

But what if we mix pigments with egg yolk? We will get egg tempera paint, which is the topic of our class.

It is not documented when and who first discovered the adhesive property of the egg and started adding pigments into it. However, it is considered one of the oldest painting techniques. It is said to date back to Ancient Egypt, where artist tempered (temper, mix, modify from Italian) pigments with a variety of natural water-based binders, such as animal glue, casein and egg. However, egg tempera is known more than other kinds of tempera and was in constant use in most world cultures. Yet, it gradually gave way to oil painting during the Renaissance in Europe, but the beginning of the 20th century saw the revival of egg tempera.

If you want to travel with me into the fascinating land of tempera, the oldest known painting medium, that was used by Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, and even Michelangelo and DaVinci, join me in the class.

In this first class, I will show how to make an egg-yolk emulsion and the basic brushstrokes, and you will be you will be able to start experimenting with egg emulsion and egg tempera painting right away. We will use these techniques in the subsequent classes for a variety of projects.

Enroll now!

My website: Let There Be Light Art

Paulette Hollingsworth

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