cracking 575 by bern on 05/24/01 at 11:01 AM
cracking

The oil paintings of an acquaintance of mine, who is a prominent maritime artist, are starting to crack after only 20 or 30 years. In some cases the cracking is quite severe. This is naturally a distressing situation since his works sell for as much as $250,000. He paints on linen which has been primed with several coats of acrylic gesso. This is stretched on conventional stretchers. His medium consists of turp with 20% or so linseed oil. To this he adds a drop or so of cobalt drier. He also adds a drop of drier to the titanium white and ultramarine. Does anybody have any thoughts as to why the cracking is occurring? It would be nice to find the cause since many painters are moving away from resin-based mediums and opting for pure turp or turp/oil mediums. He seems to think it's the cobalt drier. I'm wondering if it may be the acrylic gesso. Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Follow Ups:

Re: cracking Steve Sauer   Posted at: 05/26/01 (2)
Re: cracking sarkana   Posted at: 05/28/01 (0)
Re: cracking Steve Sauer   Posted at: 05/26/01 (0)
Re: cracking Art Vandalay   Posted at: 05/24/01 (5)
Re: cracking Chris terryn   Posted at: 06/11/01 (0)
Re: cracking Patrick   Posted at: 05/30/01 (1)
Re: cracking lcg   Posted at: 05/31/01 (0)
Re: cracking susan   Posted at: 05/24/01 (1)
Re: cracking Steve Sauer   Posted at: 05/26/01 (0)

Post a Followup 575"> bern"> bjkorites_prodigy.netcracking_05/24/01 at 11:01"Re: cracking"
: The oil paintings of an acquaintance of mine, who is a prominent maritime artist, are starting to crack after only 20 or 30 years. In some cases the cracking is quite severe. This is naturally a distressing situation since his works sell for as much as $250,000. He paints on linen which has been primed with several coats of acrylic gesso. This is stretched on conventional stretchers. His medium consists of turp with 20% or so linseed oil. To this he adds a drop or so of cobalt drier. He also adds a drop of drier to the titanium white and ultramarine. Does anybody have any thoughts as to why the cracking is occurring? It would be nice to find the cause since many painters are moving away from resin-based mediums and opting for pure turp or turp/oil mediums. He seems to think it's the cobalt drier. I'm wondering if it may be the acrylic gesso. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 
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