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PAINTS – f) Oil: 3. Gessos & Grounds

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Another of Alfred Munsell’s invention was a disk that, when spun, would show you if the percentage of colours you have chosen for any given artwork will produce a delightful neutral grey. And when I say delightful, I mean delightful to Alfred. Because the man not only classified and ‘notated’ colours, he also approved or disapproved of art or design in which colours are “poorly related and do not balance in neutral gray.” Of course that’s what his 6 primaries in equal shares produce but it also seems, perhaps after a sojourn in beautiful grey Paris, that Alfred had developed a taste for colour harmony that would imply that a “neutral” result would be the best possible outcome. It is however quite difficult to see if the proportion of colours in an artwork will produce the sought for grey. But not if you have one of these! If in the mood, go on my blog and get to know Munsell and his colour theory + read a bit about my visit to the Boston Munsell Centennial Symposium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2018/12/10/munsell-chips-anyone/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Munsell #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #colour #color #colourtheory #colortheory #colourwheels #colorwheel #colourmixing #colorcompanion #colourchips #Munsellchips #Xrite #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

Born in 1858 in Boston, the young Albert Munsell was gifted. He went on to further studies at the newly established Massachusetts Normal Art School as it was then called and, whereas most students were content with studying one year there, he ran through the four years they offered. The School had been established to support the Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870 and its aim was to provide drawing teachers for the public schools as well as training professional artists, designers, and architects. You might exclaim: “Oh delight a publicly funded university (which it still is by the way and now the only free art school still standing in the United States) offering everyone drawing skills!” The truth had a more business-oriented flavour however. Boston at the time was at the heart of the American industrial revolution. Textile manufactures, railroads and retailing boomed there but skills were lacking. Especially in technology and draftsmanship. Civic and business leaders got together, founded the now world-renowned MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Munsell’s school and, to be fair to them, the not-so-business-orientated wonderful Boston Museum of Fine Arts too. If in the mood, go on my blog and get to know Munsell and his colour theory + read a bit about my visit to the Boston Munsell Centennial Symposium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2018/12/10/munsell-chips-anyone/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Munsell #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #AssociationInternationaledelaCouleur #colour #color #colourtheory #colortheory #colourwheels #colorwheel #colourmixing #colorcompanion #colourchips #Munsellchips #Xrite #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt #Bostonfineartmuseum #bostonartmuseum

A hundred years ago, Albert Henry Munsell, the Father of Color Science as he is often remembered, passed away but the foundation he created just before his death has kept alive a colourful legacy which is still vibrant, scientifically correct and worth celebrating in style… which is exactly what we (me and around 200 other colour fanatics) all did during a five day long Munsell Centennial Colour symposium in Boston this June. It took me a while to write this one but I hope you will enjoy it! If in the mood, go on my blog and get to know Munsell and his colour theory + read a bit about my visit to the Boston Munsell Centennial Symposium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2018/12/10/munsell-chips-anyone/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Munsell #munsell2018 #Inter-SocietyColorCouncil #Association InternationaledelaCouleur #colour #color #colourtheory #colortheory #colourwheels #colorwheel #colourmixing #colorcompanion #colourchips #Munsellchips #Xrite #BostonMass #bostonmassachusetts #MassArt

In the entrance of the Blockx factory two furnaces are gathering dust. There was a time they burnt their own umbers and Siennas but not anymore. They still grind their own pigments though and when they brag of their paint being hand made these really are… as much as it can be today. If in the mood, go on my blog and read the full story of my visit to the Blockx factory in Belgium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2011/11/19/in-bed-with-jacques-blockx/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Blockx #JacquesBlockx #Blockxoilpaint #lusciousoilpaint #rawsienna #burntsienna #rawumber #burntumber #madeinBelgium #flemishmasters #groundpigments #oilpaints #oilpainting #paintmaker #paintinthemaking #paintmaster #oilmediums #ambermedium #amber #handmadeoil #handmadeoilpainting #pigment #scienceofcolor #triplerollmills

This is what I call a colour lab! Jacques Blockx’s den was full of the most yummy things: blowpipe and retort, old bottles and phials filled with strange substances, tubes going back decades, faded ads for Blocks paints and the more normal things you would expect in a colour man’s world: a massive muller, pigments, paint drawdowns… If in the mood, go on my blog and read the full story of my visit to the Blockx factory in Belgium: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2011/11/19/in-bed-with-jacques-blockx/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Blockx #JacquesBlockx #Blockxoilpaint #lusciousoilpaint #flakewhite #madeinBelgium #flemishmasters #groundpigments #oilpaints #oilpainting #paintmaker #paintinthemaking #paintmaster #oilmediums #ambermedium #amber #handmadeoil #handmadeoilpainting #pigment #scienceofcolor #triplerollmills

7 years ago today, I published my first post about a visit to the delicious Jacques Blockx. Chemist, heir to the Blockx legacy of centuries of beautiful oil paint making in Belgium (and pastels and watercolours), Jacques was the true gentleman-colourmen and his beautiful factory exuded the peacefulness of bygone days. My posts have grown since that one and my knowledge ever so much too but it’s still quite a pleasurable read I think, so if in the mood, go on my blog to: https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/2011/11/19/in-bed-with-jacques-blockx/ #inbedwithmonalisa #Blockx #JacquesBlockx #Blockxoilpaint #lusciousoilpaint #flakewhite #madeinBelgium #flemishmasters #groundpigments #oilpaints #oilpainting #paintmaker #paintinthemaking #paintmaster #oilmediums #ambermedium #amber #handmadeoil #handmadeoilpainting #pigment #scienceofcolor #triplerollmills

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