From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 07/28/03-05:46:45 PM Z
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Katharine Thayer wrote:
> Perhaps some context and clarification may be in order. I can't speak
> for what Stuart means when he says this, but my arguments on the matter
> in the past have generally been in the context of Stephen Livick's
> insistence that only a particular brand of watercolor paint, made in
> France, "worked" for gum printing.
Is that true? Did Livick really claim that? Not to defend Livick (whose
gum manual may be the worst of a bad lot, as well as the most expensive
per word), I only recall his *book* saying it was BEST. Either way, if
folks really didn't print gum because they couldn't get Linel, that may
not be a great loss to art.
I wonder tho if the problem wasn't simply a failure of B&S to make a
deal... I found Linel in NY art supply stores ... tho the colors I got
(that were in stock) were terrible & I didn't get more.
Winsor Newton used to be the gold standard of "artists watercolor": Gum
classes & articles often specified ONLY WN, because it had good pigments &
no weirdo additives or fillers... But they've lately been bought by big
corp (Grumbacher,or Liquitex, or Pfizer or somebody) and besides a
marketing plan that drops any item or color without mass appeal from their
product line, the cost per paint grain had gotten very high.
I haven't bought paint lately, but as of last year, Daniel Smith was among
cheapest per ml & IME the best for gum... (I haven't tested Graham
seriously... They may be even cheaper -- important for students, if not
for "professionals.")
J.
> ...Bostick and Sullivan found that they were not able to import this
> particular brand into the United States, and a whole bunch of would-be
> gum printers thought that if they couldn't get this particular brand, it
> was all over as far as gum printing. This of course is ridiculous, but
> all my arguments that many other brands would work equally well fell on
> deaf ears at B&S at the time.
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