PRODUCT HISTORY
Whether
you are a professional or an amateur artist, our products should be
included in you list of art supplies. Garrett Copal Concentrate and
Garrett Copal Medium will increase the techniques available to the oil
painter. Paint brushes and palette knives become more durable tools
with the copal mediums, as was well known by the Flemish and Renaissance
Masters. When painting with oils, the artist should not discount the
use of Garrett Copal Mediums. Our medium is an organic resinous
varnish which becomes part of the paint and eliminates the need for a
final coat of varnish. The finished painting is then impervious to
most solvents and environmental hazards.
Copal is a hard fossil
resin akin to amber and both were employed by the early Flemish Masters as
a painting medium. The earliest written account dates to the 12th
century, although copals may have been used earlier.
The hard resins which
include copal and amber are from extinct trees, usually conifers, and are
found at various locations worldwide. These resins range in
age from thousands to millions of years old. These resins will not
dissolve in most modern solvents unless subjected to high
temperatures. On the Moh's hardness scale, copal has a
hardness of 1 to 1.5, and amber has a hardness of 1 to 3. Their
light refraction is equal. Left in its natural state, copal will
become amber over time.
Modern oil paints, for the
most part, employ aluminum stearate (a metallic soap) which keeps the oil
from separating from the pigment, but creates "short" or stiff
paint that lacks viscosity. Garrett Copal Concentrate is a viscous
material that will turn short paint into long paint with the addition of
one or two drops per inch or paint as it comes from the tube. With
the addition of Garrett Copal Concentrate to tube paint, brush strokes
will fuse and seek their own level. Brush strokes executed with
short or stiff tube paint will retain the sharp grooves of the bristles.
The natural brilliance and luminosity of the paint is retained with the
addition of a few drops of our concentrate. The properties of our
product make each layer of a glaze blend with the next and allows for the
soft transition from one color to the next. They also allow for a
more uniform drying time. Long paint allows the artist greater range
for fine details with a brush or knife.
Sir Arthur Church stated at the turn of the 20th Century that copal combined with certain oils produces a surface that is hard but does not crack and is preferable to the soft surface of oil alone. Professor A.B. Laurie of the Royal Academy, London, suggested that the perfect preservation of paintings of the Flemish Masters was due to the use of copal as a medium. Fredrick Taubes, renowned artist, technician, and author, recommended copal mediums.
Our Contact Information
- Telephone: (505) 762-5167
- FAX: (505) 763-5974
- Postal Address:
- 1616 Claremont
- Clovis, NM 88101
- EMail: ron@garrettcopal.com