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This section of 

nontoxicprint / SafePainting.com includes safety-conscious and innovative practice, research, and resources from the vast and complex subject area of Paints and Painting. 


We are offering writings and resources especially about artist paints for fine art studio use, such as artist oils, acrylics, or the new water miscible paints, and their application.



There also is information on advances and new developments made in domestic and industrial paints. 


Many of the issues and topics in both fields –– artist paints and domestic paint –– are linked, and to some degree interchangeable. 

Intriguingly, contemporary artists from Jackson Pollock to Damien Hurst made conscious use of household or 'trade' paints (wanting to make less 'academic' artworks). 

As the paint industry makes chemical advances these trickle down into the more refined, highly pigmented, and more lightfast artist paints, which share most of the base ingredients. Potential health issues from toxic pigments, VOCs, PAHs, thinners, and other ingredients are shared across both areas. 
So called 'nontoxic' materials and paints are currently gaining a strong foothold in the market, and often are not as safe as it seems, but artists and users of paint need some specialist knowledge to make informed choices; we are hoping to aid this process. For example, recent studies confirm that many of the world's great artists suffered from lead poisoning (Caravaggio, or Rembrandt, among them).


Safe Painting Guide

Domestic Paints / Francesco Clemente: Sun, 1980  /  tubes of Water-Miscible Oil Paint /
Roberto Parada: Amy Winehouse / Jackson Pollock's Studio (Namuth)



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The potential health hazards of paints, binders, thinners, and pigments continue to be underestimated by users. Largely unnoticed by the public, it is still common for professional artists to contract various kinds of diseases, such as asthma, brain disease, and various kinds of cancer, that are often linked to solvent exposures, for instance in graffity artists working with spray paints, or heavy metal poisoning from cadmium use in oil painters.







Jackson Pollock in his studio, © Hans Namuth Estate


There are many health related aspects that are relevant to both areas, and these are discussed in our pages on Pigments, Solvent Toxicity and Safe Solvent Alternatives, Reproduction Risks, and Legal Aspects. Some of the information on solvent hazards and solvent safety is based on toxicological  research and writings originally published by Art Hazard News and the  Health in the Arts Program, University of Illinois at Chicago; additional advice on current research was given by Michael McCann.

The Fine Art Painting Section includes a comprehensive essay by Merle Spandorfer on all the painting media available to artists, including acrylic painting, oil painting, gouache, pigments, mediums, etc., which was first published in Making Art Safely by Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY.




 Safe Painting for Art and DIY:         Safety of domestic and DIY paints
                                                                   in Fine Art and Interior Decorating 
                                                                    (e.g. gloss/matt | wall paints | varnishes)

Safe Painting for Artists:       Artist Paints & Studio Art


 Safe Painting and Drawing:   Health in The Arts Compendium


 Solvents and VOCs:      Health in The Arts Compendium


Painting with Radium:     The Radium Girls


The Art of Roberto Parada: Staying well as a Professional Artist

Safe Oil Painting: Goodby to Turpentine:   Robert Maynord


Oil Painting - nontoxic:    Mike Bergen


 Spike Lavender Washes and Glazes:    Robert Maynord   


Eco Friendly Paint:      Sarah Houlton, PhD


Pigments:      History, Toxicity & Alternatives


 Safer Spray Painting and Airbrushing:    An overview


 The Chemistry of Acrylics    Polymerization and Hazards


Solvent Toxicity:      Health Hazards and Medical Evidence


   Safe Solvents:      Non-VOC Alternatives


   Reproduction Risks:      VOCs, Paints, Thinners, and Pregnancy


   Health & Safety:      Exposing Ourselves to Art and H&S Compendium


   The 'Green' Art School:      Art schools moving towards safer practices


   Artmaking & The Law:      A Selection of Essays


   Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety:     An advisory and consultancy service


   UIC  Health in The Arts Center:   A scientific compendium, 
                                                              resource and advisory service


   Instructional Videos:    A selection of relevant YouTube videos



    Starch-based Serigraphy     making ink and binders from starch



Color-field painting, freedom, and Art

article by Friedhard Kiekeben and Willy Richardson 


  Oil Painting Hazards in Classrooms        Michael McCann












'Painted Trees', Chicago Park District, 2011
 
nontoxicprint

 ©  2003 - 2021

The information on this website is based on what we - the individual authors - believe to be
current safety-conscious practice. Progress in the field is ongoing, opinions vary,
and new findings emerge frequently.

Please feel free to use the information from this site for your research and practice.

This is not an official safety site: we publish suggestions, research,
and recommendations about good practice and new developments, both by experts
and by informed authors and lay persons. Please let us know if you feel additional information
or a correction needs to be added to a page.

Use our compendiums of links to access formal safety sites and organizations
(such as OSHA, WHO, EPA, or the UIC Health in the Arts Library), and for
other categorized content and listings.

Reprints and reproduction in other publications by agreement. 
Please CONTACT us for details.

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