Beeswax Medium

Mixing pigment and beeswax has been utilized by artists prehistorically. Through the essence of bee’s wax medium we observe and feel its clarity, richness and integrity. These colorfast “wax colors” are made in Germany where the carefully selected pigments are food container safe. This form of painting/drawing is free of turpentine, processed oils, petro chemicals/plastics, or, any of the toxic metals/chemicals like cadmium, chromium, lead, preservatives and fungicides that are routinely used in oil, acrylic, encaustic, watercolor, and guache paints. The use of these toxins is legally regulated under classification as non-toxic by ACMI (Art & Creative Materials Institute, Inc.) which is funded and controlled by art paint manufacturers. New regulations with safer standards seem in order.

The respect in care of the paintings is not any different than with oils, watercolors and acrylics. Understanding the paintings’ susceptibility to damage is to acknowledge the harmony, fragility, order and pathos in its wave transcience, and of the harmony, poignancy, fragility, order and pathos of nature itself. The surface of these paintings is softer than oils, less brittle than watercolor, and more flexible than acrylic. Their surface is susceptible to scrapes and scratches and to extreme temperatures. Glass is placed in the framing, as with watercolors and guache, to protect the surface from damage. They, like oils, watercolors and acrylics, should not be hung or stored in direct heat or sunlight, over heat vents or in temperatures over 120° F (48.9° C) and 32° F (0° C).

A Look at Toxicity in Visual Arts Materials ©Greg Patch

The environmental and/or health effects of visual art mediums are a subject not on the forefront of the public’s mind. Perhaps, in part, lured by intoxicating art materials and imagery we don’t perceive the dangers inherent in the materials used to create them. Some of the responsibility for its’ hidden aspects is with those bodies funding the visual arts. Many are petroleum (Mobil-Exxon and Getty), chemical (Dow) and governmental sources. (Art and Creative Materials Institute [ACMI] and the NEA)

The group Art and Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) is a non-profit trade certifying association of manufacturers of art materials in the U.S. They are responsible for labeling and monitoring art paints and materials for their safety. Simply, they are largely sponsored by "in house" industrial representatives.

Most art material manufacturing companies provide MSDS's on their websites. It ‘s revealing to go to the manufacturer websites of visual arts supplies and read through their safety data sheets. As one example the following is quoted from Windsor Newton’s site on the commonly used Flake White oil paint:

“USAGE PRECAUTIONS: Avoid spilling, skin and eye contact. Wear full protective clothing for prolonged exposure and/or high concentrations. Pregnant or breast feeding women must not handle this product.
STORAGE PRECAUTIONS: Keep in cool, dry, ventilated storage and closed containers.
STORAGE CRITERIA: Misc. hazardous material storage.
INHALATION: Harmful by inhalation. Harmful: danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure through inhalation.
INGESTION: Harmful if swallowed. Harmful: possible risk of irreversible effects if swallowed.
SKIN: Product has a defatting effect on skin.
EYES: Irritating to eyes.
HEALTH WARNINGS: Swallowing concentrated chemical may cause severe internal injury.
OTHER HEALTH EFFECTS: Toxic to Reproductive Health, Carcinogen Category 3.
ROUTE OF ENTRY: Inhalation. Ingestion.” [skin absorption.]
MEDICAL SYMPTOMS: Upper respiratory irritation. Nausea, vomiting. Allergic rash.
MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Skin disorders and allergies.”

Not to single out Windsor & Newton nor Flake White more information on toxicity in oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc. paints can be found by requesting a Material Data Safety Sheet (MSDS) from individual manufacturers. They are by law to be readily available to the public. Some are, others, like Crayola require jumping though hoops to acquire. Here are a few links to some of the larger manufacturer’s MSDS that are easily accessible:
Utrecht: http://www.utrechtart.com/MSDS/
Rembrandt: http://www.winsornewton.com/resource-centre/health-safety-data-information/
Liquitex: http://www.liquitex.com/health safety/msds.cfm
Holbein: http://www.holbeinhk.com/healthnsafety.html
Windsor Newton: http://www.winsornewton.com/resource-centre/health-safety-data-information/

Contacting Grumbacher (Chartpak) by email, I received instructions to navigate their website to get individual color. With Alizirin Crimson the warning; “This product contains lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” with no first aid suggestions listed.

The cobalt, chrome, manganese and barium colors are toxic as are most commercial terpentine, fixative, varnish, plastic/acrylic, and preservative, ie. formaldehyde. Many manufacturers and retailers use the term organic in describing their art products based on that they are derived from an organic compound. This is not the typical garden variety organic. Arsenic, lead and cyanide are organic compounds.

Some of the more common colors from the City of Tucson, AZ Environmental Services Department’s website http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/art hazards/paint1.html that have hazardous warnings (keep in mind that materials exposed to the skin are ingested):

- Manganese Blue; ingestion and inhalation is categorised as possibly highly toxic.
- Prussian Blue is moderately toxic when ingested and produces extremely toxic hydrogen cyanide gas if heated or treated with acid or ultraviolet radiation.
- Burnt Umber is moderately toxic when ingested and possibly highly toxic when inhaled.
- Chrome Green is Highly toxic if ingested and extremely toxic when inhaled. It is a known carcinogen; DO NOT USE.
- Cadmium Barium Orange and Cadmium Orange are both highly toxic when inhaled and are probable carcinogens
- Alizarin Crimson may cause some allergies
- Cadmium Red is highly toxic when inhaled and slightly toxic when ingested. It is a probable carcinogen.
- Vermillion is extremely toxic when ingested and highly toxic when inhaled, it can cause skin allergies and it forms hydrogen sulfide in combination with stomach acid; most vermilion today is a mixture of less toxic organic pigments.
- Cobalt Violet is highly toxic ingested or inhaled.
- Cadmium Yellow is a possible chronic hazard and a probable carcinogen.

Many colors on their website are listed as having no significant hazards, some colors are listed as having unknown effects and that long-term hazards are unknown.

Health conditions from skin rash and burning eyes to cancers, respiratory, immunological, nervous, cardiovascular and circulatory, genitary and digestive diseases could be sourced to using these materials. There needs to be more funding to exploring these possibilities. With the warning of not to be used by pregnant and nursing mothers the question arises; at what level is this warned toxicity effecting the rest of us and domestic and wildlife?

Listed below are a group of pigments that have “no significant hazards”. These also are provided by the City of Tucson, AZ and Their Environmental Services Department “Health & Safety in the Arts, A Searchable Database of Health & Safety Information for Artists” website.

Charcoal Black
Bone Black
Graphite Black/Stove Black Pigment Black #10
Mars Black
Phthalocyanine Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Burnt Sienna
Sepia
Van Dyke Brown
Green Earth #23
Phthalocyanine Green
Ultramarine Green #24
Mars Orange Pigment Red #101
Indian red (red iron oxide)
Ultramarine Red Pigment Violet #15
Mars Violet Pigment Red #101
Ultramarine Violet Pigment Violet #15
White Pigment White #24
White Pigment White #18
White Pigment White #23
Titanium White White #6
Mars Yellow
Ochre
Raw Sienna
Sienna
Yellow Ochre
Yellow Iron Oxide Pigment Yellow #42, #43
Metallic Gold Pigment Metal #3
Metallic Silver


Artistsfoundation.org has more information on hazards in their Occupational Health Care Hazards for Artists, and take look at Square Feet Chicago's "Safe and Healthy Spaces".

What happens to our environment when a manufacturing plant produces large quantities of paints using toxic materials? The EPA is responsible for this. How is it regulated? I’ve written and called the EPA in the past for any information they could send me and have not received any response. Perhaps if more write and call the Environmental Protection Agency and ask them what there regulations are and how are they regulating and enforcing the industries more accountability will be made available. Environmental Protection Agency Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460 (202) 272-0167 TTY (speech- and hearing-impaired) (202) 272-0165

How many artists, art students, children, pregnant and nursing mothers and hobbyists are using the necessary precautions when handling the materials; ventilation. ventilators, effective masks, gloves, long sleave shirts, etc.? Once the painting is finished and placed in the living room, kitchen, cafe, outdoor public facility, gallery or museum, what is the air and ground quality produced by VOCs/off gases and the toxic pigments themselves, immediate and accumulative?

Sustainable solutions are at our fingertips. A look at the alternatives with painting mediums that do not create a toxic body or environment shows egg tempera, casein (for the lactose intolerant casein is milk based), water, beeswax mediums and organic linseed and flax oils. Each, or a combination of these can be used without toxic pigments, petrochemicals (petroleum based varnishes, acrylics, fixatives), heavy metals (cadmium, barium, etc.), formaldehyde and other preservatives that are in common use with many paints.

There are many books and websites with recipes for making oil, watercolor, casein, egg tempera and beeswax or encaustic paints. Using pigments with no significant hazards, natural resins, varnishes and etc. in these recipes is not difficult. It adds even more integrity to the essence of the work!

A good recipe for making or manufacturing a relatively safe oil paint can be found at The Earth Pigments Company website http://www.earthpigments.com/art/artists-oil-paints.cfm#basic
The Earth Pigments Company offers other recipes:
Egg tempera http://www.earthpigments.com/art/artists-egg-tempera.cfm
Casein (milk base) http://www.earthpigments.com/art/artists-casein.cfm
Watercolor and gouache http://www.earthpigments.com/art/artists-watercolor-and-gouache.cfm
Encaustic (beeswax) http://www.earthpigments.com/art/artists-encaustic.cfm
There are other sources for paint recipes. Ralph Mayer’s “Artist Handbook of Materials and Techniques” is a standard.

Sculptors can work with clay/earth/stone, wood, metal, fire, water, air and/or ether to create work used in an environmental and personal healthy considerate way.

True sustainability is in question with our using toxic recyclables, ie., automobile tires, plastics/pcb based, acrylics, polyvinyls, concrete, etc. and certain metals to create art. Is the idea of keeping and working with these materials justifiable in creating a cleaner environment and healthy populations of humans and wildlife? Is creating works of art with toxic materials to make a statement about the condition of the declining environment practical and sensible? Are sources for sustainable art supplies a personal objective determined on how sustainable one can integrate our lives, or is there such a thing as purity regarding non hazardous materials?

There’s been exciting activity in the last 30 or more years with artists applying the natural world to create artistic statements. Websites to view what is going on in environmental art, sustainable art and green art with many artists and healthy approaches as examples are:
Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts - www.sustainablepractice.org/
ecoartspace - http://www.ecoartspace.org/
Green Arts Web -http://www.greenarts.org/
greenmuseum.org - http://www.greenmuseum.org/
Morning Earth - http://www.morning-earth.org

I have used beeswax alone on Phragmites australis, an “invasive” grass, panels I constructed and beeswax with various colored “dirt” (ochres and granites). A crayon of beeswax and natural pigment has been a favorite of mine for years that is manufactured by the Stockmar Company (nci) in Germany. These waxes/crayons are color fast (the colors are tested to last 100 years), the carefully selected pigments are food container safe. They can be used room temperature or heated to liquid. This form of painting/drawing is free of turpentine, processed oils, petrochemicals/plastics, or, any toxic metals/chemicals. My next phase will be mixing some of the previous mentioned pigments with beeswax. I prefer to use only pigment and beeswax without hardeners as part of my statement with my artwork. I consider this to be speaking to the process symbolising the transience of life and the ideal of non attachment to the material world similar to ideas expressed in Buddhist, Native American, Australian Aborigine and other traditional world cultures’ sand painting. Check out what I’m up to at www.greenartstudio.com and www.gregpatch.blogspot.com.

Previous Artist Statement

Currently living on the shore of Topsail, a barrier island in North Carolina, Greg Patch is an artist and a traditional herbalist whose paintings portray the earth, the unconscious and the one-ness of all life. His commitment to restoring the planet and its supported life to its natural balance is reflected in his work with individuals as a natural healer, in the environmental themes of his artwork, and in the non toxic medium which is integral to the meaning of the finished work.
 
The colorfast “beeswax colors” Greg uses are made in Germany. The carefully selected food container safe pigments are based on Goethe’s color wheel. They are free of turpentine, processed oils, petro chemicals or toxic substances like cadmium, chromium, "thalos", lead, preservatives or fungicides that are found in most oil, acrylic, encaustic, watercolor and guache mediums and pigments. Beeswax as a medium intensifies the clarity, richness and integrity of color, line and form. Beeswax and pigment has been used since prehistoric times.   Greg’s painting is a means of meditation for him and a vehicle for contemplation for us. It is a literal expression of “being in” nature.
 
“There is a wave in the landscape,” he explains, “where the movement is behind our eyes and before our eyes in lines, shapes, forms and color. It is in our memories and in the memories of all there is, and contains the symbols of a universal language that lay deep within our collective unconscious. I have seen these symbols in my paintings during and often after creating them.
 
“My paintings move with the forces of nature - the streams, mountains, astrology, technology, thoughts, yoga, actions, energy, self, lunch – and culminate in the realization that everything is the wave.
 
“I believe that nature calls to each of us to step out of ourselves and into it, to identify and revel within it, amid the waves. Doing this can transform our awareness into an energy greater than our own understanding.”
 
Greg received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He studied at the Munson-Williams Proctor Institute School of Art in Utica, NY, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the College of Artesia in Artesia, New Mexico, and did graduate work at the State University of New York in Albany. He apprenticed with steel sculptor Willard Boepple (Utica Boatworks) and Bob Schuler (Tethys Project, High Falls, NY}. Greg has also been a student, teacher and practitioner of herbal medicine for 25 years.