tdn
September 30, 2005, 5:13pm
1
Several weeks back, I stared a CS thread about painting. Green Bean was kind enough to post this link to a site that has tips on painting. It’s a fabulous site. It cuts right through the BS and tells the facts. There’s one bit I want to share with you, because it was laugh-out-loud educational.
The author is talking about how to buy paints, and how to separate the facts from the hype. He says:
Here is the tout from the Daniel Smith Summer 2004 mail catalog for a paint made of crushed turquoise mining scrap:
“Many cultures thought an amulet [of turquoise] worn on a horse’s bridle protected the horse and rider from a fall. The legends are many. The magic is yours to own. … The mystic beauty of turquoise has been felt by every culture and its use has crossed national and cultural boundaries. Paint with DANIEL SMITH Natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine and catch a piece of its rich and colorful history for yourself. Prepare to be captivated.”
Set aside the suggestion that you might be painting while riding a horse, and focus on the proposition that you catch a piece of rich and colorful history by purchasing and using a tube of paint. (You might ask yourself … how big a piece of rich and colorful history does fit into a tube of paint?) Yet this kind of marketing gibberish actually works . People buy these paints not because they want to obtain a specific pigment, but because they covet protection, legend, magic, mysticism, tradition, colorful history or captivation … in short, because they seek a spiritual experience. For these amateur artists, wearing an amulet or choosing a paint are pretty much the same thing.
Don’t misunderstand: Daniel Smith does disclose the gritty, granulating, often dull visual qualities of these “pigments” (which are actually mineral complexes containing several different colored substances in variable proportions), and Daniel Smith does offer a “prompt refund, replacement or exchange” to the buyers who discover that crushed rock is not really what they are looking for. Yet mystic beauty and magic clearly appeal to the part of a painter’s heart that has little to do with buying products wisely.
Italics and bolding in original.
We need more people like this!