{"id":2127,"date":"2023-02-04T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bykerwin.com\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2023-05-10T09:16:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T08:16:29","slug":"what-medium-and-materials-did-jackson-pollock-paint-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bykerwin.com\/what-medium-and-materials-did-jackson-pollock-paint-with\/","title":{"rendered":"What Medium and Materials did Jackson Pollock Paint With?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Jackson<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Medium AND Materials did Jackson Pollock Paint With?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

American painter Jackson Pollock is best known for his explosive \u201cdrip\u201d or \u201caction\u201d paintings, in which he would pour and throw paint over his canvases while they lay strewn over his studio floor. His paintings are mesmerising webs of layered and tangled paint that their viewer can almost lose themselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what material or medium did he used to create his striking paintings? Was there a certain type of paint he used that lent itself to being poured in this way? Below I discuss some of the different types of paints and materials that he used over the course of his career and throughout his signature drip painting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson Pollock used a variety of paint types to produce his famous \u2018drip\u2019 paintings; often combining multiple types of paint within a singular painting. Pollock also used various other materials within his artworks, including pebbles, sand, wire, cigarette butts, nails, coins, buttons, keys and even paint tube lids.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all he was doing was pouring layers of the stuff onto his canvases, though, why exactly did Jackson Pollock choose to use different types of paint?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jackson Pollock\u2019s paint preferences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The wide range of paints that Jackson Pollock created his drip paintings with included oil paint, resin-based synthetic enamel paint known as alkyd enamels, and various other commercial and industrial paints including household wall paint, aluminium paint and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that Pollock took a pragmatic approach to his choice of materials; often favouring large volumes of household wall paint due to its affordability (after all, he spent much of his career not being flush with cash) and fluidity. Duco, Devoe and Reynolds were said to be his favourite brands of household paint. He was also seemingly open to using whatever he could get his hands on and had available at the time. It was also likely that he used multiple types of paint alongside each other for artistic purposes, to produce interesting contrasts between the different finishes of the paint types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollock was never explicit about his exact types of paint used and why; instead often merely saying he liked using \u2018liquid\u2019 and \u2018flowing\u2019 paint. He is not thought to have painted, however, with acrylic paints, at least not in their conventional form and composition we see today, which were not invented until the 1950s (although today\u2019s acrylic paint may have been developed from some of the synthetic, resin-based paints he did use).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollock also sometimes experimented with sealing his paintings with \u2018Rivit\u2019 glue, or sometimes applying this to the canvas first, as a sort of primer before the paint went down. He was not thought to have varnished his paintings as such (which is sometimes seen as the reason why some of his paintings nowadays show signs of cracking on the surface).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also applied his paints using a wide range of tools and techniques, so it is likely that he developed an intuitive feel for the different qualities contained within each paint, and how to use each to convey the desired effect or emotion within the painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jackson Pollock with his paints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What other materials did Jackson Pollock use in his paintings?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Buried within the layers of paint, several of Jackson Pollock\u2019s drip paintings also contain items such as stones, pebbles, sand, cigarette butts, matches, metal meshed wire broken glass, string, nails, thumbtacks, buttons, coins, keys and even paint tube lids! This is a lesser-known feature of Pollock\u2019s paintings and adds to the chaotic effect of his creations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Fathom Five,<\/em> one of his first drip paintings from 1947, is one of the pieces to contain a large volume of industrial household items and other such junk. Quite how or why such items found their way into this painting remains up for speculation; they don\u2019t seem to add any explicit value or meaning to the finished result, and Pollock was never one for discussing any deep meaning to his paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other \u2013 more natural \u2013 materials that Pollock would occasionally incorporate between the layers of paint included sand, stones and pebbles. Perhaps these were deliberately used to convey a more earthly side to his works \u2013 again this is up for debate and only adds to the mystique surrounding his drip paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Number 29, 1950<\/em> was a painting in which he blended pebbles and sand with string, coiled and meshed wire, which were laid down first before being held in place by the layers of different paints layered over the top (interestingly, this piece was actually painted on glass, for the purpose of allowing a videographer to film the process from underneath<\/em> the painting; the incredible footage can be watched on YouTube<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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