Paint

Did you know that a new car can be completely painted in four hours? Well, that's nowadays. This documentary takes us back 30,000 years ago to cave paintings, then the early Mesopotamians used bitumen and other pigments before the Egyptians covered their walls with stories and images. They were also first to use clay pots and various soft desert stones that they could grind down and mix with water for a beautiful array of colours to paint onto dry plaster. It's not long before people can paint onto wet plaster - frescoes used beeswax (fresh from use on their war galleys!). 1,000 years later, this skips now to painted and printed iconographies and manuscripts; the intricate decoration of churches and palaces. More detailed portraiture emerges and egg yolk starts to be incorporated into the paint. Then linseed oil is used to make varnish for preservative purposes. Oil painting comes to prominence in the 15th century using the recently discovered turpentine to thin the paint and offer more atmospheric artistic expression. Until now, artists made their own paints from ingredients usually bought from the apothecary! Expensive stuff! By the 17th century, the production had been more industrialised and what we have today is a chemically enhanced development of these original processes only now we no longer use natural elements such as cochineal or berries. The narration here is really lacklustre but as an history of art (rather than just paint) it offers us quite an interesting chronology of just how a simple, hand made procedure has become something crucial in construction, preservation and is a major employer worldwide.