Thursday, March 6, 2008

Pentimento

Pentimento: a reappearance in a painting of a design which has been painted over.
One of my favorite words, (and a wonderful short story by author/ playwright, Lillian Hellman).
A somewhat romantic, mysterious phenomenon discovered in the works of many great master painters.

For a decorative painter it can be a nightmare. Imagine glazing a room and finishing the day with the satisfaction of a job well done, only to return the next morning to find what appears to be graffiti all over the walls. It happens very rarely, but if the walls have been written on with ink or permanent markers before they were primed and painted, many glazing liquids will bring such markings to the surface. After 22 years of decorative painting it's luckily only happened a couple of times to me. In both cases the walls were not primed with an oil or shellac based stain blocking primer. Yes, the latex varieties are easier to apply, and if the walls will not be glazed, the finish coats cover with no apparent bleed through. Glazing liquids, however, with their slow drying times can reactivate the inks and pull them to the surface.
If you are like me, relying on a painting crew to prep and base coat the walls properly, you may be up for an unexpected and unpleasant surprise.

Preventative measures:
Knowledge---
If you must draw on the walls, there are pencils.
Stains, permanent markers, ink, etc. must be primed with the proper primer.

Hopefully this will never happen to you. Today was my turn, Cheers!