In searching for leaded items on Amazon yesterday (things being intentionally sold and marketed as containing lead) I learned Amazon is selling lead paint (leaded artists paints, specifically!) Please click through on this links (just click the images below) to these two products and help me change Amazon’s policies by submitting a review (that the product is toxic) and a complaint to Amazon that they should not be selling lead paint (of any kind!) in 2017.
Historians hypothesize that many of our most celebrated artist went insane (or blind or worse… read this article!) in large part because of their use of “Flake White” lead paint as a base for most of their paintings – combined with the typical habit of wetting the brush between applications by licking it. Why would any paint company subject artists to this potential hazard in 2017 (almost 2018!)???
These links are affiliate links so if (god forbid) you should buy one of these items after clicking on the link, Amazon will send me a small referral fee at no extra cost to you. And I will reiterate… PLEASE DO NOT BUY THESE PRODUCTS! (I’m just legally required to disclose that these are affiliate links!)
The two brands I have found so far that are selling leaded “Flake White” artist paint on Amazon are Windsor & Newton and Williamsburg Handmade Oil Paint. Please let me know if you find any others!
Thank you for reading,
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Mother of Lead Poisoned Children (who also happen to be artists!)
Windsor’s product post on Amazon:
Williamsburg’s product post on Amazon:
The reason artists use lead paint is for its properties that cannot be matched by synthetics. In fact the manufacturing of synthetic paints is worse for the environment then naturally occurring lead. At least 90% of paintings prior to the 1900’s used lead in the paint (dont bring your kids to any museums if your running with your logic). Gasoline was leaded for years, A few tubes of super expensive leaded paint isnt something to freak out over. You should first gain knowledge on the matter, wisdom, and then realize the extremity of getting rid of something used for over 2000 yrs isnt always good. Look at DDT, a complete ban led to malaria coming back and has killed millions over those following years. How would you feel if they banned something you loved because of hysteria?
The fact that my children have permanent brain damage from lead exposure is not hysteria. Thank you for commenting.
I have eliminated use of leaded white from my paint palette although I am told that figurative artists use it for skin tones because it has a translucent luminous quality. I wonder if this could be substituted by using titanium white and glazing over the skin tones with a translucent pigment with a bit of white mica powder added for “glow” . There is also a flake white substitute available on the market that I have not yet tried. Alas there is no clear substitute for cadmium based pigments – although the substitutes (hues) are bright when applied raw to a painting, they “die” quickly because they have no mixing power. For now I wear gloves, use linseed oil instead of solvents, paint alla prima (to reduce cracking), and do not eat in the studio. I wonder how protective a layer of vanish would be over the surface of leaded paintings: do old paintings cause residual lead exposure in the same way stained glass might?
Hi Melissa,
Yes – old paintings can chalk Lead and Cadmium dust. There is one child with a family that I helped where the child was poisoned by a deteriorating family heirloom painting. My suggestion is always to frame paintings behind air-tight glass whenever possible. That protects the owner long term and also protects the painting.
Have you read this interesting article? https://tamararubin.com/2017/11/artists/
Tamara
Thanks Tamara! The artist is the one who is responsible for creating great art, not the materials. Are metallic frames also potentially toxic for lead? I’ve got quite a bit of gilded moulding, all vintage. Are newer paintings that are varnished an immediate risk? Thanks
People like you are responsible for the long, slow decline of all the arts. This is exactly how the Dark Ages began.
Your alleged childrens’ lead exposure has nothing to do with the fact that Amazon carries a specific type of high-ticket artists’ paint which happens to contains lead. Your children have no business sucking paint out of a paint tube, whether it contains lead or not.
You cannot possibly be very old if you don’t remember that until very recently, the tubes in which we all got our toothpaste were made of elemental lead. You clearly did not share, as I did, in the standard practice of clenching fishing sinkers by biting them. That practice didn’t seem to do me any great damage, since my IQ was tested in high school at ~165. What’s yours?
It takes a great deal of lead, at very specific, very tender age ranges, to do any lasting damage to anyone’s brain. I’ve held lead-based solder in my mouth frequently for more than 45 years. I regularly cast solid-lead bullets from dentists’ lead XRay shield material and lead roof flashing, in both cases “dead” (elemental) lead.
The trick is minimizing lead exposure during those crucial time windows of development in which the brain may take up lead. We don’t need to eliminate lead from our environment (a silly task), we need to prevent the exposure.
And… that’s easy. Prevent your crawling infants from sucking the paint out of the tubes in which this particular type of paint is shipped.
That’s it. Easy task, huh? The onus is on YOU, though. You can’t just Karen out on this one, delegating the responsibility to someone else, you have to actually take personal action and not lay these paint tubes on the floor where your crawler can suck the paint out of them.
That’s the only possible route of exposure, after all. Artist paints don’t flake and crumble and fall into the carpet where your crawlers can get near them. Your kid is far more likely to come into contact with lead from the plumbing in your house or from some electronic junk you have lying around.
Please. Do your due research before you kneejerk. Don’t clank swords, threatening other peoples’ chosen lifestyles. If it ain’t screwin’ with your life, leave it the frick alone.
Or… if you want to be proactive, figure out why people use this particular type of paint in the first place and design an alternative… one that is so functional and so attractive that artists flock to your alternative instead of to the traditional products. Don’t just say “NO”, say “Do THIS INSTEAD…”. Otherwise, sooner or later you’ll feel the bite of consequence. I promise.
Oh. That’s funny! Do you know I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from NYU, TSOA? That my husband is a performing artist? My kids are performing artists? [I saw you just made a “sad face” comment on my public Facebook page post with my kids playing music – so I know you know that! LOL.] Did you know my mother was a visual artist / sculptor who studied with Peter Volkous? My son’s grandfather (Robert Colescott) has art in pretty much every major modern art museum in the world? My grandmother was a pianist and was Dave Brubeck’s mother’s star pupil? My father-in-law performed at Carnegie Hall? My eldest son has performed on the Jazz at Lincoln Center stage in an award winning performance that was talked about for years afterwards. Did you know I also am a sculptor and costume designer? I won prizes for my visual arts / mixed media pieces and costumes (when I was younger)? Did you know I have painted murals all over the outside of my house? I am a film director and producer? I am working on a museum exhibit that will be cross-disciplinary and presented by both art and science museums? Did you know I have given public talks as a guest lecturer at art museums, film festivals and in many theaters in the past decade? I AM an artist. All of the people in my family are artists too. [My grandfather’s NAME was ART and he painted and played the violin!] If “People like *me* are responsible for the long, slow decline of all the arts,” I think the arts might need more people like me lol! [To help keep that decline slowed down as much as possible!] The whole premise of your argument is blown out of the water with the first sentence! LOL!
Also – did you know that Lead exposure decreases mental judgment and causes frontal lobe impairments specifically? So that folks with Lead exposure are more like to be angry – aggressive – judgmental – rush-to-conclusions – etc.? Speaking without thinking first – that sort of thing? Maybe something to look into? I.Q. loss is just one possible impact. Aggressive, anti-social behavior is much more widely demonstrated.
T
I could spend a day refuting all of the incorrect statements in this comment (pretty much every single statement in the comment) – point by point… but it is not worth my time.
T
Clearly there are extremely personal views regarding the makeup of artists paint products. Would it be possible, while maintaining the artists’ rights to choose their medium, to address concern to making online buyers clearly (clearly) aware of the lead content in the paint? Also, include CONTAINS LEAD conspicuously on the front of the paint tube. Finally, and this is a question for discussion, is there a way to seal lead in paintings? A clear or final varnish?
The rights of the artist stand important. The people creating pewter tankards moved forward with a new metal technology keeping tin and therefore lead out of the pewter. Hat makers have moved into their own future avoiding the use of mercury. Consumers who paint their homes, inside or out, cannot buy the easy-glide leaded paints I personally remember from my childhood. Gasoline, generally unless it goes into an aircraft, is an unleaded product. The rights of the artist stand important. However, in the bigger picture, and for the reasons lead has been removed from most other consumer products, the rights of the artist are not paramount.
Would you let a 9 year old child take a pencil drawing class in an artist’s studio where lead paint is used (not at the same time)? We just had one, and I wonder if the benefits outweigh the risks in your opinion. Thanks!