Your Letters… Letter of the month
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SNAP DECISIONS Re: On Digital Selection, Columnist, Issue 312 I am a painter, not a framer or photographer. Up until now it has been generally accepted that frame making is a specialist skill yet I feel that there is increasing pressure on painters to invest in photography in order to sell their work. A good digital camera is expensive, but once you’ve bought it you need to have a whole other set of skills in order to make best use of it. It’s not that I’m against the technology but neither can I afford the expense of a professional photographer to do the job for me. I generally submit a digital image of a painting to a client ahead of delivery of
the actual work, mainly to ensure they like what I have done. Once I’ve seen it on screen, I am often tempted to ‘enhance’ areas that don’t look right. It leads me to wonder: how true to the original work are online submissions
anyway? I’m reminded of online dating services where the person who turns up for the face-to-face meeting isn’t quite as the other had been led to expect. How far removed are we from the point when the digital submission becomes
the work itself? We already have David Hockney exhibiting digital images at the Royal Academy. Does this make competitions based on working in one particular medium more or less obsolete? Anita Ives, Blackheath, London
You’ve raised some really interesting points, Anita. It’s interesting you mention the expense of photography, as many major art competitions have switched to digital entries this year, precisely to help artists save on the costs of delivering work. How do other readers feel about this switch?
A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE Re: Private Passions, Issue 312 I just wanted to say how lovely I found the Private Passions article in the current edition of Artists & Illustrators. I was delighted to see my work (below left) in the same piece as artists such as Rembrandt, Velazquez and Freud! It really is hugely appreciated. I was also very taken with
the work of the cover artist, Anne Middleton. She could have gone down a very sweet and decorative route, but I thought that those fantastic dramatic colours and the beautiful organic shapes made for something rather unusual and captivating. Leanne Rutter, via email
THE DANGERS OF CADMIUM Re: Non-Toxic Painting, Issue 312 I’m sure many readers will have been alarmed at Leah Mebane’s claims that toxins such as cadmium
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can be “absorbed into the bloodstream” if “colours containing these elements touch your bare skin”. In fact, Mebane’s advice seems to directly
contradict the information provided by paint manufacturers: for example, Chroma state that cadmium “cannot penetrate the skin” and “modern cadmium pigments use a coating technology which ‘locks in’ the harmful pigment particles, and renders them relatively inert and harmless.” I just checked my own paint drawer and the
cadmium paints from Winsor & Newton and Daler & Rowney have the Art & Creative Materials Institute’s Approved Product (AP) ‘non-toxic’ seal. I hope you will be able to clarify these matters. Rodger Kibble, Brighton
Thanks for flagging this up, Rodger. The text should have stated that only some of the elements listed could cause harm in this way and, as you rightly say, modern “coated” cadmium pigments are deemed safe to use. However, some uncoated elements (such as the lead found in Flake White) can still be absorbed into the blood through contact with skin. If in doubt, all major paint manufacturers carry extensive safety information on their websites and they will be happy to clarify queries if you call them.
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WITH THANKS TO Hashim Akib, Nick Bashall, Leon Csernohlavek, Siân Dudley, Jane Dwight, Neil Hall, Paul Hurst, Gareth Iwan Jones, Scott Pohlschmidt, Chris Rigby, Jessica Tooze, Bren Unwin, Andy Vaines, Jenny White, Ann Witheridge and Alice Wright
COVER IMAGE Rolf Harris. Photo: Leon Csernohlavek
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