Golden Artist Colors

Industry Arts and crafts
Predecessor Bocour Artist Colors (unofficially)
Founded 1980
Founder Sam Golden
Headquarters New Berlin, New York
Key people
 Adele, Mark, and Barbara Golden and partner Chuck Kelly
Products Artist materials
Website Official website

Golden Artist Colors, or simply GOLDEN, is a manufacturing company that focuses almost entirely on paints used in fine art, decoration, and crafts. Based in New Berlin, New York, the company produces the largest line of acrylic colors that is currently available to artists, including recreations of historic pigments. Golden also manufactures and distributes the Williamsburg line of handmade artists' oil paints, and the Proceeed Professional Decorative Painting System, a line of acrylic paints and mediums for architectural painting.

Golden Artist Colors has collaborated with artists on significant mural projects, including: the Michlalah murals in Jerusalem by Archie Rand, Venus by Knox Martin, and indoor murals by Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein.[1]

History

During the 1930s, Sam Golden joined his uncle Leonard Bocour, forming a partnership in the paint company Bocour Artist Colors. They produced hand-ground oil colors for artists and they called their oil paint tubes and jars Bellini. Their store in Manhattan became a hangout for artists through the early 1950s. Artists such as Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Knox Martin[2] and Jack Levine would get paint there and visit with Golden and Bocour (also a painter).

Between 1946 and 1949, and after a process of experimentation, the first artist acrylic paint was ready for sale (it was mineral spirit- and turpentine-soluble), called Magna. One of the first artists to use Magna paint was Morris Louis. Eventually, Bocour Artist Colors developed a water-soluble version of acrylic paint called Aquatec.

In June 1980, ten years after Sam Golden retired from the Bocour Artist Colors company, he founded Golden Artist Colors, Inc. with his wife Adele, son Mark, daughter-in-law Barbara Golden and partner Chuck Kelly. They began making paint in a 900-square-foot (84 m2), renovated barn in upstate New York.

The company received many awards including the 1991 Business Arts Award by the Chenango County Chamber of Commerce and the Council of the Arts. Mark Golden received the 1996 Small Business Person of the Year from the US Small Business Administration, Golden Artist Colors was featured on the NBC Nightly News as a successful small business. In 1998, Mark Golden was selected by Fortune Magazine to appear in its video series on small business.

When Sam Golden died at age 82 in 1997, he left behind a long legacy of participation in the creative process of artists and their materials. The Golden company added 31,000 square feet (2,900 m2) to its manufacturing facility in 1997 and took down the "old barn", replacing it with state-of-the-art technical laboratories and paint manufacturing equipment. The company laboratories are actively developing new innovations to make their acrylic paint increasingly durable and sophisticated. In the 21st century, they developed new colors, new mediums, new slow-drying paints and high chroma fluid products.

Products

Acrylic paints

Orderly rows of paints and mediums rest on a table.
A selection of Golden Artist Colors' products.

Golden manufactures the largest range of colors currently available for artists. Most of its acrylic paints are available in "Heavy Body" and "Fluid" mixtures. A variety of mediums are available to alter the viscosity, drying time, sheen, and other material properties of the paint.

Thus, as of 2015, Golden offered four different color formulations for its acrylic paints, as well as different mediums and grounds.

With the release of the High Flow acrylic line, Golden encouraged its use in different-sized markers by offering empty markers as a set.[4]

"Open" acrylic colors and mediums

In 2007, Golden began marketing a line of newly developed acrylic paints, called the Open Acrylic Painting System. These specially-formulated paints have increased drying and working time. The system is intended to give acrylic painters access to the wet in wet painting techniques of oil painters. While Open colors and mediums dry slowly, they still dry far more quickly than traditional oil paints and mediums.

Handmade oil colors

On May 21, 2010, Golden Artist Colors, Inc. acquired Williamsburg Oil Colors, relocating the staff and paint-making equipment from East Meredith, New York, to the Golden facility in New Berlin. According to Mark Golden, "there was no question that eventually we would make oil colors here. In fact, for over 20 years we have been making custom oil paints for artists requiring unique colors or materials."

QoR watercolors

In April 2014, Golden announced a line of "modern" watercolors that use a special binder of Aquazol®, something previously used in conservation. The paints would begin to be sold in May. The technical acronym "QoR" means "Quality of Results". When using related grounds and mediums released by the company, the new paint line is said to offer benefits like maintaining color when dry and having a higher density of color.[5][6] Initially offering 83 colors and four different color sets,[5] the price for the smaller 11 mL tubes of paint was more than for 15 mL of paint from other brands. In July 2014, QoR® Synthetic Ox Gall was recalled for safety reasons because of an excess of a preservative.[7] By October 2014, the line had expanded to 91 colors.[8]

Mediums and Gels

The company offers a number of mediums, glazes, gels and additives with properties that affect the acrylic when they are mixed. The pigment load can be reduced or the final gloss can be more matte or more glossy.

Gessoes and grounds

Golden gessoes and grounds provide sizing and surface options for acrylic and oil painters. Acrylic gesso is produced in high-load black and white versions. Golden also produces grounds for pastel and silverpoint drawing, and an absorbent acrylic ground for watercolor painting and staining effects.

Varnishes

Golden produces two lines of "final picture" varnishes: polymer varnishes with ultraviolet light blocking properties are made for use with acrylic paints; mineral spirit acrylic (MSA) varnishes are made for use with both acrylic and oil paints.

Customized products

In addition to its regular line of artists' materials, Golden also produces custom products for painters, some of which become available to the general public. These currently include extra high pigment load (High Load) acrylic paints, paste paints, a variety of specialized mediums and additives, stop-out varnish for etching, hard MSA varnish, and mineral spirit borne acrylic colors for conservators.

References

  1. ↑ "Mural Paints: Current and Future Formulations" by MARK GOLDEN, 2003, The Getty Conservation Institute
  2. ↑ Just Paint Newsletter #27
  3. ↑ "Golden Artist Colors, Inc. | High Flow". www.goldenpaints.com. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  4. ↑ "Golden Artist Colors, Inc. | GOLDEN Professional High Flow Acrylics Marker Set # 959". www.goldenpaints.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  5. 1 2 "Golden Artist Colors, Inc.". www.goldenpaints.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  6. ↑ "Qor Watercolor | About Us". www.qorcolors.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  7. ↑ "Qor Watercolor | Product Safety Recall - QoR® Synthetic Ox Gall". www.qorcolors.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  8. ↑ Ward, Peter (2014-10-03). "The Watercolour Log: New Watercolours from Golden". The Watercolour Log. Retrieved 2015-11-23.

External links

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