Rozzie at Pisa. 1978. 610mm x 610mm Egg tempera.
Egg tempera is a water-based painting process that uses egg yolk to bind pigments to a vertical surface. The artist produces the paint by mixing finely ground pigment, water and diluted egg yolk.
Although an ancient painting tradition, it fell out of favour when oil painting was perfected in the 16th century. However, the process, which is labour intensive compared with oils, offers wonderful results which can’t be achieved by other mediums.
Traditionally, egg tempera is painted onto wooden panels which have been coated with multiple layers of gesso (a mixture of rabbit skin glue and whiting). The paint is applied thinly with small sable brushes. Every tone of colour has to be separately mixed, then applied and modulated in a cross-hatch technique. This gives it a satin finish and subtle colour variations which are unlike the deep saturated colours typical in oil paints. It takes up to a year for the paint to fully cure.