Color In Precision: Decoration Painting Fair "The Salon" In New York

Friederike Schulz is a successful decoration painter. A good decorative painter must also be familiar with the artist (paint) industry. That is why Friederike Schulz travels a lot, also abroad, to continue training and meet like-minded people. In the spring she not only visited the decoration painting trade fair "The Salon" in New York City, but also the paint manufacturer Golden Artist Colors in New Berlin / USA. Read her report here. And in the upcoming issues of Malerblatt, too, the Hamburg-based artist gives an insight into her work in an exclusive series.

Friederike Schulz

"The Salon" took place for the 22nd time in April this year. In 2017, New York City hosted the annual international meeting of decorative painters. A home game for the company "Golden Artist Colors" and its managing director (CEO) Mark Golden, who has supported this gathering almost from the beginning.

In 1980, Mark Golden and his then 67-year-old father founded the company in an old shed in the country. The two started with artist acrylic paints. The range was later expanded - to include gels and binders as well as special surface coatings, such as. B. high matt clear acrylic paints. Even today, the focus is still on the goal of producing high quality paints for artists. The proximity to the artists is therefore particularly important to Golden. For this purpose, studios are visited, discussions are held and material requirements are discussed. Mark Golden has maintained this close contact with the decorative painters at the "The Salon" trade fair for over 20 years. This enables the development of new product lines that are tailored to the needs of users. Over time, the product range from pure acrylic paint production to the production of the finest artist oil paints and materials for wall design has grown.

The company Golden Artist Colors is based in New Berlin in the state of New York. The former old shed was soon replaced by a newer, more modern building. The company now has around 200 employees who have been majority owners of the company since 2010. As soon as you enter the house, you wonder where there is a production facility for colors? Mark Golden explains: In order not to disturb the landscape, the entire production was moved to the "floor" and only the office space with the administration and the meeting rooms, as well as individual studio rooms are located on the ground floor.

A tour of the workshop shows how complex it is to manufacture high-quality colors. 14 huge tanks alone are filled with basic components that are required for the production of acrylic paint. In addition: acrylic paint is chemistry and many safety areas, protective clothing and fume cupboards are required. The dirty water from production is cleaned in an in-house system, reports Mark Golden proudly. Up to 66 percent of the water is reused. The contaminated rest must be disposed of properly, but the consumption of fresh water will be greatly reduced.

A lot of manual work

Much of the manufacturing is done by hand. The employees paint the individual labels with the original color in a drying room; after filling, they are glued to the tubes by hand. The special thing about it: Thanks to the color spread on the labels, the customer can immediately see the color and the opacity. Quality controls ensure the high quality in production. In the production of softgel (colorless, transparent, pasty coating), for example, the mass is checked visually during a slow pouring process. In addition, care is taken to ensure that no pigments contaminate the manufacturing process. The high standard of acrylic and oil colors is reflected in the fine pigmentation. The pigments are finely ground and go through several knife stages. With the first pigment dispersion the color intensity becomes visible: The liquid products offered in bottles (undiluted colors with a slightly liquid consistency) have the same opacity as the tube products. They are diluted with a special medium that gives the paint excellent spreadability.

To ensure the color stability of the individual products, the material is regularly sampled under the appropriate light. Every color is subjected to a metamerism test, which means a color balance in daylight and artificial light. 16 employees work on the development of the products at this location alone. In 2007 at "The Salon" in Utrecht, slow-drying acrylics were presented for the first time in Europe - longer-standing acrylic paints that are used in art and crafts. The long open time has advantages: For imitation painting of wood and marble e.g. B. you have similar design options as when working with oil paints but strong odors are avoided.

In dialogue with the customer

Artisans, artists and museums turn to the development department at Golden with their questions and requests. The company strives to do everything possible to find a feasible solution. For this purpose, the manufacturing process is run through as an example in the laboratory. Museums frequently ask questions about the color tones in artificial and daylight. Inquiries from artists and craftsmen, on the other hand, are usually more specific. The decorative painter Lucretia Moroni, for example, wanted to work on a large scale on glass with screen printing. She asked Golden for help, and a material was developed that met the requirements. Without these research processes, the execution of the order would probably have been questionable, but without the idea, the product might not be on the market yet. In the summer of 2017, Golden will be launching new products for large-scale wall design in the USA - glass bead textures, crackling agents, sandstone structures, mother-of-pearl colors. It is not currently planned to sell in Europe, but such a product range would certainly be interesting here in the specialist painting shops. Inquisitive people can find out next year from May 3rd to 6th in Leeuwarden at "The Salon" in the Netherlands. It is already exciting to see what Golden will bring with him on his trip to the Capital of Culture 2018.but such a product range would certainly be interesting here in the specialty shops. Inquisitive people can find out next year from May 3rd to 6th in Leeuwarden at "The Salon" in the Netherlands. It is already exciting to see what Golden will bring with him on his trip to the Capital of Culture 2018.but such a product range would certainly be interesting here in the specialty shops. Inquisitive people can find out next year from May 3rd to 6th in Leeuwarden at "The Salon" in the Netherlands. It is already exciting to see what Golden will bring with him on his trip to the Capital of Culture 2018.

practice plus

The Salon:

In 1996 a handful of decorative painters met for the first time in Quimiac / France to paint together. This gave rise to the idea of an international meeting for decorative painters. "The Salon" was born and has taken place annually in another country since then and is organized by one of the more than 250 members from over 20 countries.

The participation in “The Salon” is monitored by a jury, so that a high standard is always guaranteed. The event is open to the public and includes an extensive exhibition as well as a large area in which techniques are demonstrated live on site.

The organizers aim to preserve and continue using decorative wall design techniques.

Further information:

www.salonleeuwarden2018.com

www.goldenpaints.com