Layer 02 · Section
The Ground
Chalk, glue and the layer everything else sits on.
A sample the width of a hair, set in resin and polished, holds the whole build order in view at once.
Photo: roberto carrafa / Pexels
A chalk-and-glue preparation, scraped back until it was smooth, then a thin toned priming over the top. It is rigid, it grows brittle with age, and it is bonded to something that moves. Most of what a viewer reads as damage begins in this layer rather than in the paint above it.
Entries in this section
04Chalk and glue
The white preparation, how thick it was laid, and why it is the layer that cups.
Ruth Callender · 4 minThe imprimatura
A thin toned layer over the white, and what it does to everything above it.
Ruth Callender · 2 minGround losses
When the ground goes, the paint goes with it. Filling and what filling commits you to.
Ruth Callender · 2 minReading the craquelure
Crack networks are diagnostic: age, support, ground thickness and past treatment all leave different patterns.
Anders Lem · 3 min