I maintain a safe working environment in my art studio and all my students are taught health and safety in regards to choosing art materials from their first lesson.   This is partly why I prefer to start teaching a beginner over an experienced painter, they are responsive to learning from the start and do not want to skip over the all important lessons about how to choose art materials.


Many pigments and materials used in paintings are cumulative poisons.  The effect of small repeat doses of a poison are the same as if you receive a large dose because the body is not able to effectively rid it self of many of these poisons, so the artist needs to be aware of what they are using and know how to safely use materials and also know what to avoid using.

A painting is usually made of coloured pigment in a binding agent, in early days of painting this might have been vegetable gum, egg and oil as in egg tempera, or wax.

Artist Quality Oil Paint,
In recent centuries oil paint has been made by mixing pigment in a drying oil,usually linseed oil but this could be poppy seed, walnut, safflower, hemp seed or other oil that dries slowly though oxidation without discolouring too much to affect the colour of the pigment.

Fast drying oil paint is made by the addition of dryers, these are toxic.

Student grade oil paint is made with the addition of fillers, these distort the tone, colour and quality of the finished work but are usually safe, non toxic substances.

Water Soluble Oil Paint,  is achieved by the addition of toxic chemicals to make the oil soluble in water, I will not use these paints.

Watercolours are made with pigment bound in Gum Arabic.

Acrylics are pigment mixed in a synthetic resin base.

Special Effects are achieve by the addition of chemicals to create Suede and glaze effects.

Pastels are powdered pigment with just enough gum or resin to bind them together. The health risk is increased as there is a risk of inhalation poisoning from breathing fine powder dust, if you choose to use pastels.

In my next are lesson on line I will explain about the poisonous properties of some of these pigments and which ones to avoid using.