Francis Dennis Ramsay - Mediums & Technique

Mediums & Technique

Ramsay’s training included drawing, both in pencil and in china ink, as well as water colour. However, much of his time as a pupil of Annigoni involved oil tempera (or tempera grassa, i.e. egg-oil) – originally a 16th century technique which entails meticulous time consuming work and which was revived in Italy during the 1930s by Dr Nikolai Lokoff, an exiled Russian industrial chemist and amateur painter. With the egg acting as an emulsifier, the technique allows water to be mixed with the paint thereby enabling the production of ultra-fine subtle glazes. However, as the paint is not commercially available, the artist must mix his own colours using pigment powders, oil, varnish, egg yolk and a preservative; uniquely, Ramsay discovered that Scotch whisky is an excellent preservative for the egg in the oil tempera mix! The result is work of permanence and colours that seem to glow with clarity and vitality. For all but the largest pictures his oil tempera works are painted on wooden panels, usually prepared with a heavy-duty paper lining glued to the panel. The survival after 500 years of early Flemish paintings with all their glorious luminous quality bears testament to the permanence of oil tempera as a medium. The process also involves the production of a ‘cartoon’ in pencil which is then transferred to the panel.