Wine on Paper 9.10.2010

Wine and Arts

It is said that wine was used by artists in the ancient times.

It was and it is still used to dye wood in many different cultures. Due to its monochrome limit, the interest in developing its technique and going deeply into its use as an artistic painting method died out. New methods and new materials to be used in painting have arisen over the last centuries causing a constant development in Fine Arts.
Technically speaking, to blur the drop of wine is much more complex because the wine is liquid pigment, whereas in watercolour the water never mixes completely with the pigment. The molecules of the pigment in the watercolour always remain separate from the water, that is why when drying, it can still change and it becomes more flexible when it blurs on paper. When the water evaporates, the pigment of the watercolour continues on paper letting some changes happen in the last minute.
Wine behaves in a totally different way, it is not flexible because when it is absorbed, it impregnates in such a way that it filters the paper; so it becomes impossible to blur after being applied on the surface, as it is dry.

The only way to blur wine on paper is by using a young white wine

without the presence of too much colour. When both wines (red and wine) mix, the white wine moistens the surface, being necassary to pour out the suitable quantity of red wine on the wet area, leaving the impression of the colour degraded.

Wine continues evolving on the paper,

oxidizes and changes gradually until it gets a strong and expressive sepia colour. Wine can also be used in painting by reducing it at very high temperature or letting it evaporate to apply the pigment in a pure and concentrated state. This technique that uses natural wine is essential for the artist to get used to working with this new element.

Luis Mario Casanova Sorolla studied watercolour techniques with wine for several years to gain this insight, knowledge and virtuosity.