Canvas white pigment and calcium carbonate is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking. As lead-based paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex paint composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, bound with a thermo-plastic emulsion. Many artists have painted onto unprimed canvas, such as Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Noland, Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists and others. Staining acrylic paint into the fabric of cotton duck canvas was more benign and less
Omar Hassan (artist) Through’. Hassan collaborated with artist Helidon Xhixha to support Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRI) at an art event in Miami. Hassan graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 2010, and after several group and solo exhibitions, he was invited by Vittorio Sgarbi; curator of the Italian Pavilion, to exhibit at the 2011 54th Venice Biennale. In a series of paintings, Hassan performs a painting technique inspired by his boxing career. This involves dipping his boxing gloves into paint and punching onto a large canvas. He uses some classical references in his work, such as Nike taking off the