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
Artist of the Year Artist of the Year Artist of the Year is a television competition shown on the Sky Arts channel (formerly known as Artsworld and Sky Arts 1) which aims to find the best portrait/landscape painter every year. Through several rounds of regional competitions in different parts of the UK professional and amateur artists are challenged to produce a portrait/landscape of one of three famous sitters. The winning artist of each round, selected by three judges, advances to the semifinal and then to the final, which are filmed at the National Portrait Gallery. The winner receives a £10,000 commission to paint a