Can ET freeze?

[sabine]

Hi :-)

Winter is finally beginning down here, and my workplace is kind of cold... I'm planning to install a radiateur (?) but meanwhile I'm worried of the effects of cold on tempera, paintings and gessoed panels...

Could you tell me if I should be worried and what can be done?

Sabine

[RobM]

Sabine,
I store oldish paintings in the roof space of my garage, which is also very dark. It gets pretty cold out there but no adverse effects on either the paint or the panels.
The only thing I would watch out for is dampness. I have had a couple of paintings growing mold whilst in the garage.
Personally, I would be a little worried, not so much about the cold but the damp European November days we have. It will be the panels that will suffer most.
Get a radiator just to keep the dampness away.
Rob

[sabine]

The radiator is on its way, but I thought if it froze something some kind of reaction could damage the paint or the glue...

Thank you for your answer!

Sabine

[Alessandra Kelley]

Do you mean on wet tempera? It seems to me paint before it dries reacts differently than dry paint to freezing temperatures.

I know they say never to let wet acrylic paint freeze -- it messes up the emulsion or something. But since you can freeze egg yolks, maybe tempera is not so susceptible?

[JanMoore]

Regarding freezing wet ET, this has been my experience:

When I place my mixed paint in the refrigerator while I'm away from painting, the paint sometimes freezes. (It's an old refrigerator and the temperature is not well controlled.) When I take the palatte out, there are ice crystals in the paint which melt in a short time. However, with some pigments the particles have clumped and the paint has become grainy. This is particularly the case with Burnt Umber.

You can try a sample of each pigment to see what the effect is. I wouldn't recommend freezing it solid.

[sabine]

Alexandra,

I meant both wet paint and finished paintings - though tempera doesn't remain wet very long?? And I plan to use an electric radiator if the temperature goes very cold before my real radiator is there...

Jan, thank you for your experience, taht can be useful to know