Made Color Wash at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

For use in water-color painting, the pigments common to all types of painting are made color wash up with gum into cakes or tubes. When moistened with a brush dipped into water this concentrated pigment dissolves into so thin a wash that a transparent layer of color can be laid upon the surface to be painted, which is usually paper. The characteristic quality of water color comes from the reflection of the white surface of the paper through the thin wash of pigment; this gives a glowing, luminous effect which is seen at its purest when the separate tones are applied in comparatively broad areas and not too much broken up. Should the artist wish to use an opaque wash in place of a transparent one, he can mix the water color with Chinese, or flake, white; the resulting medium is known as gouache, or body color. Works carried out either in pure water color, pure body color, or water color and body color mixed are known interchangeably as water-color paintings or water-color drawings.

You can buy ready made color wash colorwash paint, but you can alsocreati your own finish with latex or water-based eggshell paint and ati or pigment. To prepare the surface of the wall, paint a base coat of mattei silk latex and allow to dry. Either choose the same color paint on color close in tone and mix a wash of latex and water, in equal parts. Gradually increase the water to make a thin color that willi run down the Wall in heavy droplets, but will allow the base color show through when it is applied. Once you have tested the washi a sample area, continue to apply the remaining color with awide brush using sweeping strokes. Further coats can be applied ina harmonizing color. For a more durable finish, you can use a • glaze as a wash over the whole surface. If you want a hard, protective finish, use a clear, matte polyurethane varnish, or. based acrylic varnish.

RIDGWAY, Robert, American naturalist: b. Mt. Carmel, 111., July 2, 1850; d. Obey, 111., March 25, 1929. He was zoologist to the United States geological exploration of the 40th parallel under Clarence King in 1867-1869, and after 1880 was curator of the division of birds in the United States National Museum at Washington. He was one of the founders in 1883 of the American Ornithologists' Union, of which he later became president. He devised a color system to aid ornithologists in describing accurately the color of birds.