Using House Paint - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists (2024)

john Stenger

Has anyone ever used Acrylic or Latex House paints like you buy at Home Depot, on a Canvas Painting? I am wondering how long that paint might hold up Color wise, or possibly even Flake off!

Charlies Mum Administrator (Maureen)

I haven’t, but I used house paint to prepare hardboard for oils… without problems!

I’d give it a try on something that wasn’t for anyone else … why not?

Acrylic should be ok … but I’m not a chemist!!

DMSS

I have read somewhere that latex house paint is not designed to last for many years, which is one reason why we have to repaint frequently. So, I don’t think it is archival, but you may not be concerned about that. Also, I think there are artists out there who use latex house paint. I think some of the abstract expressionists used house paint (maybe Pollock?), but I don’t know whether that was latex or oil.

--David

john Stenger

Yes Pollock used House Oil Paint, and that lasted, but I’m concerned about the latex! Like someone said, you have to paint your interiors every few years! So that means it probably will not hold up! It’s just that I’m interested in doing some Mop Painting, and it requires a lot of Liquid Acrylics, Like Golden’s, but they are $55.00 a container! …So I was looking for a possibly cheaper alternative.

Richard P

Have you thought about Student Grade Soft body/ink style paint?

System 3 have just introduced a new Fluid range which I’ve tried and works well:

https://www.londongraphics.co.uk/blog/what-is-system3-fluid-acrylic

john Stenger

Yes, I might try those if the price is OK! .. But the term, Student Grade, usually means not very long-lasting and less pigments! The more I research House paint, the more sure, I’m NOT going to use it! It’s just not intended to last more than 10 years! I think if I can’t use the Art Supply Fluid acrylics, I am going to thin my normal LUKAS acrylics, and just use them!

Richard P

You have to look at the pigments used. Student grade from a good company is fine as long as you avoid certain pigments, which are common in artist grade too such as Genuine Alizarin Crimson.

Dorrart

They use a lot of filler in house paint. Acrylic will work better than latex, latex forms a film that can peal off. I’ve done set building and used house paint. I would use acrylic enamel primaries, red, yellow and blue. Even then they were difficult to get adequate saturation for rich colors when blending.

I can’t speak too much to longevity of the house paints or enamels, but we would store some sets away in an unconditioned/unheated shed and use them maybe a year or two later with no deterioration.

As for blending colors with house paints, they get muddy easy. Mixes come out different than you might expect, with blue and yellow giving a grey instead of decent green for example. I would often have to supplement with cheap artist acrylics to get secondary colors. Even the enamel blends weren’t great, but better than saturated house paints (I’d get quarts of the enamels and gallons of saturated red, blue and green (I’d just use the enamels for yellow, house paint yellows were never saturated enough to mix).

You could look at saturated stage paints. They aren’t cheap ($50-100 per gallon), but they are cheaper than equal amounts of artist paints.

john Stenger

Yes, everything you mention, is what I’m afraid I will come up against, with House Paint! I don’t think they mix like Studio Acrylics do, either! Here’s a guy in California that originally gave me the Idea, He uses everything but the kitchen Sink! in his work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9q3WsAz_o

John humber

There are those pouring paints that they have now. Are they any cheaper? Would they be suitable?

I don’t mean to be rude here, truly, and perhaps some might accuse me of unprofessional practice but if you are concerned about cost, then it’s not going to have the same qualities as anything designed to be more permanent is it?

My view is that at the prices I sell my paintings for (£550 has been the highest so far), if the whole thing disintegrates after twenty-five years—which it won’t—then that’s a cost of around £20 per year or £1.66 per month. What a bargain!! And if, twenty-five years after I’m dead, Tate Modern should acquire one of my paintings then they have professional restorers to deal with such things. I buy the best quality materials that I can afford and get on with it—I’m painting for me, not for posterity.

john Stenger

If I could be sure it would hold up for even 15 years, I would not be concerned! But if it only lasts 5 or 6 there may be some angry clients! And worse yet, I sell through I.D’s and galleries! So when trouble comes within a short time! Not only will the client be after me! But possibly the Gallery it sold through as well! I have already decided to forget about the house paint, I am looking into possibly the pouring paints or mediums! or even a way to thin down my good acrylic paints! Also, to more explain the Problem, If you look at the video I posted in one of my replies, you can see why cost is an issue! We are talking about using large amounts of paint! That could run into the hundreds of dollars for just 1 Color alone if I use art paints Like GOLDEN Fluid Acrylics!

John humber

Love the rich textures man!

The house paints you say don’t last, are they the outdoor gloss kind? I’d have thought they would last well more than a decade indoors. After all, they’re intended for outdoor use and they last even with complete neglect and under constant weathering—which they won’t get in your paintings.

You’ve chosen to work in a very expensive manner. Have you tried approaching a paint company? I mean house/industrial rather than artist’s. Maybe they could give you some guidance.

john Stenger

I think that’s what I will have to do at this point! ..Thanks for you Input!

Dcam

Get a sample or two of whatever color in satin or eggshell (cheap) at the depot or Lowes paint dept. Use it to tint your gesso. Economical.

Pissed Off

Exterior acrylic/latex house paints are designed and manufactured to last decades in the harshest imaginable environments – rain, freezing temperatures, extremely high temperatures, snow, ice, etc. including high UV conditions associated with West or Southwest facing walls. It is doubtful, then, that a fine art painting on stretched canvas will show any signs of fading/deterioration when displayed as any other fine art indoors and protected from UV light.

One of the major differences between exterior and interior house paints is not so much longevity under adverse light conditions but how the painted surface reacts to/reflects light. Interior repainting is due to physical abuse of the surface (things rubbing against them, such as hands, furniture, critters, even washing) rather than exposure to sunlight.

Color matching done in the stores, today, rivals anything artist paint manufacturers do. Paint a bit of the color you want on a small surface, have it scanned at the paint counter, and in minutes you can have a gallon, or five gallons, of that color and it will be more fade resistant than any big name artist paint manufacturer.

Here’s the biggest downside: house paints do not mix like artists paints because house paints are not always made with the same pigments as an artist grade paint.

Primary use can also be a deciding factor – house paint is for protecting the surface on which it is applied. Not so much for artist’s paints.