The materials Ruud Antonius uses are of the highest quality. As opposed to the old masters the panels he paints on are not oak panels, or even in some cases in the old days, copper plate to achieve a stable carrier for the paint but in his case he has chosen MDF board which is coated thinly seven times with Gesso by spray gun and sanded down every time to achieve an extremely flat surface. To finish the board ready to paint on a last layer of acrylic paint is applied to give the smoothest result possible. These panels are imported from The Netherlands and made to the specific sizes Ruud needs. For paintings larger than 100cm X 100cm he uses Belgian portrait linen 13 dpi oil primed, stretched on aluminium profile for more stability.
The paints he has been using during his entire career are manufactured in Germany. Strictly speaking they are not entirely oil paints. The uniqueness of these paints stems in particular from the adoption of the old masters' practice of combining selected artists' oil with natural resin. Masters back in the days of the late Middle Ages were already using indigenous European resins, such as mastic from the Greek island of Chios and copal. Natural resins were also used to enhance colour brilliance and the impression of depth in Byzantine art during the first centuries A.D. The range of paint uses a broad and diverse scope of artists' oils, which it combines with the most suitable natural dammar resin from Palembang, Indonesia and thus dries more evenly from inside as a result of the largely self-compensating chemical and physical drying process: The increase in volume resulting from the chemical drying process which begins on the surface via oxygen uptake is largely compensated by the solvent content in the dammar solution which evaporates from inside.
The microscopic evaporation pores enable oxygen to penetrate more effectively into the inner layers, thus providing for more even drying of the surface and inner layers. This, in turn, reduces the danger of wrinkling and surface tension during the drying process.
The paints he has been using during his entire career are manufactured in Germany. Strictly speaking they are not entirely oil paints. The uniqueness of these paints stems in particular from the adoption of the old masters' practice of combining selected artists' oil with natural resin. Masters back in the days of the late Middle Ages were already using indigenous European resins, such as mastic from the Greek island of Chios and copal. Natural resins were also used to enhance colour brilliance and the impression of depth in Byzantine art during the first centuries A.D. The range of paint uses a broad and diverse scope of artists' oils, which it combines with the most suitable natural dammar resin from Palembang, Indonesia and thus dries more evenly from inside as a result of the largely self-compensating chemical and physical drying process: The increase in volume resulting from the chemical drying process which begins on the surface via oxygen uptake is largely compensated by the solvent content in the dammar solution which evaporates from inside.
The microscopic evaporation pores enable oxygen to penetrate more effectively into the inner layers, thus providing for more even drying of the surface and inner layers. This, in turn, reduces the danger of wrinkling and surface tension during the drying process.
