The End of an Era... And a Question

Everyone knows that lead can be bad for you. What most people don't know is that lead artists' paint, when properly handled, is fairly benign stuff. The oil that is the vehicle for the paint effectively isolates the lead carbonate, preventing almost all absorbtion. And, most artists I know take care to not ingest their paints.

However, because of the hysteria against this wonderful pigment, it is getting harder and harder to find good lead oil primer. Fortunately, I still have some stockpiled. But I am getting down to the end, and will have to find a new source. The various titanium/zinc substitutes simply do not handle quite the same way.

If we want to see a rebirth of traditional painting, we need to ensure that artists have access to traditional materials. If it comes down to it, I have some pure lead and am prepared to make my own lead carbonate and to grind it into paint. However, handling the unbound powdered pigment is far more hazardous than the paint that is produced in factories and comes already in oil.

I could make a primer from flake white, but that is not really as cost effective as getting a ready-made lead oil primer.

I am no luddite. I have recently switched from rabbit skin glue for my canvas sizing to PVA glue size, mostly because I have been convinced by the literature that pva is better resistant to changes in humidity, and thus stabler.

But they can take my lead paint away when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers (probably death induced by lead poisoning, nevermind the fact that the linotype operators of yore, who worked constantly in hot, crowded rooms with pots of molten lead were tops in the printing industry for longevity).

What annoys me even more is the fact that Naples Yellow is endangered for the same reason. Have you ever used Naples Yellow? It handles beautifully and has a great color. The color of the substitutes is fine, but the paint is never as short and buttery as the real deal.

In a related note: has anyone ever primed a large canvas and, while priming, decided that it still does not have enough tension (and the keys have already been driven in quite far)? I am thinking of taking two sides off the bars and stretching those. Is this daft? Has anyone done something like this? Is this a conservation nightmare waiting to happen?