Looking around my studio for a spare panel on which to do a few tiny alla prima floral studies, I found an unidentified surface that was delightfully eggshell smooth. It was a small sample I had picked up from Artefex that I later discovered it to be their Tempanel, designed for egg tempera painting. The support is made from a sheet of Aluminum Composite Material (ACM) which is then primed with an absorbent polymer emulsion ground. Oil painting and egg tempera painting are both compatible in many ways, and artists throughout history have used egg tempera exclusively for painting, or as an underpainting layer in oils, or even used the yolk to modify the properties of oil paint. As long as an artist understands the different properties of working on a tempera ground, the surface is fantastic for altering the way the typical oil paint handles.
Since the panel is very absorbent, I needed to account for that while I worked. The Tempanel surface feels similar to traditional gesso or sandable hard gesso (acrylic dispersion ground). Many instructors will advise to seal a traditional surface to cut down on the absorbency, but the tempera ground provides gentle enough resistance to the oil that opaque paint remains workable for a reasonable time.
To paint on an absorbent ground you must work decisively, something akin to painting with acrylics. Your brush strokes will feel shorter and the panel tends to “grab” the paint off the brush quickly. I typically start with an initial wash on a white surface, to tone down the white of the ground, with a few minutes to fine-tune the look of it, as the thin wash sets up. I am able to modify the paint for a few hours after with some OMS and elbow grease, but with a careful hand, it will feel “touch dry” (although, as oil paint, it is NOT actually dry).
On tempera ground, the oil in the paint will sink in and its open working time is shorter. The drying of the paint isn’t as instantaneous as when you work in egg tempera, but the oil brushstrokes can go down haltingly in a way that is similar to egg tempera. You may be tempted to start dipping your brush into your solvent to get the paint to “flow” better, but this would be decreasing the binder in your paint layer on an already thirsty surface. I recommend adding more linseed oil to increase the work-ability of the paint, just keep in mind that too much oil can lead to other problems. I created these little paintings in a single layer over the course of a day, alla prima, so I didn’t need to worry about drying times or “fat over lean” business. For paintings that use more layers, being conscious of your oil content, using stiffer brushes to start, and building up slowly in layers will help prevent overloading the paint film with too much oil.
Most oil painters prefer the paint due to its delayed drying time and workability. If you work mostly in oil paint on slick lead-primed linen canvases, slipping and sliding around with expensive sable brushes, you might find the Tempanel frustrating at first. But that frustration only comes down to expectations. I believe the absorbent nature of the Tempanel can yield some really astoundingly sharp details not easily found with oil paint (especially alla prima) on more typical surfaces and supports.
