This topic has been on my mind for some time = True fresco must be made with fresh lime plaster - period. If this means a lot of people will be barred from "discovering" fresco - too bad. If this sounds elitist - too bad. It is the truth, here's why:A) Flat walls - only veneer plaster, applied by a skilled plasterer, using specialized tools, can achieve the perfectly flat walls worthy of polishing (so called "Venetian") or painting with a paint with an absolute matte finish (which is fresco). Even drywall contractors have to call in plasterers to achieve the "level 5" finish specified by architects. Nothing is more distracting than a wall with dipsey doodles,waves and semi gloss glints caused by acrylics. These defects only come to light when the final polish is applied, and or the final room lights are put on.
B) Sound & Ambience - A lime putty must absorb carbon dioxide from the air to cure, it should not be sealed for up to a year after plastering unless you use breathable sealer (beeswax or silicates). A plaster room has a unique air quality, a pure stillness. The fact that plaster absorbs ambient sound also adds to this subtle but noticeable effect. This creates the mood to observe a fresco.
C) Color - You may not always want vivid colors, but the transparent color effects are only possible using traditional wet plaster. This is the elusive "luminosity" so prized by the water colorists. Can you imagine painting a "watercolor" using acrylics, even if you are painting onto wet paper with acrylic paint, you will know how ridiculous an attempt this is - so why propose it for fresco? Call it something else. A "dry" fresco with acrylic paints is just that - an acrylic painting.
D) Sectioning - I am not the first to observe the problem of matching a days work to a previous days work. There are often very visble "seams" in dry work, compared with properly excecuted wet technique.
Real plaster is neither difficult, nor expensive. If you are a painter, the fact that you have to share your job with a plasterer should relieve stress. In just the same way if you are a race car driver, needing a mechanic. Did you know that veneer plaster is being used in most of the low cost housing projects in the U.S.A.? Real fresco is a team sport - that is a challenge for many, but the truth nevertheless.
Sorry for the mini-rant, I just had to get that out of the way. It is frustrating that I could spend years promoting fresco, and then have one the TV painters make a latex copy (and video, and book) - and the public says "I saw a fresco once, and was not that impressed."
