Cadmium Yellow Light | Matisse acrylic paint
Chemical Description: Cadmium zinc sulphide
Pigment Number: PY35
Lightfastness Rating: ASTM I
Pigment Opacity: Opaque
Paint Opacity: Opaque
Series 4
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Cadmium Yellow Light | Matisse acrylic paint
Cadmium Yellow became popular among artists in the mid-19th century; when it did, it was only natural to ask if the pigment could be tweaked, adjusted and re-formulated to give lighter and deeper shades. At the time, a popular colour was Zinc Yellow which had an ideal colour tone. But suffered from reliability problems. Chemists realized that the chemical similarities of the compounds meant they could be combined as a co-precipitate. In doing so, the zinc sulphide gained the reliability of the cadmium sulphide while the cadmium gained the pale yellow hue of the zinc sulphide.
It is a beautiful primrose-yellow colour that combines permanence with opacity. The zinc component makes this pale yellow slightly less lightfast than pure cadmium yellow, but it is still more permanent than most pigments dream of striving to be. The colour is very similar to Lead-Tin Yellow, used in the late Renaissance and Mannerist periods and was the only reliably permanent bright yellow available to the old masters.
Colour Mixing with Cadmium Yellow Light
Cadmium Yellow Light has a colour close to that of primary yellow and helps mix a wide range of colours. The natural world is full of ochre and brown colours, and greens are everywhere, from dull dark olive greens to light yellowy greens where the sun brushes across foliage. Cadmium Yellow Light is the ideal yellow for working with this wide whole colour suite ranging from earth tones to the brightest light greens.
WARNING: CADMIUM COLOURS CONTAIN CADMIUM PIGMENT (CADMIUM SULFIDE) KNOWN TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE CANCER. DO NOT SPRAY APPLY, SWALLOW OR INHALE. CANCER AGENT BY INHALATION BASED ON EXPERIMENTAL DATA. FOR FURTHER HEALTH INFORMATION OR ADVICE, CONTACT A LOCAL POISON CONTROL CENTRE. IN AUSTRALIA ph: 13 11 26; IN NEW ZEALAND ph: 0800 764 766; IN US ph: 1-800-222-1222
Safety Data Sheet for Matisse Cadmium Yellow Light (SDS)
To view or download a copy of Cadmium Yellow Light SDS, please CLICK HERE * (271kb)
*The above link will open an external Dropbox window
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