The early formulations were based on a poly ethyl acrylate/methyl methactylate (pEA/MMA) copolymer and some Talens acrylic paints remain based on this. Briefly, the polymeric composition of artists’ acrylic emulsion paints has evolved since their introduction to the market. The historical development, properties and conservation-related concerns about the use of acrylic emulsion paints by artists have been published in detail elsewhere. As a consequence, changes are made to formulations on a regular basis. Not only do formulations vary depending on their intended commercial market or application, but they also change in response to market demands influenced by improvements in technology as well as health and/or environmental legislation.

As a result, understanding the relationships between paint formulation and preservation issues is not particularly straightforward. Paints created for the industrial, house and artists’ paint markets include a wide range of pigments, binders, additives and diluents whose exact composition is proprietary. The complexities of twentieth century synthetic polymer-based paints such as those based on acrylic emulsion copolymers render them a challenging research topic. This investigation forms part of broader, currently ongoing, multi-technique investigation into the properties of artists’ acrylic paints and development of conservation treatments for works-of-art made with these materials. It has been shown is that these X-ray spectroscopic techniques can be used for the analysis of almost purely organic materials in a way that complements mass spectroscopic techniques, FTIR and XRF.

Both techniques were found to be well suited for surface-sensitive investigations of the organic materials associated with artists’ acrylic paints, including explorations into: (A) cleaning system residues, (B) surfactant extraction from paint surfaces, (C) the identification of migrated surfactant, and (D) monitoring pigment changes at the paint/air interface of paint films. This paper summarises previous studies using vibrational (FTIR) spectroscopy and presents initial assessments of paint surfaces using X-ray spectroscopies (XPS and NEXAFS) aimed at characterising artists’ acrylic paint film surfaces after natural ageing and wet surface cleaning treatment. Although acrylic emulsion paints have been the focus of museum-led research over the past decade, the impact of artists’ technique and conservation treatment on the upper-most surface of these paints remains essentially unexplored. Artists’ acrylic emulsion paints are used in many contexts such as paintings, murals, sculptures, works on paper and mixed media and are forming increasing proportions of modern and contemporary art collections.

Spectra paint