Venetian Plaster

Faux Venetian plaster is rapidly becoming one of the most popular finishes. Historically, decorative faux plaster finishes can be divided into two main categories. The first, known as fresco (from the Italian for fresh), involves mixing pigments with water and applying them to a plaster surface that is still wet. The second, known as fresco secco (from the Italian for dry), involves decorating the plaster with pigments mixed with water after it has dried.

Examples of the first category - "pure" fresco - are quite rare, due to the fact that many pigments undergo inevitable chemical changes when applied to wet plaster. The result is that the painter or artist finds it difficult or impossible to guarantee the color of his or her work. Consequently, many frescoes are in fact created using a combination of the wet and dry methods; the "stable" pigments being applied first to the wet plaster, and the "unstable" pigments, having been mixed with a binding or fixing agent, applied after the plaster has dried.

Painting directly onto plaster, whether wet or dry, has a long history and was used extensively throughout the Medieval period. Walls were often covered in tempera or plaster, then washed with color using a mixture of pigment, powdered chalk or whiting and water. A grid of simple red lines intended to represent masonry blocks was sometimes added and heraldic devices and designs copied from illuminated manuscripts were also used to decorate the plaster. 

Venetian Plastering: sealer, off white and terracotta latex based paints.