Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns is an American artist known for turning familiar symbols such as flags, targets, numbers, and maps into tactile paintings and objects that question how images are seen and understood.
Painting Surface
Plaster
Plaster is a smooth or textured wall finish made from gypsum, lime, cement, or similar mineral binders. New plaster remains porous as it cures and dries.
Plaster paint compatibility
Acrylic, emulsion, milk, chalkboard, metallic, distemper, and some spray paints can work on plaster once it is fully dry and properly prepared. Rigid plaster objects can also accept encaustic when they are absorbent and heat resistant.
| Paint | Compatibility | Preparation | Primer or ground | Finish | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emulsion paint | Excellent when fully dry | Let new plaster dry completely and remove dust or loose material. | Use the manufacturer's approved new-plaster sealer or first-coat method. | Apply the specified finish coats after the sealed surface dries. | — |
| Distemper paint | Excellent on suitable porous interior plaster | Make sure the plaster is sound, fully dry, clean, and free of incompatible modern coatings or loose material. | Use only a preparation or size specifically compatible with the selected distemper system. | Produces a very matte, breathable decorative finish that is less washable than modern wall paint. | — |
| Chalkboard paint | Good on sound, fully cured plaster | Make sure the plaster is cured, dry, smooth, and free of dust or loose material. | Prime porous or repaired plaster when required for an even base. | Condition with chalk after curing when the product directs it. | — |
| Metallic paint | Good when fully cured, smooth, and properly primed | Let new plaster cure and dry fully; repair defects and remove dust or loose material. | Use the specified metallic-paint primer to create a uniform base. | Apply in the recommended direction and method to keep the metallic sheen even. | — |
| Acrylic paint | Good when dry | Let new plaster cure and dry fully; remove dust and loose material. | Recommended on porous plaster. | Optional indoors; protect if exposed to wear. | Acrylic plaster guide |
| Milk paint | Good on fully dry, porous plaster | Let new plaster cure and dry fully, then remove dust and loose material. | Usually unnecessary on raw porous plaster; previously painted plaster may need primer or a bonding additive. | Product-specific; add protection where the surface will face moisture or handling. | — |
| Spray paint | Good when dry | Make sure the plaster is fully dry, sound, and free of dust. | Helpful on porous plaster unless the chosen spray paint says otherwise. | Product-specific. | — |
| Encaustic paint | Good on rigid, fully dry, absorbent, heat-resistant plaster | Make sure the plaster is fully cured, sound, clean, and dry before applying wax paint. | Use an encaustic-compatible ground only when the surface needs additional preparation. | Fuse carefully because the support must tolerate the working heat. | — |
Sources: Dulux new-plaster guidance, Dulux Easycare guidance, Real Milk Paint surface guidance, Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint, R&F encaustic grounds and surfaces, Modern Masters Metallic Paint Collection, and Ingilby Traditional Distemper Paint.
Painters who used plaster
Explore painters in the PaintZeal reference whose documented work includes or closely relates to plaster.
Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley is a British painter known for tightly controlled abstract compositions that create optical movement through repeated lines, curves, shapes, and carefully calibrated color relationships.
Peter Halley
Peter Halley is an American painter known for geometric images of cells, prisons, and conduits built from fluorescent Day-Glo acrylic color and deliberately artificial commercial textures.
Gary Simmons
Gary Simmons is an American artist known for drawing on chalkboard-like painted grounds and then smearing or erasing the image so memory, absence, and physical gesture become part of the work.
Linn Meyers
Linn Meyers is an American artist known for drawings and site-specific installations built from thousands of closely spaced, rippling lines. The Hirshhorn documents her use of a type of paint marker commonly used by graffiti artists.
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an American artist known for energetic outlined figures, public murals, subway drawings, vivid color, and an instantly recognizable visual language used to address social and political themes.
David Alfaro Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros was a Mexican painter and muralist who deliberately embraced modern industrial materials and methods, including lacquer, enamel, pyroxylin, and automotive coatings, as alternatives to traditional easel-painting materials.
Kiptoe
Kiptoe, also known as Matt Dean, is an American mural artist, painter, and filmmaker known for colorful large-scale walls, character-driven visual storytelling, and videos documenting ambitious public-art projects.
RUN
RUN is a street artist and muralist known for large-scale figurative work. For the mural My Many Hands, he described the challenge of translating the transparency of a watercolor sketch into a thick masonry-paint technique.
Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson
Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson is a Berlin-based visual artist known for site-specific murals and public interventions built from language. Her Among Refugees Generation Y project used temporary lime-paint murals designed to fade over time.
Joe Cornelius
Joe Cornelius is a mural painter and educator known as Mural Joe, combining an early painting-contractor background with large-scale mural work and practical instruction on how painted visual effects are built.
Jim Lacey
Jim Lacey is a veteran New England painter and contractor known for historic reproduction work, traditional-looking finishes, careful interior preparation, trim painting, and practical craft instruction.
