It’s not just hospitality workers and drivers that are in short supply. The whole art industry is suffering from a shortage of raw materials, says Hakim Bishara.
Amid global shortages of paint and painting supplies, artists are finding it harder and costlier to get the pigments they want. As with other industries, paint manufacturers worldwide have been grappling with supply chain and personnel issues since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. But another preventable “force majeure” took the worsening shortages and price increases of art supplies to another level: extreme climate disasters around the globe.
The pandemic has created a labor shortage of plant workers and drivers that has clogged up supply chains in the face of rising demand for paint, especially for construction and home improvement projects. To make matters worse, the February freeze in Texas slowed the production of petroleum, a critical ingredient for paint. This has caused shortages of three of the most popular colors: Chantilly lace, tricorn black, and green smoke. A fire in a BASF polymer plant in Germany in March affected production through much of the summer in Europe. And in Canada, wildfires over the summer, caused by scorching and dry weather, severely affected the linseed crop, creating significantly higher prices for linseed oil... Keep reading on Hyperallergic.
Amid global shortages of paint and painting supplies, artists are finding it harder and costlier to get the pigments they want. As with other industries, paint manufacturers worldwide have been grappling with supply chain and personnel issues since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. But another preventable “force majeure” took the worsening shortages and price increases of art supplies to another level: extreme climate disasters around the globe.
The pandemic has created a labor shortage of plant workers and drivers that has clogged up supply chains in the face of rising demand for paint, especially for construction and home improvement projects. To make matters worse, the February freeze in Texas slowed the production of petroleum, a critical ingredient for paint. This has caused shortages of three of the most popular colors: Chantilly lace, tricorn black, and green smoke. A fire in a BASF polymer plant in Germany in March affected production through much of the summer in Europe. And in Canada, wildfires over the summer, caused by scorching and dry weather, severely affected the linseed crop, creating significantly higher prices for linseed oil... Keep reading on Hyperallergic.