Paint by number

For the graphical logic puzzle, see Nonograms. For the album, see Paint by Number (album). For the artwork, see Damien Hirst.

Paint by number (or painting by numbers) describes kits having a board on which light blue or grey lines indicate areas to paint, each area having a number and a corresponding numbered paint to use. The kits were invented, developed and marketed in 1950 by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan and Dan Robbins, a commercial artist.^[1]

In 1951 Palmer Paint introduced the Craft Master brand which sold over 12 million kits. This public response induced other companies to produce their own versions of paint by number. The Craft Master paint-kit box tops proclaimed, "A BEAUTIFUL OIL PAINTING THE FIRST TIME YOU TRY." Following the death of Max Klein in 1993, his daughter, Jacquelyn Schiffman, donated the Palmer Paint Co. archives to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.^[2]

In 1992, Michael O'Donoghue and Trey Speegle organized and mounted a show of O'Donoghue's paint by number collection In New York City at the Bridgewater/ Lustberg Gallery. After O'Donoghue's passing in 1994 the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History exhibited many key pieces from O'Donoghue's collection, now owned by Speegle, along with other collectors works in 2001. Since then, the vintage kits and paintings have experienced a resurgence through yard sales and eBay auctions.

In 2008 a private collector in Massachusetts assembled over 6,000 paint by number works dating back to the 1950s from eBay and other American collectors to create the Paint By Number Museum, the world's largest online archive of paint by number works.

In May 2011, the original inventors of paint by numbers Dan Robbins and Palmer Paint Products, Inc together developed and brought to market a new 60th anniversary paint by number set,.^[3] This collectors set was created in memory of the survivors and those who had lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and depicts the twin towers standing in spirit across the manhatan skyline. A portion of the proceeds of this set is being donated to the charitable organization Voices of September 11th.

In children's activity books, simpler activities are often presented to children and are called color by numbers.

See also

• mosaic
• stained glass

References

1. ^ http://www.palmerpaint.com
2. ^ http://americanhistory.si.edu/paint/rembrandt.html National Museum of American History
3. ^ http://www.paintbynumbersets.com/gonebutnotforgotten2001.html ["Gone But Not Forgotten 2001"]a registed trademark of Dan Robbins.

Further reading

• William L. Bird, Jr. Paint by Number: The How-to Craze that Swept the Nation. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History in Association with Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

External links

• 2001 National Museum of American History exhibit
• The online Paint by Number Museum
• Trey Speegle
• http://www.vulkaner.no/t/gomera2005/whattodo.html