The story begins with Henry Levison, a color chemist who lived, drank, slept and breathed artist’s colors. Henry ran a company in Cincinnati, Ohio called Permanent Pigments which had been milling artists' oil colors since 1933. He was keenly following the latest technical advances and experimenting with new formulas in the acrylics field. Acrylics were first developed as a solvent-based artists’ color in the early part of the twentieth century. By 1955, Henry had perfected a commercially viable water-based acrylic - the first acrylic gesso, called Liquitex, a perfect blend of liquid and texture.