Contents of this box: a small canvas, walnut oil, and two kinds of brush cleaner.
This is all I use to thin my oil paints. I use A LOT of it.
This is what I use to clean my brushes. (At least part of the concoction I use.)
This is why painting can't just be my hobby. $56.45 for a box of four boring, yet crucial supplies.
I’m getting ready to do a small painting of another house later this month. I originally thought I would use one of the 12″ x 12″ canvasses I have in stock, but the more I looked at the photo, I realized the painting really needs to be a rectangle.
So I ordered a 16″ x 12″ canvas size for this project. Since I had to order the canvas anyway, I thought I should get a few other things I was running out of.
Unless it’s an Art Supply Emergency (meaning I didn’t plan well and ran out of something,) I order all my art supplies online from Dick Blick. They have great customer service and carry everything I could possibly want.
I try to be as eco-friendly as possible in my painting methods. To keep my not-so-healthy medium of oil paints, as healthy as possible, there are a few things I NEVER use.
I do not use Turpentine. I do not use Mineral Spirits. I do not use any kind of Painting Medium or Glazes. They all smell terrible, and I don’t want to breathe in those fumes.
Maybe that’s why my oil paintings are almost always mistaken for acrylics. Apparently my method does give different results, or I wouldn’t be asked this question at every show I’ve ever done.
But I care about the air I breathe, and my health, so I’m sticking with my unorthodox approach to painting with traditional oils.
For thinning my paints, I just mix in Walnut Oil until it’s the runny consistency that I like. I’m told that you can eat or cook with the Walnut Oil. Whether that’s true or not, I think it’s as healthy as I’m going to get without switching to watercolors.
My brushes probably don’t last as long as if I were cleaning them with Turpentine or Mineral Spirits. But the long-term health risks I’ve read about (and even experienced for a couple of years) are not worth the reduced cost.
The times I’ve been in art supply stores and talked to the sales people for help in selecting a product, I can tell they always think I’m crazy.
But this one particular sales person I keep running into always has a stuffed up nose. But since I’m never sick anymore… who’s the crazy one?