Oiling out

[Marvin Mattelson]

Enzie, I wasn't absolutely sure if the senior moment was your's or mine.
Take care.

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by Marvin Mattelson

. . . I try my darnedest to avoid turpentine in the studio for toxicity reasons . . .

Hailing as I do from ancient times when common liniments (specifically Dr. Sloan's and Absorbine Jr.) contained turpentine and a spoonful of turps was not an uncommon "cure" for kids with pinworms, it's hard for me to view it in the same light as nuclear waste and DDT. Triple distilled turpentine is used by the cosmetics industry in the production of milady's makeups, powders and nostrums, and by other makers of such things as "pine fresh"cleaning compounds and air fresheners.

Combined with linseed oil in paints, turpentine produces reactions which improve drying and film strength. MS does not. Turpentine is sovereign for compounding various resin varnishes. When MS is substituted, cloudy mixtures result.

All this aside, perhaps issues of "toxicity" which so concern us lately have more to do with the fact that the "turps"commonly available now is not at all good stuff?

"Pure gum spirits of turpentine" is the sap of living conifers tapped for the "turpentine" which is then distilled for the "pure spirits", leaving rosin, colophony and pitch as by-products. Today's hardware/paint store turpentine is a vile liquid produced by crushing stumps, limbs and other forest waste into a mash, then steam-cooking it. Reeking of creosote as it does, it would be well to avoid using this poor-quality, nasty solvent for any purpose. Good turpentine smells like a pine forest after a rainstorm, and it's still available (though costly).

As with all organic solvents, including the various "-oids" and "-sols" and "-tines" marketed just especially for us arteestes (!) citrus oil terpenes and MS, (both "stinky" and odorless) common sense dictates one should not leave open containers of solvent lying about, nor should one swim in it, or ingest it.

[Virgil Elliott]

Originally Posted by Enzie Shahmiri

Thanks Virgil! I do have another question for you. How bad is a drop of clove oil on a paint glob, to prevent drying out? I resorted to this because I just LOOVVVVEEE the smell of clove oil!

Well, actually I needed to stop the fast drying process during the heat wave here. But now in hindsight I am wondering how much that can affect the adherance effect of the paint.

Enzie,

Yes, oil of clove does smell good, but that might be a better reason to use it for perfume or air freshener than to add it to your paints. It does slow the drying, but it does so with consequences to the resulting paint film.

There are better ways to achieve slow drying, if that's what you want, such as eliminating naturally fast-drying paints from your palette. That would mean umbers and siennas, lead whites, and phthalocyanines above all. However, lead white produces the most durable paint films of all oil paints, so I wouldn't want to do without that. I'm able to work with the drying time of lead whites myself, so the trick is not so much to adjust the drying of the paint as it is to waste no time while painting, to get to a stopping point before the paint begins to set up and ceases to be blendable. In other words, an adjustment in technique might be in order if the paint is drying before you've gotten far enough with the painting. One can cover more canvas in a given amount of time with large brushes than with smaller ones, for one consideration. In my opinion, painting faster is better than slowing the drying of the paints with clove oil.

You might try Genesis paints if you like to work wet-into-wet for extended periods of time without worrying about the paint drying. Genesis will not dry until you want it to. It requires heat to make it dry. The kit comes with a heat gun to use for that purpose.

I hope that helps in some way.

Virgil

[Enzie Shahmiri]

LOL - Marvin!

Virgil, I purchased Genesis paints many years ago, but unlike Karin Wells, who works successfully with them, I didn't care for the process of baking the painting in order for the paint to dry.

Several years ago some well meaning soul suggested the Clove Oil and for a while I did place a drop on each paint blob. Call it instinct, forgetfulness or being enlightened by the methods of my mentor, I stopped until the heatwave hit Orange County this summer.

Frustrated with the drying out and gooiness of the paints, I reached for the Clove oil again, yet still wondering about it's effects. Well now I know better, thanks to everyone here~

[Allan Rahbek]

Enzie,
you can use the walnut oil, that will take care of the slow drying, cleaning the brushes and a pleasant smell.