How to save paint

[Karin Wells]

Here's three things that I do when I have a batch of paint all pre-mixed that I want to save....

1. If the paint is all oil (no alkyd), I pile the "glob" in the bottom of a ceramic dish and cover it with water. Since oil and water don't mix, the water seals out the air and prevents the paint from drying....I can often keep paint this way for weeks.

2. I cover my palette with "Cling-wrap" and stick it in the freezer. It can keep for months this way.

3. I have some small 2" square Zip-Loc bags that I found on ebay (they are for coin collectors). I put the paint in the baggie and squoosh out all the air before I seal it. When I wish to use the paint again, I poke the bag with a pin or snip the corner and squeeze the paint out on my palette again.

[William Whitaker]

Great info Karin. You make me feel less like a cheapskate when I keep my palette in the freezer.

Back in those dear dead days when I used to grind my own paint, I would wrap the stuff in little tinfoil packets. I never thought of Zip-Loc bags. Thanks for the tip.

Yours in Parsimony,
Bill

[Marta Prime]

Thanks for the great paint saving tips Karen! I am not only getting great tips from this site, I am also expanding my vocabulary. I had to look up "Parsimony" right away....(thriftiness, frugality, etc)....

[Jim Riley]

I have attached a pic of a paint storage box once sold by The Portrait Institute (no longer) that had some design flaws but worked for me while I was traveling and continued to use it in the studio for off and on for some time. It rested on a brass stand that inclined it forward. It was not as efficient as the techniques noted by Karin but I loved to be able to open and close the box to begin and end my paint sessions without squeezing paint and cleaning up semi dried globs that formed all to quickly (like burnt umber). To slow drying I mixed in a few drops of oil of cloves(nice aroma also). This served my wet in wet painting technique and therefore would not work as well for those of you that want your paint to set up for glazing and the like. I would often add color, some oil and stir up the paint to keep it fresh.

I don't know what the market might be but think of all the amateurs and pros alike that regularly go through and old and sloppy housekeeping ritual before after the important task of painting.

Wouldn't it be to have some kind of storage tool or palette that could securly preserve over an extended period of time all your colors commercial and special mix? Parsimony aside, it would be great to start and finish without the fuss. Let alone grinding your our colors. Did you really do that Bill?

[Steve Moppert]

Robert Bruce Williams and I designed the paint storage boxes that John Sanden sold through The Portrait Institute. I still have about 20 of them. If anyone is interested in purchasing these please contact me by email. I do not have the brass stands, but any sheet metal shop can make one for you. I also have about 200 of the brush holders.

Steve

[Steven Sweeney]

Is it all right to use ground parsimony in your paints, or will only fresh-chopped do?

Anyway, Bill, the work on display at your website evidences anything but frugality or reserve -- yours are some of the richest, most sensually generous, creative and just **** fine paintings I've seen anywhere. The sort of work that we relative newcomers to the vocation discover and say "There!! THAT'S how I'd like to paint."

[Jim Riley]

Steven Sweeney

On your question of whether or not paints require fresh-chopped parsimony I can only say that thyme will tell.

[Steven Sweeney]

Sage advice, Jim, though perhaps intended to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Jim Riley]

Well done! ...(Or rare?)

[William Whitaker]

First, I