leah

June 14, 2009  by

Healthy Painting!


I can’t believe I’ve just discovered this! I now realize that when my art teachers told me the formula for paint medium (stand oil, turpentine and damaar varnish) and how I should thin paint and clean brushes with turpentine, I believed this was the LAW- Gospel. If I didn’t do this my paintings would explode, fall apart and look horrible. And even though I am obviously very interested in non-toxic painting, I still had to overcome ALOT of resistance. It seemed so wrong to put away my turpentine jars, it was all I knew. I’m now happy to report, that straight Walnut oil as a medium works perfect. It’s the perfect consistency, not too shiny and dries at the same speed. To clean my brushes, I swish them in 2 jars of walnut oil (a “clean” one and then the “dirty” one). I wipe them and swish them in Brush Flush and then give a quick soap wash. My brushes actually are cleaner than when I used turpentine. I was a little worried about how to get that nice watery, turpentine wash for the beginning of my painting. I’ve figured out a temporary solution: I used water-soluble oil paint and mixed it with alot of water to get a wonderful wash. It worked perfect!

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May 17, 2009  by

Non-Toxic Oil Painting

My first baby step towards true Earth Art involved learning to paint with oils using non-toxic pigments, vegetable/nut oils, and no solvent like turpentine. It was actually super easy with almost no compromise on my usual techniques or color pallete. It surprised me to learn that using solvent (as a paint thinner and brush cleaner) is a pretty recent development in art history. The old masters did not use it but simply used walnut oil to clean brushes and dilute paint. A cheap jug of raw linseed oil will also work to clean brushes, but according to Vasari and others, it shouldn’t be used as a medium because it tends to yellow.
As far as the oil paints themselves, which are simply pigment mixed with a natural oil, most are already completely non-toxic. Only a few should be avoided because they contain toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, cobalt and barium. Avoid flake white, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, vermillion, cadmium red and yellow, chrome and naple’s yellow. There are a few brands of oil paint that are made with only non-toxic pigment and walnut oil, like M.Graham. But you can also easily make your own oil paint by buying pigment or collecting colored soils and mixing it with walnut oil (or M.Grahm’s walnut oil alkyd medium). Rembrandt actually used no mediums in his painting because his hand-made paints were already fluid by themselves.
Another non-toxic option for a medium is 3 parts egg yolk mixed with 1 part black oil. But being a vegan, I haven’t tried this option. I’ve also discovered another brush cleaner option that’s biodegradable, non-toxic and odor-free called “Brush Flush.” It’s reusable if you store it in a lidded container and dip your brushes in. The company recommends that you wash your brushes with Dr. Bronner’s soap after you use Brush Flush.
The benefits of non-toxic painting are numerous. You don’t have to worry about ventilating your studio. And you don’t have to worry about harming yourself, your family, and the environment in order to create your art. No more off-gassing paintings in your studio. The risk of acute/chronic diseases from these toxins is eliminated. You can safely dispose of rags and excess paint in the trash and flush wash-water down the drain. The drying time is increased, and non-toxic pigments are more readily available and much cheaper than toxic chemical pigments. All of this gives me greater freedom mentally and physically with my painting and lifts a weight off my shoulders that has always tugged at my conscience.
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April 16, 2009  by

Why are all of our art supplies toxic?


Being an artist and environmentalist, I feel a major conflict in my values as I wash my oil paint brushes with turpentine, paint on unsustainable wood panels and rolls of canvas and use toxic paints. I’ve been hesitant in the past to abandon my oils because I haven’t yet seen anything else that has the same intensity and richness and can capture what I need to express. I’ve done much research on making and using non-toxic, earth based paints and materials and have been surprised at the lack of information online or teachers on the subject.
My latest series of abstract oil paintings, “Laying on the Earth”, literally incorporates the earth into my paintings as well as being inspired by the patterns, textures and energy of the earth. I mixed wood ash, soils from the area, marble dust, granite dust and different sands into my gesso which I applied and then painted with oils. I would like to go deeper and get closer to the earth in the actual process and experiment with different soils, plants, seaweeds, flowers and berries as my pigment and play around with different oils or liquids as a binder (walnut, flax, water, etc.). I would also like to try different surfaces (hemp, organic cotton, old sheets or curtains from thrift stores, driftwood, etc.) and experiment with different “brushes” such as twigs, pine needles, leaves, my fingers, etc. Even experiment with different natural glues as a primer (as opposed to toxic gesso). My self- assigned goal is to start on this journey of experimentation and let you all know what I find out. Please add to my blog if you have any more info to add on the subject.

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