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Oil Painting without Solvents

I began using M. Graham Walnut Oil Alkyd Medium a couple of years ago and love this super high-quality pourable oil painting medium that allows me to thin my paints without using solvents such turpentine or odorless mineral spirits.  If you are not looking to speed-up drying with alkyd, then add M. Graham Walnut Oil Medium to your color to increase flow and slow the drying.

With Walnut oil artist products you can do Solvent Free Painting and  Solvent Free Brush Cleaning  in your studio this winter.

You can free your studio of dangerous solvents by using walnut oil to clean brushes. Walnut oil is a natural way to remove color from artist brushes or tools as effectively as odorless paint thinner but without creating an airborne solvent hazard that is damaging to your health.  To avoid solvents while cleaning brushes, use Walnut oil in place of turpentine or odorless mineral spirit. Walnut oil is a natural vegetable oil that neither evaporates nor removes essential oils from your paintbrush bristles.

To clean brushes while painting, keep two jars (one “dirty” and one “clean”) filled with Walnut Oil – a small piece of screening can be kept in the jar bottom to facilitate removal of color from the brush. As it becomes necessary to clean, dip your brush into the first jar of oil (rubbing to dislodge any color) and wipe the oil from the brush on the inside lip of the jar. Repeat a few times then dip the brush into the second jar to remove any remaining color. A final wipe on the inside jar lip to remove any leftover oil completes the process.

Reminder:  Immediately after use, dispose of contaminated waste in a sealed, water filled metal container. If improperly discarded, rags, steel wool or other waste may spontaneously combust when combined with vegetable drying oils and artists’ products made with them.

Learn more about sovlent-free oil painting here.

Both the M. Graham Walnut Oil Alkyd Medium and Walnut Oil Medium are now essential to my studio practice. Recently, I also tried six M. Graham Artists’ Oil Colors in tubes: azo yellow, quinacridone rose, napthol red, ultramarine blue, phthalocyanine blue, and titanium white. I was quite impressed by the high quality of these oil paints as I used them and also did a side-by-side comparison with other brands I had on hand. I am eager to add more M. Grahman paints to my studio supply. If you are looking for intensely pigmented paints in a fine quality oil, then you owe it to yourself to try the M. Graham brand.

The reason M. Graham oil paints are so packed with pigment is due to their use of Walnut oil which allows them to increase the amount of pigment in each color, resulting in extraordinary richness, color saturation, brilliance and tinting strength. Walnut oil also has a unique refractive index and non-yellowing nature that produces color that is more naturally alive and brilliant.

Video: How M. Graham makes paint