Painting responsibly with oil paints
I want to be an artist who minimises my impact on the environment. People will often have unfounded claims that oil paints are environmentally hazardous and a danger to health.
These misconceptions are often repeated again and again. Oil paints themselves are NOT toxic. They are essentially nothing more than pigment and a binder, usually linseed oil. There are dangerous pigments mostly lead and cadmium but these can be avoided and are just as likely to found in acrylics or watercolour paints. There is such a vast range of paints and alternatives to those that contain these that its much easier to avoid them. Perhaps the biggest concern people have when they hear oil paints is the worry about the solvents that are used. The most common one people think of is turpentine which is toxic and just shouldn’t be end up in the water system as well as being harmful to our health.
My solvent of choice is Gamsol. This is a classed as only minimally toxic as all the harmful elements have been removed. Only 0.005% remains according to their website and that’s probably an over estimation. There is only a no risk to myself as it has no noticeable fumes but does need to be kept in a safe place. I have asthma and have never found this a problem.
Alongside gamsol, I will oil out with Linseed oil which is as natural as you could get !
I am incredibly economical when it comes to Gamsol. I have been using my current 1L bottle since last Autumn and even now have over 1/2 of the bottle still left. I have a very sludgy jar with a lid that I keep a little gamsol in to use. When I start a new canvas I will use this sludge to take away the whiteness and sometimes to start an underpainting. It is after all just a mixture of oil paint and gamsol! I don’t think I have ever thrown any away but if I did gamsol is safe to do this with. Keeping my brushes clean I generally wipe them off on scrap paper, paper towels or scrap fabric.
Of course, there is always water mixable oil paints which don’t need solvent nor have the plastic content that acrylic has. The plastic content is my main reason for not using acrylic paint.... that and I end up with brushes that I cant use again!
The other product I use quite often is clear gesso by Liquitex. This one again has no environmental risk.
Being sustainable with my art practices does go beyond the paint that I use. It goes with reusing packaging , I work on vintage music some as old as 1850 which would just have been thrown away. Also at the moment I am using some watercolour paper that I got from our local scrap store and my palette a repurposed Ferrero Rocher box!
These may seem very small considerations to some people but I firmly believe that we are all responsible for doing whatever we can to ensure our planet is not further polluted and harmed..... however small those changes are!
Art without harm is my goal. Buying an art work from me you will know that I have used sustainable practices to the best of my ability. I continue to reflect and improve.
Find our more about commissioning your environmentally conscious art work
Comments