I jest, I jest.
Well, maybe I have a little midlife crisis. I’m about to…. (drumroll please) switch from acrylics to oils.
It happened like this. Due to the neighbor problems that caused me to buy a house in the first place, I hadn’t felt much like painting in quite a while. Who knew acrylics can go bad inside a sealed tube? When I was transferring my stuff from apartment to house, I realized that nearly every tube and bottle of acrylic paint was lumpy, half coagulated, and resistant to re-mixing.
ART DISASTER.
Or is it?
Living in this house with all its possibilities has caused me to think a little more creatively – and since I’ve always wanted to try painting with oils, and have rediscovered the wet on wet painting technique via Bob Ross, why not replace my acrylics with oils?
Problem solved, opportunity found.
The cost is a little higher, yes, okay maybe a lot higher, but like the watercolors and colored pencils I used on the greeting card you see above, oil paints take a lot more punishment before going bad.
For cleaning I am going to use orange oil (similar properties as lavender spike oil, used by artists before turpentine was common) and for those really hard jobs, stinky mineral spirits. I don’t want to use odorless mineral spirits because most of the danger is still there without the warning signs. This will be supplemented by an open window, and open door, and an exhaust fan in my study/studio.
Some of my brushes will still work. My canvasses can be reused. Same with my gesso. I think this will be an interesting adventure, and hopefully start a love affair with oils.
So there you have it… my version of a midlife crisis.
Mindflight 