Oil: Gift Sets

Give the Gift of Creativity this season. Our kits are functional as well as inspirational. We can also customize them to suit your wishes.

Oils: Maimeri Classico

Best in class for an affordable Student Oil Paint. Real Cadmiums are student prices. Excellent quality for art instructors who provice paint for their students.

Oil Colour: Gamblin Artist Oil

Gamblin Artists Colors handcrafts luscious oil colors and contemporary mediums true to the working properties of traditional materials.

Oil Colour: Schmincke Mussini

A precious and secretly guarded recipe passed to Schmincke in 1881 from Florentine Professor Caesare Mussini, relies on the Old Masters' knowledge and experience with traditional resin-oil colours. Whereas most oil colours use only fat oils as binders, Schmincke's Mussini Finest Oil Colours replace excess fat oils with natural resins (Dammar)in solution. The result is a tension-free and balanced inside/outside drying process which reduces aging and long term cracking. Because of the refraction from resins finely dispersed throughout the dried colour layers, paintings produced using Mussini colour exhibit an uncommon brilliance and luster. The Schmincke Mussini range is comprised of 102 colour tones, with 64 single pigment tones allowing pure mixtures. Deserving of special mention are the 42 exquisite translucent and semi-translucent tones. Unusually dark tones such as Atrament, Dove and Sfumato, together with tones such a Cobalt Turquoise, Byzantine Blue, Caesar Purple, Florentine Red, Yellowish Green Ural or Medieval Yellow ably demonstrate the special fascination of the unique resin-oils.

Oil Colour: Holbein Duo (water-soluble)

(Oil color that mixes with water) Water-soluble oil color DUO

A total of 100 colors!

Oil Colour: M. Graham Walnut Oils

This company follows a traditional oil paint recipe from the 1500's that uses walnut oil, providing artists with all the luxury of traditional oil painting and the solvent-free studio required for a non-toxic painting environment. M.Graham paint is the most beautiful and easily worked color produced today. Each color is created slowly, one at a time, to offer incomparable clarity, depth, richness and permanence. Crafted only from high quality artists' pigments, free from extenders or adulterants and dispersed in pure non-yellowing American walnut oil, these colors provide distinctive traditional color values. They are completely permanent, intermixable and compatible with all other oils, varnishes and mediums including alkyd products.

Oil Colour: Stevenson Oil & Stevenson 'Oil Slicks'

All Stevenson Oil Colours are rated as permanent and light-fast, comparable in quality to other professional artists' oil paints. Pigments are carefully chosen for their non-bleeding and superior mixing qualities. Stevenson 'Oil Slicks' are an excellent quality oil paint in stick form. Image a drawing pastel made with oil paint...yum.

Encaustics, Waxes & Tools

Imagine painting in vibrant coloured molten wax! We have an extensive selection of R & F Encaustics, Kama Encaustics and Bees wax, Microcrystalline Wax, Dorland's wax and more. We offer one day workshops in Encaustics - check out our workshop scedule and register soon because they fill quickly. Stevenson Oil Bars are featured here. Look here for heated spatulas, regulaters and other tools for encaustics.

Oil Mediums: Basics

Please do not use solvents alone to thin oil paints. Solvents dissolve the binders in the oil that helps paint adhere to the canvas or linen. Paintings look richer and more luminescent when mediums are used. You can create your own oil medium recipes to modify your oil paints: thin, thicken, quick-dry, glossy and more. Here is a quick recipe for a basic OIL PAINTING MEDIUM. Mix equal amounts of Stevenson's: Concentrated Damar Solution, Painting Solvent (or turpentine) and stand oil (for a thicker medium) or linseed oil( for a thinner medium). Stir well. This may be mixed with oil paints as desired as a glazing or painting medium. Stir before using. Cobalt drier may be added (sparingly) to speed drying time. There are also many commercially produced mediums (from protected recipes) available to thin or modify oil paints.

Oil Mediums: Quick Dry

"How can I get my oil painting to dry faster?" is a common question we are asked. Alkyd mediums are one solution to help speed drying. Winsor Newton has recently expanded their selection of Liquin to include three different viscosities. You can also make your own quick dry medium, if you prefer this to a prepared medium. Cobalt drier is available, but use this carefully. Too much will cause paint film cracking. Sorry to say... after a painting is complete there is no way to speed up the drying time. Oils cure by a oxidation not evaporation. Sorry to say, there is no way to safely speed the drying of a completed painting. We recommend waiting 6 months to a year to cure before varnishing.

Oil Mediums: Impasto

If you wish to paint thickly using oils,there are several alternatives. You can try adding Dorland's Wax Medium (it's very creamy!), Stevenson's Alkyd Gel or Winsor & Newton's Liquin Impasto, or Golden's MSA Gel to your oils. They all help speed drying times maintaining critical mass.

Oil Solvents

Solvents should be used sparingly and in a well-ventilated studio. There are many alternatives to turpentine and other strong thinners. Odorless Mineral Spirits will thin your oils without the strong solvent fumes. Try the citrus solvents or the Turpenoid Natural products for friendlier environmental solutions. Please note: Turpentine or Stevenson Paint Solvent are required for dissolving Dammar Crystals and Golden's MSA Varnish.

A final varnish is necessary for all paintings because of the surface protection it provides, making cleaning of the artwork easier and safer. Varnishing will also create a more even surface sheen. The artist may choose from high gloss, satin or matte finishes. Varnishes amy be brushed or sprayed on. Retouch varnishes spray only) are an intermediate varnish used to even out high and low gloss spots while still working on a painting.

Gesso is a ground to paint on. However, It does not seal the canvas, wood or paper surface. An oil painting surface must be sealed properly to prevent the siccative oils and resins from seeping into it, causing yellowing and rotting as it ages. Select either traditional rabbit skin glue or choose the new easier-to-use acrylic GAC's to prepare a canvas before applying gesso when painting in oils. If painting with acylics, obviously there is not the concern about oil seepage. Gesso is used to give a size coating to your base surface that will provide an even, mildly absorbent surface to work on. It is much easier to work on a gessoed surface than a raw untreated one. Gesso can also be other colours than the traditional white. Black, Canvas Colour, and Burnt Umber gessoes provide a different ground colour to paint on. If you wish to retain the colour of the painting surface, use Golden's GAC 100 to seal it first.