Time as an art student (for me very early 1950s) was a
chance to experiment with artistic techniques. Of course, I would use oil
paint. But with meagre resources, this was an expensive item to buy.
So I bought
empty tin/lead tubes (mostly large ones) and, to fill them, ground my own
colours – either from powder colour or from more solid ingredients. (Working
sometimes in the theatre, powder colour was easily obtainable, and cheap.)
The ground colour was mixed with
linseed oil (probably the slower drying raw
in preference to the quicker drying boiled)
to help it set. I also added a little non-drying oil, like olive oil, to keep
the paint moist in the tube.
These open-ended tubes were
filled with my home-made paint, using a spatula. They were then folded over at
the open end, crimped together, and Vaseline applied to the cap’s thread and
around the top of the tube.
Over 65 years later I am still
using that home-made, home-tubed paint, even after the tubes lay idle for 25
years when I turned to writing.
The key to success when using
artist’s oil colour is the medium used to mix with it. So those researches at
art school allowed me to assess the pros and cons of materials, and of paint
and medium in particular.
I acquired a book (now missing) which
told of almost every conceivable medium and how to make and use it.
The most successful of my
experiments was a vastly superior and outright winner – emulsified beeswax. It
formed a matt surface on canvas and primed paper.
This beeswax not only made a
splendid medium for oil paint that I have used ever since discovering it, but
it has had the added benefit of being wonderful furniture and wooden sculpture
polish.
Briefly, lumps of beeswax are
melted in a galvanised iron bucket of boiling water. When still hot,
concentrated ammonia is added to emulsify it. The result is then allowed to
cool. A yellow wax crust will form on the surface, which is penetrated to allow
the ammonia laden water to be poured away from beneath it.
The crust is then warmed, before
turpentine substitute or white spirit is added. Oil of spike lavender can also
be added (though I have since found this to be unnecessary, except to add a
pleasant smell). The wax is warmed again (for fluidity) and bottled, then to be
used as medium for oil paint, or as polish.
Mixed with bought or home-made
oil paint, the result forms a formidable and long-lasting coloured surface.
Bird boxes, exposed to the
elements, painted as brickwork to match our London stock brick, east-facing
house wall, has, in ten years, not deteriorated one iota. And a newly painted
outside wooden sculpture should do the same.
Smooth surfaces painted with this
oil paint/beeswax mixture may also be polished when hardened.
As for using any paint/medium
mixture, constant use will enable the artist to forget the ingredients used,
knowing its qualities and limitations, and enable him or her to concentrate on
the content of the work of art in progress.
