A Few Tips on Staying Healthy when Painting with Oils

Tonight I wanted to write about some health issues with regard to painting with oil paints. If you can I hope to just give you some helpful tips on working with this type of medium. First, always paint in a well lighted area. Painting is a very "visual" art and you need to have good lighting to be able to see the colours you are working with. For lighting if you can have some good windows that let plenty of light in and be able to open them for ventilation is great. Have a well ventilated work space for your painting area. If you can open a window or try to use the low odour or odourless turp to clean and thin your paints with. There are water soluble oil paints on the market that you just use water with also. Another issue to think about, health wise, is try avoid skin contact with your paint, especially the cadmium oil paints. Some artist use rubber gloves to protect their skin from exposure to the materials in the paint and the solvents. Another tip to try to remember is to wear clothes you don't really care if you get paint on or wear an apron over your clothes to protect them. If you get the paint on your clothes, I believe it is very difficult to get it out. I got some oil paint accidently on the sleeve on one of my sweatshirts and have never really gotten it completely out after numerous washings. Another health issue is to never put your paint brush in your mouth like a pencil. some people will put the end of their pen or pencil in their mouth (a nervous habit) and this should never be done with your paint brush. The paints would be toxic to you if injested. Another important safety thing to remember is to never light a match or lighter to smoke around the solvent such as turp or mineral spirits. These fluids are highly flammable and you could set fire to yourself and your house/studio. Hopefully this information is helpful.

What do I need to get started painting with oils?

When I started to paint with oil paints back in 1985 I asked myself that question and had to basically figure out what all I needed as a beginner to get started painting with oil paints. I think I ended up buying an expensive oil paint box. This box comes with everything you need to get started painting with oil paints. The only problem is it is quite expensive and prohibitive for many people who cannot afford to pay for a nice paint box kit. I was living in South Africa at the time and actually ended up leaving it behind when I returned to the U.S. a year later. My husband bought me a new paint box kit to replace the one I left behind in South Africa. But while I was in South Africa I basically began to paint with oil paints and began to teach myself to paint from a book I had about oil painting.
Anyway in this post I will list the basic art material you need to get started with oil paints.
You will need:
Oil paints (I recommend primary colours: red, yellow, blue) Of these colours you can virtually mix all the other colours on the palette. As a beginner I would have the following colours to start:

*Titanium White (get a large tube of this as you will use lots of white)
*Cadmium yellow
*Cadmium red light
*Alizarin Crimson
*French Ultramarine Blue
*Winsor Green or Viridian
*Yellow Ochre
*Sap Green
*Paynes Gray
*Black (for beginners)
*Raw Umber (dark brown)
*Cadmium Orange (optional as you can mix this colour)

You will need brushes, try to get long handle bristle brushes
*brights, rounds and flats are good to start with
(you can get a variety of sizes, size 6 or 8 are good to start with)

You will need something to paint on. If you want to save money you can get a canvas pad. You just need to tape the sheets to a cardboard or glue them to a board of some type. You can also purchase canvas board or canvas panels as these are fairly economical.

You will need mineral spirits or turp to clean your brushes and to thin your paint with.
You will need some sort of easel. A table top easel is easy and cheap for beginners to start with.
Also linseed oil or poppy seed oil is good for adding to your paint. You will learn more about these things later.
You will need some sort of palette to put your paints on and to mix your paint on. You can buy disposable palettes or buy a plastic one or a wooden one.
Other items that are handy for painting with are an apron to protect your clothes, paper towels, a palette knife (I use mine to mix the paint with) an old rag is handy for wiping your brush occasionally. Old jars to put your turp in to wash your brushes.

You will need lots of patience as painting is a skill you have to build up and many people get frustrated because they do not like the results that they get. It takes time and lots of practice to get really good at painting with oils. Eventually you will improve and get better with practice.

You will need an area to paint in that has good lighting and good ventilation as this is a very visual art experience.

When you buy your supplies to start painting with keep in mind that "you get what you pay for" so if you buy cheap brushes, you will get cheap brushes that lose the bristles, and lose their shape easily. Try to get good quality art supplies and you will notice the difference either in the colours or brush performance almost immediately.

Glazing - What is it?

Glazing is a painting technique that is used in oil and acrylic painting. It is a process of painting "layers" of thin (hopefully) transparent paint over a dried painting to produce a rich deep colorful painting that has layers of transparent colors one on top of the other. Acrylic paint works great for this glazing technique as it dries very quickly. After you begin your painting you will have to wait for it to dry completely before you can proceed to paint the second layer over the first one. You need to use very thin diluted paint in the process. You can use oil paint with this technique but it will take longer to dry unless you use the Griffin Alkyd type of oil paints that dry faster than the regular oil paints. Some artists will have many different painting "in process of being painted" and can stop and let one dry and then just go on to another project they had put down for awhile. Sometimes it helps an artist to put a painting down for awhile and then come back to it with a fresh eye and then proceed with the project on to its finish. Glazing is great for painting such things as a creek bed with transparent water so see the rocks and things under the water. Painting water drops is another subject that you would use transparent glazing on. I recommend you try this technique, it is fun and can provide great results with your own paintings.

Using Acrylic Paints

In this post I wanted to write about using acrylic paints. I am primarily an oil painter but I do use acrylic paint from time to time for various things that I want to do because of the quick drying time and the ease of use of acrylic paints. One of the ways I will use acrylic paint is to tone my canvas with a yellow ochre or light orange colour prior to painting on it. What this does is gives the painting an all over colour or harmony as the initial painting is being done. The other reason I will tone with acrylic paint is you can see the colours better when you paint on a toned canvas than a white canvas. Another way I may use acrylic paints is after the toned colour is dry, I will paint an under painting with acrylic paint. Then go over that with oils where needed. I like the versatility of acrylic paint in the fact that it dries quickly and easy to clean up. No solvent smell as you use water to thin the paint and clean brushes with. Sometimes I feel a little pressured to hurry up due to the fast drying time and I like to take my time when I paint. But you can add a retarder medium to slow the drying time on acrylic paints if needed. So if you haven't tried acrylic paints I recommend you try them and see what they are like. Acrylic paint works great with oils as an under tone or under painting.

Cold Winter Weather

I just wanted to post about the winter weather here in Australia. The studio I have now is located out in a shed and is very cold in the winter. I have a small heater out there but it is still very cold. The studio I had before in our other house was located inside the house so I never worried about the weather because it didn't affect me. So I will have to wait awhile to work in my studio until the weather warms up to a more comfortable temperature to be able to paint in my studio. We have been getting alot of rain too which I was told was way more than they usually get in addition to the cold temperatures. I understand the temperature should start to warm up in September. I am looking forward to the warmer weather then I can work on my paintings again.

Painting on location or "en plein aire"

I have been living in Australia for a little more than 2 years and have been searching for other artist who enjoy painting outdoors or on location like I do. So far I have run into a brick wall as the people in my area just are not interested in this type of painting so I thought till last Saturday. I volunteer my time at the local art gallery for several hours a month and last Saturday I was there to do my volunteer time. Well, I finally met a fellow artist who is interested in painting outside! She has been trying to find someone to paint with her outside too for some time. She knows an artist that lives up north near Clare who goes out but not to our area very often. So we are planning to start to go out and paint in our area of our little town. There are numerous places to go to and lots of exciting places to check out and paint. She has been in this area for a lot longer than I have and knows all the good spots to go to but up until last Saturday couldn't find anyone to go paint with her till she met me. I have found that my paintings are much better when I do them on location than when I use a photograph. Seeing the real thing works better for me when I can paint outside.

Back on Australian Soil to Paint!

We got back last Tuesday, July 8th, and it has taken me nearly a week to get over the jet-lag. I am finally starting to feel my normal self. It was abit of a shock to come back to middle of winter after leaving summer in California. I was able to purchase a good camcorder and will start to create the video art lessons for the web site as soon as I can.
My next lesson I plan to teach to my class is going to be about "Brushstrokes" and what different types of brushes do. How to manipulate the brush to get the particular type of brush stroke you are striving for. Hopefully this lesson can be video taped for the website too.
I got really lucky while I was in California and got to meet two pretty famous artists who actually live in the same town my sister lives in. She knows one of them through her church friends and she didn't even know they were artists! She took me over to meet them and it was so exciting to get to meet Marilyn Simandle and Ted Goerschner! I actually have Ted's book and love his painting style. He paints in a very impressionistic "painterly" way. Here is a quote from Ted: "Most people overwork their paintings. Someone once said that detail is not a sign of industry but a sign of boredom. I feel that if you can create an effect with just one brushstroke, that takes genius. I like to give praise to painterly painters." Marilyn is also a fabulous artist and does some absolutely stunning work. I understand she started out painting in water-colour and now works with oil paint. Ted gave me some valuable advice and that was to paint as often as I can. That is what I tell my students also. He also gave me some tips on what art supplies to use such as canvas and paint brushes. It was such an honour to meet both of them.