OK, the title of this post is a bit of misdirection. I mean to say ‘get the lead in.’ Quick-drying oil is very important for oil painting. Not only do quick-drying oils enable artists to finish paintings quickly, drying oils improve the way paint handles. It gives artists more control over the paint–an altogether good…
Serves me right. After I bragged about how rugged the Old Holland sable oil brushes are, this brush died, as you can see. It lost too many fibers and lost its usefulness. It lasted longer than most comparable oil sables, however, so I’ll buy more of them. In defense of Old Holland, oil kills sables…
The brands I use most often for the all-import flake white are RGH, Blue Ridge, and Utrecht. I crossed Utrecht off the list after discovering that they’ve added zinc to their Flemish white. I don’t buy the premier brands–Blockx, and Old Holland–anymore because the small manufacturers provide excellent paint at reasonable prices. Blockx is $92…
The painting on the floor, Arts Guild, is my newest painting. I’ve worked on it steadily this week. The underpainting is done and I started the first overpainting yesterday. It’s 40″ x 54.” Arts Guild is still a baby and has a long way to go before it grows up. On the left-hand canvas, I…
I explain why I banished Old Holland from my palette in this post. Even though I rate Old Holland’s oil paint the best in my Oil Paint Reference, their prices are so absurdly high that I refuse to use them. Besides, there is plenty of reasonably-priced vendors out there, such as RGH and Blue Ridge.…
Flake white is critical for oil painting. I buy flake white from RGH, Blue Ridge, and (occasionally) Utrecht. I discovered this past weekend that Utrecht doesn’t sell flake white any longer. This unwanted discovery kills the Utrecht brand for me. Their oil paint is decidedly on the low-end of professional brands. Except for their flake…
When I was starting, my budget restricted my paint choices to the cheapest brands. When I had some extra money (haha), I’d treat myself to a tube of Rembrandt paint. Rembrandt was decidedly low-end among the professional-grade oils, but a step up from my day-to-day paints. Rembrandt oils are still at the lower end of…
I’ve written a lot about the small paint manufacturer RGH for several reasons. First, I always support the small suppliers who are inspired by a high view of the craft. Suppliers such as RGH and James Grove are rare. Importantly, they continue to produce the all-important lead-based paints. Also, I use their stuff in my…