Category: Turpentine diaries

Back home

We’re back home from a week-long vacation. Like all vacations, it was simultaneously relaxing and exhausting. I plan several posts about our virus-shadowed adventure through the south. Among other things, we visited the Knoxville Museum of Art. Today, I had time to clean this painting in preparation for its final varnishing.

Turp? OMS?

There is a lot of confusion among artists about turpentine and mineral spirits. Some YouTubers promote Gamasol as an alternative to turpentine. One even recommends Gamsol as a natural substitute for mineral spirits.(?) This particular artist provides commercial seminars on oil painting! Turpentine is distilled from the naturally-occurring resin from fir trees. It’s been used…