Alkali Refined Linseed Oil is used to make our oil colors and we offer it as a medium. The linseed oil is filtered of mucilage and other impurities. Then the oil is treated with exactly small amounts alkali soda to expel impurities and soaps that naturally occur in plant based oils. Processes for treating oils with alkali soda is dated back to Ancient Egypt. This purified oil is the most neutral and consistent linseed oil medium for making artists’ oil colors and mediums.
Cold Pressed Linseed Oil is filtered, but unrefined. One aspect of cold pressed oils is that each season can produce slightly different underlying qualities of the oil. The weather conditions that the flax grow in varies every year. The Variations in temperature, sunlight, wind and rain effect the bouquet of fats, sugars and other biochemical that plant produces. These seasonal differences might seem arbitrary to the oil painter, but there are slight variations in pigment wetting and possibly curing time from one vintage to another. We use a refined oil for preparing pigments instead of unrefined so that our burnt sienna has a comparable rheology, color depth, and oil content from batch to batch. However, cold pressed linseed oil performs wonderfully for mulling your own pigments or preparing mediums like sun thickened linseed oil.
Safflower Oil has two distinctly different qualities, but only one quality is suitable for art materials. Majority of the safflower produced is high in oleic fatty acids, this quality is desirable for cosmetics and skin care, and it is commonly sold and does not dry, making it inferior to use as an oil medium. We carefully select our safflower oil to have the correct profile of fatty acids. The result is a drying oil that has less amber tones than linseed oil. Use with whites, pale and bright colors.
Walnut Oil is the pressed oil from the fruits of the walnut tree. It is a pale slow drying oil that is less yellow and cooler than linseed oil when cured. It will slow down the drying of oil paints and is the most suitable raw oil for glazing. It can also be used as an alternative to solvents during painting to clean color from brushes.
