13 November, 2013

Going green with Cobra

My house stinks of kerosene at the moment because i accidentally spilled some on the floor and egads, it is awful! I use the kerosene to clean my brushes. I also use turpentine (sometimes the smelly kind! ) and I have destroyed many an item of clothing and some upholstery with my clumsy distribution of oil paint. The studio is pungent( even the ever faithful hounds have upped and left) , the house is not smelling good and the family…the family have said ENOUGH.
We are revolting, they said. ( I agreed but they told me I was off-topic) .
No more smelly stuff in the house, open the windows or go outside , anything but STOP stinking us out.
I was at pains to tell them the windows WERE open and I WAS painting outside but it's the indoors cleanup that makes the most stink and mess.
Tough, they said, make a plan. Either make it better or stop.

So, I am taking a leaf out of Richard Robinson's book and converting to water-mixable paints. Walnut oil as medium, gloves on hands, water as clean up…….going green.

I have watched Richard paint with a variety of paints over the past few years and he seems to have settled on Cobra by the dutch company Royal Talens, so I will give them a try as my first point of call. ( the Dutch know paint!)

I suspect there will be some teething issues as I get to grips with the challenges associated with any medium change, but I have done my research and have read a bit about them.You have to start somewhere!

Water is for cleaning up, not the actual painting. For that ,the mediums are either linseed or walnut or any of the commercial painting mediums available. I am changing to Walnut oil. I reckon I can use it in salad dressing if it does not work out for me!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwxc7iPdQso

So, I shall continue to use up the last of my trusty Windsor and Newton, Schmincke and Archival oils and await the arrival of the new paints and hope I get a grace period of smelly clean up from my family.



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