Oil Painting Medium from the Grocery Store, Are you Effing Serious?

I have so many things to share with you today, kids!

I first wanted to reflect on Oil Painting, as it is one of the most proven and tested art forms originating sometime in the middle ages. Jan Van Eyck has largely been credited for his notes on Oil Painting to the point where some would call him the originator but I don't think that's a very accurate statement. Oil Painting preceded The Big Eyck by many o' many years, though I would definitely recognize him as one of the first true masters of it.

Oil Painting as you may or may not know is based on the drying properties of certain oils. As they absorb oxygen floating in the atmosphere they form a stiff polymerized layer. "Drying" isn't really the right word considering that drying implies evaporation, but what really happens to drying oils is that oxidize. So if someone ever asks you if your painting is still "drying" go ahead and be a smarmy ass that no one likes and say:

"No sir, If I may be so bold as to correct you, my painting is actually oxidizing."

The oil paint that you are probably used to contains a refined linseed oil, but back in Eyck's day they mostly used walnut oils. That is, Oil expressed from walnuts. That's right, nut crunching. There are a few other types of drying oils available also: Safflower and Poppyseed, Perilla and a few others of marginal interest.

So lets get to the meat of the matter. The subject of my post says that you can actually buy grocery store oils and use them in your oil painting. Whoooa put down that canola spray. What were you thinking!? Remember only these drying oils listed are the ones we're looking for, but it gets a little more complicated than that as you can imagine. If you were to use nondrying oils such as mineral oils (baby oil), vegetable oil, peanut oil and yes canola oil, they would "not dry" and you would have splotchy parts on your painting if you mixed them with your regular paints

So let me share my little experience. I unwittingly bought some louanna safflower oil from food lion a while ago for $2.79. It said it was 100% pure, no additives or preservatives and I thought that was enough. Wrong. I found out that there were different extraction processes that affected the monounsatured fat %'s versus the polyunsaturated fat %'s. What I had was a frying oil. Turns out Louana specializes in deepfrying turkeys, (go figure) What I needed was the safflower oil which contains high polyunsatured fats, mainly linoleic acid. So as you can guess, after I tested the oil, (thankgod I tested it first), I found out it never dried. So I was out by $2.79.

I went to Harris teeter the next day and searched through their vast oil collection. Turns out they had what I needed. Small 12 oz. bottles of refined and unrefined walnut oil for $5.99. This time I checked the back label to find out that they both had higher polyunsaturated fat %s to the monounsaturated fats. So I bought a couple. I tested them to find that they dried overnight with the addition of a few drops of cobalt drier.
DING DING DING. Joey you win a prize. Now of course these aren't alkali treated oils like artist's oils are, so they may darken over time, but I just bought drying oils for a fraction of the cost. They mixed perfectly with my Winston Newton Brand Oil paints. My friend heard about my discovery so she bought and sent me some Safflower oil. It wasn't louana brand and it happened to have a high polyunsaturated fat % so I was in luck. Granted it still contained a preservative, vitamin E. But with a little cobalt drier, it dried perfectly over night. I don't suggest using oils with preservatives if you can help it though.

That $2.79 did not go to waste. Turns out that Safflower oil is better for you than canola oil and makes a great massage as it mixes perfectly with essential oils.

*Note: Sunflower oil and Safflower oil are two different types of oils and come from two very different sources and from what I understand Sunflower oil is not fit for painting with. Though I hear that Frito-Lay have switched to using sunflower oil in their potatoe chips because it's better for you.