Happy New Years Eve!

And a long answer to a comment...

A comment made on my last post requires more than just a quick reply back to the person who made it.  I appreciate all comments, but some need more than just a short reply.  I have deleted the comment because I’m going to argue her point here. I have great respect for the person who made it. I appreciate her concern, I just don’t agree with her on this one.

The comment...

“Do not use liquin. Ever. It is unstable. Even in small amounts it has destroyed paintings. If you would like photographs of the damage it has done I can send them. Check with the artist materials group page on FB if you would like to see a long list of artists discussing liquin damages. I wish I’d known sooner. I used it for years in small amounts to speed up the tacky stage. Your paintings aren’t archival if you are using it. The cracking and lifting completely destroyed some of the paintings I have. I switched to Gamblin products which are safe and archival.”

My reply…

First of all, I am not interested in My platform on Substack becoming one of those "who knows best without good information" threads.  The information that I put forth is always footnoted as it being my approach, use, or idea, not something to be taken as ‘the word’, always based on my own understanding of best practices and use.  I will add a disclaimer if I think it's a questionable practice so that my readers understand that they should investigate it for themselves, to be sure that their painting practice is based on knowledge, not opinion, and that they're making the best choices.

And while I appreciate that you have concerns about the use of a product, that is widely accepted and used by many artists, and has as much supportive foundation as I need to justify my using it as it's supposed to be used, it’s my decision to do that.

Thirdly, anytime that someone points me to information that is coming from a bunch of artists on a social media platform like FB, IG or Wet Canvas, I turn and go, no run, the other way.  I've regrettably been a part of those mosh pits of misinformation in the past, so I know that it's mostly a game of "my ego's bigger than your ego" bantering about mostly innacurate, unfounded information that isn't sufficiently backed up to be true.  So I won't let that happen here, I will simply delete all of this if it starts.    

To illustrate why opinions are so fraught with error, here's a link to a thread on Stroke Of Genius from around 2002, when Gamblin first released Neo Megilp.  The title of the thread is "A No Lead Maroger medium?".

Some of the artists chiming in are quite known… Rob Howard (founder of Studio Products ), William Whitney, Virgil Elliot, maybe not all still living but all knowledgeable in their time, and a number of others who may or may not actually know what they're talking about.  Rob Howard famously engaged in intensely degrading rants about anything that he didn't develop, use or sell.  Those rants continued against anyone who also developed and used painting materials, like Robert Gamblin, whose products he bashed constantly.  He also considers Ralph Mayer's Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques to be useless.  My point is, in the world of painting practices and materials, artists are subject to two main influences.  First is the onslaught of competitive marketing between manufacturers, who are all probably doing their best, but are trying to sell a product.  The second is the information that we gather from other painters, who may have gathered it from those same manufacturers and other painters, interpreted it, and spit it out to us disguised as their own knowledge, when in a class as a teacher, or in some social media group setting.       

As for Liquin… I've painted with it, almost since it was released to the art world, beginning in the early 1980's.  I still have some of those paintings, and I've seen some of those paintings over the years, and NOT one single painting shows any deterioration, or damage.  They appear to be just as fresh as they were when painted.  The substrates that they're painted on show more age than the surface of the paintings.  No cracking, no darkening, no indication of failure of the paint surface.   So I don't buy the "unstable" argument.  In fact, I've read the writings of a number of materials experts, and other artists, one an advisor to the board of the ASTM, who do not have an issue with Liguin as a viable medium If Used CORRECTLY.  Painters should look up the information that is provided by Winsor & Newton, a company that’s been in the art supply business since 1832 (191 years) that explains proper use, then  look up the contrary information about it, and then make their own informed decision.

A very well known, and highly collected landscape painter, Scott Christensen, promoted (not sure if he still does or not?) the use of Liquin in at least his first instructional video.  Since he put it out there in an instructional video, I’m sure he won’t mind me mentioning it for illustration purposes.  He used it in mixture with paint, “oiled out” between wet and dry layers with it, and even said he used it as a final varnish.  There’s not much controversy now that using it as a final varnish is a BIG No No.  Live and learn. So I wonder if all of those paintings painted for years by Scott, using Liquin in the way he did, are “destroyed”?  I doubt it.  There are other very well known painters painting today, who get BIG $$ for their work, who continue to use the highly contested Maroger medium.  Their choice.

I can list several products that I’ve used over the years that through my own experience, have become problems.  Gamblins’ Cold Wax Medium is one I won’t use any longer, and one to be very cautious of in how it’s used in order to prevent paint layers from not hardening properly.   Consequently, it’s possible for the surface paint to be scratched off.  Another material, Polyflax canvas made by Fredrix, will never see my brush with oil paint on it again.  I’ve experienced being able to scrape paint off with my fingernail, yet it’s still being sold as a substrate for oil painting.  It’s fine with acrylics, no issues. But for some reason whatever it’s primed with, or the process used, causes adhesion issues with oil paints. I experienced this way back in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, and again recently when I decide to try it again.  Fortunately I’ve only used it for small studies, which is how I discovered these issues.  Another one that I read on FB once is that All of the most accomplished painters all use one maker’s brush… (bulls**t!)  That was a silly one from the past.  But new artists listen intently and are more likely to think that these things are how it’s done. There are others.

The issue I’ve had with Liquin, Gamsol, and other petroleum based derivatives, which both of those products are, is that for me, they are a trigger for migraine headaches, which I suffered with for years.  I discovered this around 2014-2015, because I spent several months experimenting with water miscible oils of various brands.  During that time that I wasn’t using any Liquin or Gamsol in my studio, my migraines vanished. I don't know if it was the Liquin or the Gamsol, or both, but I recognized the problem and stopped using them.  Liquin does give off noxious fumes that can irritate the skin and lungs, many artists have experienced that problem.  I do know that after a year and a half of no migraines, meaning no petroleum based products in my studio, be it Liquin or Gamsol (or any other OMS), I opened a brush cleaner on my taboret with Gamsol in it.  Within an hour I had the beginning of a migraine aura.  I immediately closed the container, no more migraines.  I tried using walnut oil and safflower oil instead of solvents, to clean brushes.  I tried painting for a while with water miscible oils. I tried solvent free gels and fluids, and all that. For the way I like to paint with oil paint, I need driers and solvents. And don’t get me started on alternatives like Spike Lavender Oil and citrus based cleaners, or others.  They put more lung irritating fumes into the air that bother me than plain old triple distilled gum spirits of turpentine!  Instead I've slowly moved towards using water based media, mostly acrylics now, to avoid the toxicity inherent in those products.  And acrylics have their own issues… thoughts for another day.

So the health issue is a reason Not to use Liquin, Gamsol, or any other petroleum based solvent or medium.  I agree with that. What I do not agree with is that it's "unstable" whatever you mean by that?  Or that it has "destroyed paintings".  It turns color less than some of the advertised “non-yellowing” products that are being sold to us.  I made a test board to see how a number of these products aged.  This is evidence gained from my own testing of materials in a practical, non-scientific manner,  that will show that all that is preached, advertised, and praised by artists and manufacturers, is not always so.

This is my test board from 2015. I tested mediums and titanium white paints from various manufacturers that I had in my studio and used from time to time. I applied all of these products at the same time, set it in a protected area of the studio where no undue dirt or light would affect it.  The photo was taken about 6 months after making the board.  I think I’ve tossed the board now, but they continued to darken over time.  Seeing this was enough, however.  My writing is hard to read, but I think you can make out the labels enough to tell who made it and what it is.  What surprised me the most was the right hand column and the yellowing that took place with the Gamblin whites, both the quick drying and the Titanium white.  The whites that didn’t yellow as much probably have more zinc in them.  But it’s usually the vehicle, the oil that yellows, not the pigment.  I expected the Winsor and Newton Drying Linseed oil in the middle column to yellow, surprised that the Drying Poppyseed Oil yellowed as much too.  You can view the results of the Liquin, Galkyd and other mediums in the left hand column and see how each product darkened or remained the color it was when applied. Galkyd darkened the most, along with M.Graham alkyd walnut oil, Liguin showing the least amount of darkening. Winsor&Newton products, their Griffin Titanium White (alkyd), their Winton Titanium White (student grade), and their Liquin mediums (along with M.Graham Resin Titanium White and Utrecht Titanium White), show almost no yellowing. The point is that manufacturers will tell us that their product is “the one”, that it’s superior to others for whatever reason.  Some of that may be true, but it’s not all true, obviously.  What looking at my materials and supplies in this way does, in addition to researching the facts, is it gives me a basis for the choices I make.  You can choose to just listen to gossip and the manufacturers, or you can use their information, challenged by your own research, to make choices.

So let's get back to your comment - “I used it for many years to speed up the tacky stage".  What exactly do you mean by that?  Do you mean that you only used it in one stage of painting, in the early stage, or later, and not throughout the entire painting process?  I’m not sure what the means, but if that's true, the integrity of the paint layers are set up to fail, no matter what medium you use.  You cannot put a fast drying medium of any kind, or paint, over a slower drying surface, and especially when using one like Liguin that seals the layer underneath, preventing the paint underlayers from properly oxidizing and drying.  That will cause wrinkling, cracking and even peeling of the paint layers.  I’m questioning your practice, including materials involved, that resulted in this.  I have no way of knowing what those are, but it sounds like the situation is more complicated than your statement.

All art supplies have positives and negatives, and we all know that proper practice and use has changed enormously over the years.  Many of our revered painters used materials and procedures that are giving museum archivists daily headaches and challenges in their struggle to preserve our artistic heritage.  I doubt that many of us will ever have our work under such scrutiny or care, but it’s still a best practice to at least know what you’re doing based on your own research and decisions.  Then live with that, paint the way you want to paint and don’t let all this information weigh you down so that your art suffers.

I hope that what I’ve written here helps anyone who is wondering about their practice, to do some self investigating.  Ask accomplished painters, and manufacturers, but don’t take their word carte blanche without more information.  Do your homework.  If I think I’m practicing good studio methods but I find out I’m not, then by all means I will make a change.  This painting business is constantly evolving as the technology and materials evolve.   I believe it’s most important that we find a way that suits our own needs, that we’re comfortable with, so that the creativity of being a painter isn’t stymied by worry.  I admit to being a materials junkie and enjoying the investigation and experimentation that goes along with that.

Thanks for your comment.  My apologies for a long answer.

Happy New Year,

Marc

Keep your brushes wet!