A few of you have asked my what I use to paint. The simple answer is oil paint.
As for brands of paint, I typically go Utrecht Paint. You can’t beat their prices and for the most part, they have good pigments. Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton are good paint as well, but using them frequently will assuredly break your bank.
Side note: Winsor & Newton makes a “student grade” paint called Winton. Student Grade means, we paid the easter bunny to shit colors in a tube to sell to you at low low prices. Although they are pretty colors, they paint like shit. The staff at Art Materials try to pedal this shit knowing very well what it is. Where is your damn integrity Art Materials staff?
I cut the paint several different ways, when applying it to the canvas. Cutting it with Turpenoid gives a watery look, almost like working with watercolor. I have two, a clean and a dirty, to avoid contaminating the lighter pigments with the darker ones when switching. Linseed oil is pretty much the binder for the pigments, so adding it tends to make the paint more translucent (and takes forever to dry). Sometimes, when covering large areas with paint, I combine both linseed oil, mineral spirits, and the paint) Stand oil is just like linseed oil, just thicker–like honey. I rarely use it to paint directly, but to cut the harder paint to a consistency I like to work with (burnt umber always seems to come rock hard).
Below is a shot of my palette and how a typically set up the paints. My palette is just a scrap slab of acrylic I got from a sign company’s dumpster, and has been with me for 15 years now. Like most painters, I am quite proud of the paint build up on my palette over the years.
The way I paint, the oil takes about 24 hours to set-48 hours to dry. To avoid ruing my paintings by an itchy trigger finger when they are still wet, I tend to work on 4 or 5 paintings at a time, and switch them out, when they need time to dry.
So there you have it. Probably more information then you were asking for. But I’m a provider.
Also: a rant on art supply stores in Minneapolis area.
Utrecht Paint (Hennipen by MCTC ) I shop mostly at Utrecht paint store. Good damn prices. The dudes there are very cool people (and totally willing to work with you to order anything you need for their next shipment to avoid shipping prices–A+ service in my book, for sure). They are a meat and potatoes art supply store. If you are looking for something more obscure, then you should go to Wet Paint.
Dick Blick (pick a suburb) They carry shitty amateur supplies. Unless you are looking for a starter kit. As a matter of fact, that’s what I call them, “The Starter Kit Store–where grandma buys you your inspiration birthday gifts”. But they are all you got out in the suburbs besides Micheals Craft.
Art Materials (Lyndale + 27th) They have a lot of stuff you don’t need, little of what you do need, and their prices are stupid high. There are only a hand full of nice employees there; most of them are shit bags. They do have good sales on stretched canvas and illustration board.
Penco (Washington and something north of Hennipen ) Simply, they have a shitty location. Artists moved out of the warehouse district 20 years ago. They should, too. Maybe head to North East Arts District–y’ know, where all the artists moved to?
Wet Paint (Grand Ave in St. Paul) They have stupid-insulting high prices, but carry really good product. I go to buy stuff there that I can’t find anywhere else. Their staff are really awesome people that care about what they sell.
Side note: I hate the outside signs on the Wet Paint store. They are cheesy. Even Dick Blick wouldn’t stoop so low. They are a high end quality art product store, and they should look that way too. The signs are like forcing the Monopoly guy in a corn flower blue polyester leisure suit. *egch!
Class. Wet Paint, you symbolize class. Look the damn roll for Pete’s sake. A humble opinion.
And a good rule of thumb, be sure to see if Home Depot (or other local hardware) carry what you are looking for. You would be surprised how much product they have in common and you will assuredly find it at a cheaper price at a hardware store.
