When I made the decision to crossover to oil painting from using only acrylic paints, I found the use of oil mediums to be very confusing. I researched the library, internet, product literature from the much advertised companies, and all I found were conflicting pieces of information that made me more confused than when I had started. After sorting through all the misinformation and with much of m
y own experimentation, I found what I believe to be a solid foundation comprising of historical methods with present-day science. After committing to use only oil-based paints for my own artwork, I wanted to be assured my finished pieces would not be altered in some way by using the wrong oil or the wrong paint. Everything is straightforward with water-based products, except it is impossible to get the depth and richness capable with oil paints. The introduction of tube paint and the permeation of commercial paints and mediums meant an addition of adulterants and contaminates. These additives are used for everything from reducing costs of more expensive materials, ensuring a long shelf life, and increasing sales. This in turn has caused an infiltration of the art market with these so-called "oil mediums," which do nothing but take advantage of artists by charging exorbitant prices and the only consistency being the delivery of substandard results. When I began to research the processes and artwork of the Old Masters, such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, and started to make my own pure and uncontaminated oil mediums using this process, all the frustration from using second-rate products melted away. All the money I spent on the excessive catalog of oils and mediums by "place any brand name here" seemed ridiculous. Now I understood how famous painters of the 17th and 18th centuries were able to make such masterpieces and it made me want to scream from the mountaintops! This sense of enlightenment was invigorating and compelled me to further my knowledge of this time-tested process. To successfully make these oils by hand, one must share an intimacy with every step of the process, every ingredient, every tool, and every reaction the oil has to its refinement. I wanted to share my hand-refined oil mediums with everyone and help remove the "commercial-made, inferior wool" from their eyes. It is my mission to create a "standard" for quality and advertising of artist materials. This would take nothing less than a moral and ethical revolution in the commercial manufacturing and marketing of artist paints and mediums. Oil painting began with hand-refined oils. Can you imagine great artists, such as Jan van Eyck, creating their master pieces with today’s bottled, mass-produced oils? Inconceivable! Over time, the original oil refining process has been lost to the desire for mass quantity over high quality. The Peters Family product is created using only high quality organic cold pressed oil. I begin with unrefined oil and through a detailed, well-researched, intimate refining process, I am able to create oil that is clean and pure of any unnecessary additives, thereby decreasing any yellow discoloration and enhancing polymerization, which means a faster drying time. Whether the oil-based paint you buy now is created using linseed, walnut, or alkyd resin, it's either raw or commercially refined. Commercially refined oils used in paints and mediums are manufactured to prolong shelf life, taking a very long time to dry, sometimes up to several weeks. This also eliminates any similarities to oils used by the old masters. Instead, you get the well-advertised "buttery" texture, which is nothing like a quality paint of olden. Adding any of my oils to commercial tube paint will strengthen the paint film when dried and help decrease the negative effects of the substandard additives used commercially. TPF oils will also stop the pigment from sinking and appear almost floating on the canvas. The walnut oils containing lead will speed up the drying process, have decreased film wrinkling, increased light refraction, and a tougher, glossier film when dry. None of the linseed oils contains lead or any other driers. Linseed oil naturally dries faster than walnut oil, but hand-refining this oil speeds up the process many times faster than walnut oil and will not wrinkle upon drying like other linseed oil products. With every artist who reads this, I hope you've developed a better understanding and the dire importance, of the materials you use. Many resources have been published (old and new) in regard to the methods I use, to process and refine oil. I am dedicated to conserving these methods and will gladly elaborate more (this includes instruction and publications) if you have any questions.
