Tad Spurgeon

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On one occasion when I was troublesome to my master Rembrandt, by asking him too many questions
respecting the causes of things, he replied very judiciously: "Try to put well in practice what you already know; in so
doing you will, in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about."
-- Van Hoogstraten, Inleyding, translated by Eastlake.

creative choices

As in all things human, there's no free lunch with oil painting materials. The process is about making the most
appropriate choices and compromises for a goal which is often receding as fast as we are moving towards it. As in
life, the truth with regard to oil painting technique is often complex: attempts to reduce it to the yes/no framework of
Aristotelian logic result in a false simplicity from the false strength of the "logic" itself. Sometimes this situation is
well-meaning, but more often it is misleading for a commercial purpose. True simplicity is the result of true
understanding, but, paradoxically, true understanding is the result of a thorough exploration of complexity. To accept
someone else's results in this field can abrogate one's own native possibilities for creative development. Whether,
as a painter, one's field even includes the craft and to what extent is of course a personal decision.
Older paintings were usually made with materials manufactured by the painter and/or the painter's workshop.
Modern paintings -- nineteenth and twentieth century work -- are more typically made with materials purchased at
the art supply store. It is still possible, of course, to choose to make one's own materials as part of the process of
making a painting. This path is in the interesting position of being culturally sanctioned for dead painters, but often
held to be equivocal for living ones. But if you are intrigued by the how and why of older painting techniques, if the
process shares the stage with the product, the information that follows may be interesting.

history

Starting in 2002 I became involved in exploring the materials used in older painting. This unusual combination of
research and snipe hunt ultimately developed a life of its own which was fun if a bit obsessive at times. At the end
of 2006 I realized that, just a suddenly as it had begun, the more active part of this search was over. This was due
to the realization that no Holy Grail existed: I had reconstructed many older ways of working and the next step was
to explore one in depth. This decision quickly proved effective in terms of the work. Although most of the emphasis
in this department is usually on resins and mediums, I found that I made the most progress ultimately by
addressing the oil itself. This brings up the subject of balance, and the way older methods and materials existed as
a gestalt or family. I found that by eliminating raw oil from the process, and always using oil which had been, in the
words of the National Gallery Bulletins, slightly heat-bodied, I was able to work with much less hard resin (amber,
copal, or sandarac) involved because the reaction of the resin was dramatically enhanced by the heat bodied oil.
This oil is not thickened significantly, and using modern methods can be made without darkening, but it creates
paint with a different rheology than modern tube paint. This also helped to create paint which dries quickly with a
minimum addition of resin or drying oil. So, the family of materials that came together, using the Strassburg Method
(see Formulas) as a point of departure, is:
Panels covered with linen and glue gesso made with titanium white, quartz, and marble dust.
Paint made with various heat bodied oils.
Small amount of hard resin added to the paint on the palette. Usually amber, homemade from light-colored
Latvian jewelry waste.
Paint on the palette may be further enriched in finishing layers with small addition of walnut sun oil, usually
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dark colors.
Initial layers thinned with turpentine, subsequent layers thinned with painting oil (see Formulas for recipe).
Very thin couch used in final layers using Fir Medium (see Formulas).
Intermediate layers sanded lightly using 400-600 paper (see Formulas).
White made with heat bodied oils and various combinations of lead carbonate, marble dust, and ground
leaded glass. No hard resin varnish is added to the white until possibly in the final impasto stage.
Various impasto mediums based on exposure-thickened Eminent Oil and/or walnut sun oil with inert
additions of calcite, marble dust, and/or ground leaded glass used in the final layers.

But, interestingly, this "final" resin-oil process proved to be a stepping stone to something more technically
reliable; both simpler and more complex.

just oil

In the winter of 2006-2007, after getting a copy of the Rembrandt book from the National Gallery "Art in the Making"
series, I began more actively working on a system involving just oil, no resin, following the technical findings of the
book with regard to Rembrandt's paint. This system has progressed in the year of 2007 to encompass materials
that were beyond anything I could have imagined. But then, I was prejudiced in favor of resins, and had a limited
imagination with regard to oil. In 2008 I'm continuing to refine what can be done with a simple mixture of stone dust
and oil, it continues to boggle my mind. Commercial putties are beginning to appear, a commercial silica gel has
appeared. The important thing to understand here is that these are easy materials to make, and make to exactly
your own way of working. The crucial factor is the quality of the oil.

It turns out that a great many different

rheologies can be created by variations on
refining, heating, aging, sun-thickening, and
adding traditional driers to the oil.

system

So much about painting works against system: it's at least good to have one in mind. There are two I use, and they
are opposites. The first is an alla prima system which starts from a warm, dark, transparent, medium-rich
underpainting and moves towards cool, light, opaque paint through translucent midtones. Because the paint is
going on in one continuous wet-in-wet layer, this system can use a rich, thixotropic medium with as much abandon
as I can effectively handle. I use this technique for studies from life in the studio and for landscapes outside.
The second system uses layers and works from cool towards warm. The underpainting is done in black and
white with a small amount of red earth for the shadows. The values in the underpainting are kept very high, with no
true darks. As the painting progresses, the values drop slowly: the medium becomes richer, and the darks become
darker while still maintaining transparence. In the final layers, impasto can be built up in the lights.

lost and found

The search for lost secrets began in earnest in the first half of the nineteenth century, both Eastlake and Merimee
conclude that older paintings had fared better over time due to their hard resin content, the use of amber or copal
varnish in the paint. Eastlake traced the addition of a resin varnish back to the fifteenth century Strassburg
Manuscript, and in England in the nineteenth century a hard resin revival took place, amber and copal mediums
being popular as well as various varieties of mastic gel medium. Modern research done by the National Gallery in
London on older paintings has turned up very little in the way of hard resin used in the paint: some pine resin in Van
Dyck but no mastic even, a few soft resin glazes in Rembrandt but almost all paint samples simply reading as

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linseed oil. Velsquez has long been known to have used simply calcite and sun oil. There has been an
undercurrent among painters and scholars that the research wasn't "finding everything". Given the nineteenth
century involvement with resin and old master effects, this may seem logical. But the research has found sandarac
varnish layers that are approximately five centuries old, one a spirit varnish and one an oil varnish. In this context its
important to note that the nineteenth century was also involved in commercially prepared paint made with raw oil
and further modified to prevent it from drying in the tube. Experience has shown that it's possible, using various
combinations of modified oil, to produce the sculptural and thixotropic effects associated with hard resin varnishes:
see below. The key to this is that the paint itself -- and/or the putty medium -- must be made with what the National
Gallery Bulletins call a "slightly heat-bodied oil". This paint has inherently more body and saturation than raw oil
paint. The use of raw oil paint can lead to the perceived need for resin.
De Mayerne recorded that Gentileschi used amber varnish, and De Mayerne himself was an amber enthusiast.
But the Gentileschi painting analyzed by the Getty proved to be made with copal varnish. For me the summary
effect of all this information has been to question how much these secrets have been lost, and how much many of
them have simply been found. There are many ingenious combinations of materials possible, especially in the
realm of resins and gels, it goes on and on. But it seems to get art tangled up in the idea that a specific form of
arcane knowledge is necessary for the success of an endeavor. But real art and real painting exist beyond the
realm of ideas, in the realm of commitment. The search for secret ingredients and formulas is not a substitute for
the genuine practice of the craft. This is the essence of Rembrandt's advice to Van Hoogstraten: the authentic craft
develops naturally from one's own experience. So, it seems reasonable to suggest that the search is not for
various "lost secrets", but for one's own practice. It is in fact easy to simply start making materials. At first they may
not be great, but a realer process has begun.

the great linseed oil purification ritual

In the winter of 2007, I took the Allback

Organic Cold Pressed Swedish Linseed Oil
and refined it according to the instructions in
De Mayerne, Eastlake, Merrifield, et al, using
water, sand, and salt. It took six weeks for it to
stop expelling, the final wash was with water.
The final oil was lighter, but slightly cloudy. I
then put various inert substances of the
literature into it, including barytes, marble dust,
and bread crumbs, but clarification happened
quickly, along with an element of lightening,
when I added a small amount of lead
carbonate, again one of the historical additions
recommended in De Mayerne. Comparison
photo of the oil as it arrives and the lighter oil after processing. The processed oil is thinner, having been essentially
de-fatted. It also seems to dry differently, not forming a skin but thickening throughout. It also dries much faster than
the raw oil, which I'd point out in the context of the current interest in unrefined oil. Beyond this I haven't gone yet, as
of July 2007, but there are still several avenues to explore even at this stage. In a situation where someone actually
knew what they were doing, this process would still take at least two months. Somehow I don't see this as the
starting point of any modern manufacturing process.
There are many paints which are still made with linseed oil. Sometimes the manufacturers point to recent
research which shows, for example, that Rembrandt's medium was principally linseed oil. However, Rembrandt's
medium was not the alkali refined oil expressed by heat of modern commerce. So, just from the point of view of
that battered immensely inconvenient old problem, the truth, it's important to realize that commercial tube paint,
whatever the claims of the manufacturer and well-known modern artists who use it, is still commercial tube paint,
with a specific set of pros and cons by its very nature. While it may be made with linseed oil, that oil is very different
than the linseed oil used by older painters.

linseed oil update 1-08

The first linseed oil I refined by washing it with salt, sand, and water, is almost a year old. I've been keeping it in the
window. The recent samples taken a month ago appear to be yellowing less, this is about at the yellowing rate now
of refined walnut oil. A test I made using the acid activated bentonite bleaching clay of commerce has finally
cleared after months and lost all color. It is very slow to dry, though, logical. But might prove a good starting point
for another procedure. The experiments with an oil treated with litharge have proven to give the oil which dries the
fastest of all linseed oils made in the tests, about 48 hours in winter, low heat but also low humidity. This also
appears to yellow less as it ages: even two to three months aging produces an oil which yellows at the low rate of
refined walnut oil, perhaps less. The cold leaded oil also dries differently, has very little tendency to form a skin in
the usual manner.

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At this point it seems like the most crucial factor is the cold-pressed organic oil and aging in sunlight after
processing. While neither of these processes yields, for example, something which dries as truly clear as the longto-dry sunflower oil, they both yield oils which are pale straw color on drying and dry quickly: the washed in three
days, the cold-leaded oil in two.

linseed oil update 4-08

I placed all the oil I originally washed in the windowsill. some was closed, some was open to the air through a lid of
folded cheesecloth. This oil has become a pale straw color, just noticeably lighter than the remaining oil, which has
also lightened over the year. I've been using this oil in various putty formulas for the last few months, it dries quickly
and hard. Yellowing tests show it to yellow at about the rate of walnut oil.

heat bodied oil

"Heat pre-polymerization has several effects on the oil. Drying properties are improved and are further enhanced by
the addition of metal salts (usually those of lead) during the process. The refractive index of the oil is increased,
thus reducing light scattering at the pigment-medium interface and thereby increasing the saturation of the pigment
colour; the paint film may also have a glossier appearance. The pigment is less liable to sink in the oil film, which
itself decreases less in volume than a conventional oil film, reducing the amount of wrinkling that may occur. White
paints appear less discoloured because, as the polyunsaturated fatty acids initially present in the paint film are
destroyed by the formation of carbon-carbon single bonds, there is less scope for the formation of chromophoric
and auxochemic groups, the presence of which give the yellow appearance to the film." From Rembrandt and his
Circle: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paint Media Re-Examined by Raymond White and Jo Kirby. National Gallery
Technical Bulletin volume 15.

heat-bodied paint

An example of paint made with "slightly heatbodied oil". Also an example of something that
is a genuine aspect of older painting. I make it
relatively soft for a longer life in the tube but
the body given the paint by the heated oil is
still quite apparent: no other ingredients, just
pigment and oil. This is old Mount Amiata Raw
Sienna, a great color.

calcium putty

This is made with finely ground calcite or

marble dust mixed with a mix of semi-heat
bodied and sun walnut oil. It can be made in
any degree of thickness and acts as an
immobilizing medium in various degrees. It
can also be thinned with solvent or a small
amount of thinner oil. This should be tubed for
long term storage or made fresh on the
palette. There are many different varieties of
calcium carbonate: natural and precipitated
chalk, marble dust, the whiting sold to potters.
They all have slightly different characteristics
in putty: marble dust being more gluey or
slumpy, natural chalk absorbing almost twice
as much oil and having more mobility and natural thixotropy. The ratio of thin to thick oil also comes to bear here.
Putty can be made to work with the finest method, or the most expressive.
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chalk

Chalk comes in many different varieties. Because chalk is

absorbent, it creates a mobile but also thixotropic or "boingy"
putty. Pictured, the very fine Ruegen Chalk from Kremer
Pigments, mixed with walnut oil. Capable of great detail and
fine impasto-relief.

The coarser "French Chalk" available from Graphic Chemical,

still not gritty but firmer in working.

calcite

Like marble dust, the putty made from calcite is relatively

white but more gluey and slumping than putty made with
chalk.

mixed putty

Made with a combination of calcium

carbonate, cristobalite, and a small proportion
of bentonite. Whiter without the bentonite, but
this gives it an extra ability to make detail as
seen in this close-up.

egg putty

Small amounts of egg -- whole, yolk, white --

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can be added to a putty to create different

qualities of seizure. Photo here of two tests of
a chalk-linseed oil putty with a small addition
of egg white.

putty possibilities

A painting putty can be made with a somewhat dizzying variety of inert ingredients and oils. There are several
varieties of calcium carbonate available. A chalk putty is soft, natural chalks tend to have a warm or cool tone,
chalk is the most widely used ingredient found in older paintings. A marble dust or calcite putty is more adhesive,
the widely available Fredericks marble dust works well for this, very white, relatively transparent in oil. There are
also many commercial marble dust mixtures available in bulk from pottery suppliers, the minimum mesh for a
gritless putty is #400. Gypsum, calcium sulphate, can be used. Blanc fixe, barium sulphate, can also be used and
is virtually transparent in oil. The fine silicas available to potters can be used as well, these add an unusual dryness
to the putty, use all possible caution and wear a serious respiratory mask when dealing with fine silica. Another
interesting and very fine silica is the cristobalite available from Kremer, alas no longer in this country. Another
completely transparent silica would be one of the many very fine fumed silicas available. I've used Cabosil, serious
respiratory warning here, very light and flocculant material. Bentonite adds a characteristic bounce, or boing, but
makes for a more colored putty even in small amounts. Leaded glass and fine glass "beads" can also be used, but
both of these will impart a bit of grit to the mixture.
With the oils used to make a putty, I've stayed away from any raw oil when using the putty with commercial
paint. The foundation oil is a walnut oil heated to a little over 100C for three or four days. A small amount of sun oil
or other thicker oil can be added for a putty which dries with a gloss. Even in very small amounts, a burnt plate oil
contributes significantly to the saturation of the putty, see Formulas for more on these interesting oils. Sun oil is
also possible and is a traditional ingredient in the calcite putty of Velsquez, although probably not made as thickly
as the usual sun oil of commerce. The thinner Kremer sun oils might be more appropriate here, although sun oil of
this viscosity is easy to make oneself.
A commercial putty is available from Sennelier, but it has everything but the kitchen sink in it, unnecessary.

Above, an assortment of putties showing different rheologies. Number one above is made with Graphic Chemical
calcium carbonate, finer and less gluey than marble dust, good for fine work but still pretty adhesive. Number two is
a natural chalk putty with a small addition of egg white which increases the spring or boing, can be used with soft
brushes in spite of apparent viscosity. More mobile than Number one. Number three is natural chalk with a small
addition of Cabosil. Very different as a result, a bit gelatinous, even more slide. Number four is a marble dust putty,
needs to be on the thinner side for finer work. Number five is a more dense marble dust putty using small additions
of Burnt Plate Oil as well. For use with bristle brushes, soft brushes could not budge this.

Below, detail of a rose in progress made with

a mixed putty system, putty does not need to
be thick. Four times life size, two working
sessions on successive days. Detail of a rose
in progress made with a mixed putty system,

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putty does not need to be thick. Four times life

size, two working sessions on successive
days.

putty color

The putty medium offers a type and subtlety of

color manipulation not possible otherwise. Set
up shows Venetian Red about to be cut
progressively with chalk putty, lead white, and
titanium white.

The chalk putty creates warmer values by far

as dilution increases. Note the pronounced
color-obliteration and blueness of uncut
titanium in comparison. This effect can be
ameliorated to some extent by pre-cutting
titanium white with putty before use.

maximum chromatic shift

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Older paintings by painters who used a chalk medium often exhibit a technique for maximizing the chromatic shift
available from a palette of relatively low chroma earth colors, black, and white. This technique involves using the
warm colors -- yellow ochre, raw sienna, venetian red, burnt sienna, and including black -- without white, the lighter
values of these colors being made by the chalk putty medium. A layer of these goes down first, followed by a cool,
opaque layer using only black and white. By controlling the amount in which these distinct warm and cool layers
remain separate or blend together via the putty medium, a great deal can be accomplished in one layer while
keeping the color, value, and temperature clean. The eye perceives more chroma because of the exclusion of
white from the warmer values. As with any technique, more is possible through experience and practice.
Landscape, 1640, by Rembrandt below. The warm colors are beneath, anything with white, mostly greys, on top.

consistency

One of the things it took time

to figure out was that the
inherent adhesiveness of the
putty would overcome a looser

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or thinner consistency, that it

didn't need to sit up in order to
alter the paint appropriately.
So, over time, I've found
myself making putties that are
thinner but also maintaining a
small amount of thicker oil for
saturation, see recipe below.

a simple putty

A good example of how much trial and error it takes to make something simple, this recipe took over a year to
develop. 1 cup chalk, 2T 72 hour walnut oil, 4T 48 hour walnut oil, 2T slightly thicker linseed oil, 1t sun oil. Nice
balance of movement and body, will break if tubed or stored but that's not an issue in practice. A small amount of
Cabosil keeps it from breaking but produces a very different feel, much more slide. A small amount of egg white
produces a slight increase in thixotropy and set.

a complex putty

Designed to create soft and mobile paint with great saturation, much more for expressive than tight work.
Amount is just a little more than a large Kremer tube.
1c marble dust, 1c Imsil A-25 silica, 5T walnut oil, heated 72 hours to about 240F, 1T 2 hr fumed walnut oil, 1T
BPO #5, 1T BPO #7. Burnt plate oils are from Graphic Chemical. Silica is optional, can be chalk or all marble dust.
Can of course be thickened or thinned as needed on the palette, all putty formulas are flexible,v although more so
in the thick department on panels.

putty extension

Blockx Ultramarine Light, cut with approximately one, two, four, eight, and sixteen parts putty.

The mixtures showing the slight opacity of the putty medium allowing an unusual control over value without the use
of white.

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The one to sixteen blue from above with approximately twice the amount of putty medium.

The above mixed showing various textures possible and the manner in which a putty medium can be used to make
a translucent film which operates as neither a glaze nor a scumble.

putty variations

There are many interesting variations possible based on the idea of fine inert stone dusts and various combinations
of oil.

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As this gel sits overnight, it clarifies. Shown, a slice of it, about an inch or so high, on the palette. Not as fast to dry
as the putties, but virtually transparent. Made with fumed silica, the commercial variety Cabosil.

thickened eminent oil

The leaded oil recipe adapted from the first volume of Eastlake thickens and becomes gelatinous on exposure to
air, will ultimately become a viscous taffy, immobilizing paint in the same manner as a thick solution of damar. This
can be replenished, lidded, etc. to control the viscosity for a particular method of working. Clouds in transit, dries
clear.

white

One of the features of developing this

resinless system has been several different
whites on the palette at once with different
degrees of adhesiveness or flow. The more
calcite in the paint, the more inherent
adhesion. Also, the longer the paint oil has
been heat-bodied, the tighter the paint in spite
of puddling. A very small amount of solvent or
unheated oil will introduce flow. This picture
illustrates
the
general
chaos
that
accompanies this procedure, but in the end it
seems one white at each end of the stick-flow
axis will be enough.

rheology

Below is a series of illustrations of different rheologies possible with lead white without the use of resins.

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The players. Left: a tube of lead white made with walnut oil that has been heated to about 225 degrees F for 72
hours. Middle: The yolk of an organic egg. Right: Sun walnut oil.

The white as it comes out of the tube is dense but slumpy and adhesive, somewhat stringy but stays put.

A small amount of egg yolk is added.

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The white seizes dramatically, essentially becoming an immobile mass.

Dense, crisp white with egg yolk incorporated. Will make highly defined detail and/or stiffen other paints
significantly.

Sun walnut oil added.

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The paint relaxes and strings readily. This paint moves easily under a soft brush but also stay put.

More egg introduced.

Egg incorporated.

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More straight paint introduced.

White which is smooth and bouncy but will maintain and hold significant texture.

two

Another resinless method of creating a white capable of great texture is illustrated below.

The players. On the left, a tube of white made with lead carbonate, calcium carbonate, and walnut oil that's been
heated to about 225-250 F for 72 hours. On the right, a jar of modified oil. All traditional ingredients used in painting
since its recorded history began: and, no resins.

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While I mix it as tightly as I can by hand, the white as it comes out of the tube is quite loose, stringy, but surprisingly
adhesive.

A very small amount of the oil is needed.

The white begins to thicken or gel as the oil is mixed in.

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Once the oil has been mixed thoroughly, the white makes impasto which will stay put or move without being sticky.
This is quite a stiff mixture, and would stiffen other colors accordingly. More white added now would make a
smoother gel. However, the stiffer mix will take color on top without blending. Or can be blended a small amount
through pressure of the brush.

Slightly larger than life detail of an alla prima study of onions from life done with paint made with slightly heat-bodied
oil extended with calcite putty and the white detailed above. While this isn't exactly great, the fascination of this
system is that there's no limiting factor except perhaps experience on the one hand, exhaustion on the other. The
paint can be added to, carved, blended, removed, to any degree. There is no resin in this paint.

three

Another white made with older technology gleaned from the National Gallery Technical Bulletins.

Just the paint and a knife are needed.

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The paint responds to friction and becomes a tight mass.

The above photos illustrate the complex rheological possibilities available to the painter using a traditional system
of oil alone with no additional resins. This means, in addition, no solvents: brushes are kept in oil, washed in soap
and water. The more I work with this system, the more it develops: perhaps more subtly after the first year or so,
but it hasn't lost a sense of constant improvement and expansion. The decision to work with this system came as
a result of questioning just what motivated my prejudices with regard to resins and their use. With the exception of
the clear gel variation, which employs a modern fumed silica, all materials used on this page are documented in
earlier literature and were available to oil painters from the time the process was invented. There are many
technical tricks available now, but if you are interested in the deeper aspects of the older craft process, I feel the
key is to study the oil.

"Whatever comes from sight, hearing, learning from experience: this I prefer."
--Heraclitus, Fragments, XIV (circa BCE 500)

For further information on technique or a specific painting please contact tadspurgeon@comcast.net

copyright 2002-2012 by Tad Spurgeon. All rights reserved.
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