Saving Oil Paint

[Roena King]

Saving oil paint is always on the oil artist mind. (my opinion)

Everyone has heard how well putting paint in the freezer works, and I did that successfully for years.  Living in a motor home with a small freezer made that no longer work for me too well.

Next I heard about paint under water.  Surprisingly it works, and I did not need to refrigerate. I have some small Carmex Lip Gloss (stuff)  (the jar is 1.25" wide and 1" tall--small).  I can scrape up my little dabs and wipe off on the edge of the inside of the jar placing the extra paint around the edge.  That works well, and if the paint starts to get older - like for paintings you have not finished yet so you still want those colors - just dig them out and add a tiny drop of Linseed oil, mix up and put back in the jar.  Paint keeps for a month or so.  Eventually though, I had 15 of those little jars of dabs of paint.  Any jar that you can seal with water will work.  Fill completely bulging full of water....dont want any air. 

I still felt like I was wasting paint, I mean 15 jars!

After I painted the aspen painting I mixed a bunch of cad yellow and did not use it.  Next trip I made to Hobby Lobby I noticed that any paint that mentioned CADMIUM the price was about $27 --- considerably more than other colors that sold for $12+ or $8+.

My idea:

I bought some baby syringes at Walmart pharmacy (they charged me $.10 ea) - the nice thing is that there was no needle and it had a sort of thing on the end so you could not poke the babies mouth.  I put some plastic wrap over the syringe's end and then the cap.  I filled the hole with glue turning it into a seal able lid and stood on end til dry.  I loaded the paint in the syringe and put the plunger in.  I can see the color in the tube.

OH, I just combined all the little dabs of similar colors together.  I have a really dark purplish color, a lighter reddish brown color, a darker reddish brown color, and all that cad yellow.  All the other colors I mixed together and made a nice gray.  When I need gray I squirt some out and adjust it (lighter, darker, warmer, cooler).

The icing on the cake was when I found I could take the plunger out and add a similar color in the tube and re seal.  It is completely air tight.

Problem is that the size of the syringe was small and difficult to load.  A bit messy, but after wiping down it still worked.

Next I went on a quest to find something better, larger.  The syringe on the left in the photo above is a Normal Saline 10ml size. It comes with a screw on lid and is much larger and more easy to fill.  The opening for the filling end is slightly over 1 & quarter inch. 

I found a supplier in e-bay and ordered from him. The important thing is to verify that what you are getting has a screw on cap and NO needle. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300963103174?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_...

10mL Pre-Filled Saline leur lock Syringe Flush 0.9% Sodium Chloride - Lot of 7

You can contact David direct if you wish.  [e-mail] 

Be sure to tell him you want the syringe with no needle and the screw on cap on the end.  He sends you a PayPal invoice and you pay.  My transaction with David for the syringes was in September 2013.   His phone number is 704-770-1733 and he is in Charlotte, NC.  Free shipping. 

In the past I have also purchased empty 37ml metal paint tubes.  Problem there is they hold an enormous amount of paint.  I used them to pre mix my gray paint according to value that I used for the gray layer in the Flemish method of my seven layers paintings. 

So, am hoping this information might benefit those who want to save old paint or pre mix their favorite color to use all the time.

Roena

[Carolyn Brunsdon]

Here is another plein aire setup. I've looked at the palette garage, don't know which I will be purchasing. I like this concept because it allows you to position your paints in near vertical position so the light would be closer to the same on the support and the color.  Easy to clean and store. My biggest question is how does the paint do in the heat of day? (slip sliding away, la la, la...)

This is designed and sold through Camille Przewodek's web site, Interesting info there about digital help with color in Photoshop or? Contact info is:

Dale Axelrod

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Phones  (California, USA):

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Web sites  -----------------------------  www.finearttech.com

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Email ---------------------------------------  [e-mail]

 

[Gina Dalkin-Davis]

Thanks Roena for these wonderful suggestions on saving paint.  I'm going to use them.Cheers. Gina

[Roena King]

Oh, I forgot.  maskin tape to tape the L shaped box to be still on the palette.  smile

[Roena King]

Stu, that is a great invention.  

It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to make one myself.  Wouldnt have taken me so long, but I got hung up on it being transparent.  Once I understood it did not have to be transparent.......whala.....PVC pipe of desired length and desired diameter with black rubber "cork" to stop up the ends.  The paint support.........cardboard box cut in a triangle on the end, covered with foil (taped to secure of course).  The "oil of cloves" if desired........bandaid with some on the pad and tape to the back of the card board.  LOL  My mind whirls sometime.  

I also have more time than money. The saving of "original tube paint" I solved a few year back, I never squirt out paint, but rather, I dig paint out with my palette knife leaving a hole.  Being very careful to not contaminate the tube paint, at the end of the painting session, I simply put it back in the little dug out hole in the tube any original paint.

My issue that I was attempting to solve was "how to save the mixed paint left after a painting(s).  That is why I suggested to use the syringes. Roena 

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

If I had the energy you do and subzero Winters, I'd just keep on painting as well Donna.  I just got the Palette Garage about a month ago on the advice of a painting friend and it works real well for plein air painting,  There is a lot of time wasted on setup and cleanup in plein air painting and this is a major reducer of both.  Most folks lay out their blobs of paint on their palette at the start and scrape it at the end.  This device lets you keep your tube colors separate from your mixing piles and to pick up what you need with a palette knife and then just put the whole thing in the garage at the end.  You still have to scrape and wipe the palette, but you have just knocked about a half hour off of what is usually a 2 to 3 hour painting session (outdoors at least).  This might even allow you to paint outdoors in the winter Donna.  You could walk out in the snow and knock off one of those beauties in about an hour without freezing to death!    Stu

[Donna Spears Lauzon]

I just keep on painting Stu ..

[Stuart J. Gourlay]

For those who don't want to go to all this effort and are willing to spend a couple of bucks, check out the "Palette Garage" at www.palettegarage.com  This is a clear plastic tube with end caps that have some thick felt pads in them.  The felt pads are saturated with oil of clove buds (an antioxident) and an "L" shaped plastic holder for your paints slip into it when you are not painting.  When you paint, you take the little palette out of its garage and it attaches to your palette with little velcro tabs.  This is fabulous for outdoor painting.  The company that makes the "Best Brella" plein air umbrella makes these.  It is a nifty device and works very well.   The clove bud oil is often used as an air freshener and in dentistry; it is non-toxic and not that expensive.  Give it a look, because it gives you a really quick setup for your oil paints with no skin over the paint.   Stu

[Donna Spears Lauzon]

Did anyone ever tell you how amazing you are ? Well, you are !