Painting medium recipes | canada balsam
January 06, 2010
Canada Balsam Recipes
There are a lot of people reading this blog every day, and I assume that most are artists or students, especially since I blocked the massive traffic from certain IPs in China. Would anyone be interested in me posting recipes for mediums, gesso, stretching canvas, etc.? If so, please leave a comment.
01/06/10: Here’s one I like that gives a quick-drying, glossy medium:
Ingredients:
1 part copal concentrate
1 part canada balsam
1. Stir copal concentrate into canada balsam until blended
2. Use as is for a painting medium.
3. Dilute with turpentine at a 1:1 ratio of medium to turps.
08/26/10: Another Canada Balsam recipe. This one uses balsam and linseed oil or stand oil, and produces a controllable fusing of color.
Ingredients:
1 part canada balsam
1 part sun-thickened linseed oil or Stand Oil
1. The heavy-bodied oil and balsam produces a clear, straw colored painting and glazing medium which can be safely diluted with turpentine although we prefer to use Lavender Oil of Spike.
2. Stand oil should be substituted for sun thickened linseed oil. It is to be preferred as more permanent.
How to use:
Make your glaze with tubed paints or dry pigments, lay it in with thin layers. Apply it with your fingers or with a rag. This oil is excellent for glazing or for the last, finishing layers. Dries within 30 minutes. Venice turpentine performs somewhat like Canada balsam, dries slower and costs
much less.
08/26/10: A Canada Balsam retouch recipe:
If you want to retouch and achieve a very thin, high gloss finish Canada balsam is perfect.
Ingredients:
1 part canada balsam
2 parts lavender oil of spike or turpentine
1. Combine the two ingredients and stir into solution; warming the mixture in sunshine will help the dispersion.
How to use:
To retouch, lay in a couch of this medium thinly and paint into it while still wet. Dries within 30 minutes to a high gloss. A final coat of picture varnish will equalize any differences in the surface sheen.
08/26/10: Maroger’s recipe:
Double mastic is critical for making Maroger medium. It should be noted that Maroger had many mediums (16±?), and this is just one. His book is available online, although it’s expensive.
Ingredients:
16 parts mastic tears
24 parts turpentine
CAUTION: Do not smoke or expose to this to sparks or open flames. Very bad things can happen.
1. Mastic will not completely dissolve in turpentine unless the two are combined and
heated. Warm them with no exposed flame until the mastic melts, and stir thoroughly
to achieve a complete solution.
2. Allow the varnish to cool overnight.
3. The waxes and organic material will settle out, allowing you to carefully decant the
clear varnish to another container.
How to use:
Mixed Black Oil and Double Mastic in a 1:1 ratio to produce Maroger medium. For a final picture varnish, dilute 1 part Double Mastic with four parts turpentine.
Yes! I love seeing peoples recipes for color and mediums
Sounds grea,..t look foreword to it.
I will try this…. thanks for sharing…..
Hi Richard. Love your site! Yes please post recipes for mediums. This one does sound intriguing so I will likely mix some up since I have a small bottle of SP Congo Copal concentrate and plenty of Canada Balsam.
A couple of questions, do you dip and mix or mix the medium into the paint nuts?
Also are you using the copal on stretched linen or only on solid substrates?
Okay maybe more than a couple of questions ~ do you use the same concentration of medium in all layers of paint?
Thanks and, again, beautiful work ~ especially the figurative stuff ~ very inspiring!
Keron
Hey Keron, good to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words…
I’m getting ready for a studio visit, happening tomorrow, I’ll post those CB recipes when it’s over.
I always mix medium into my paint. I think it makes for stronger layers.
I start off with just stand oil, usually low-viscosity from Natural Pigments. As I build up layers I may add some CB to the stand oil, or some Copal medium from James Groves, depending on what I need the paint to do. The results I get are mostly brushwork though.