'Two Fujis' - oil on canvas. 5x5Oil painters often use mineral spirits, turpentine or Turpenoid for cleaning brushes and sometimes as a medium. Sadly, many newbies throw out a lot of it each session - wasting both the product and money, not to mention having adding a lot of toxic product to our fragile planet.
Thought I'd pass on an efficient, cleaner was to handle your solvent:
1. Get yourself two old food jars with good screw-on lids: one for dirty solvent; one for clean solvent.
2. Into a clean jars, pour a little solvent and use it sparing while you paint. Between colors, wipe your brush well on an old thick rag/towel. Often you can then go to your next color without rinsing the brush in solvent. You usually can get away with rinsing only when going from a dark color to a much lighter color.
3. At the end of your painting session, pour the dirty solvent into your second jar, put lid on tight.
4. Let the solution separate. After a few hours (or overnight) the dirty paint sludge will settle to the bottom.
5. Next painting session, carefully pour the clean solvent into your 'clean' jar - to use again.
This process can be done over and over. Your solvent will last for years. Or, better yet, avoid toxic solvets. Use Murphy's Oil, kitchen oil, painter's soap or other on-toxic product to clean your brushes. Now - go paint!
No comments:
Post a Comment