Making oil paint
By Joseph Weinzettle
During the Creative Pinellas grant period, I began hand-mixing oil paint from dry pigment. I’m interested in finding transparent whites that will help me express Florida light en plein air.
I have a variety of white pigments for chalk gesso grounds (see previous blog) and will be using some of these as ingredients in oil paint. With the Creative Pinellas grant, I purchased aluminum paint tubes and oils for mixing–sallflower and linseed:
After mixing dry pigments (pictured are cristobalite and marble dust) and linseed and sallflower oil with a palette knife, I use the muller to blend the ingredients till it has a creamy consistency:
After the ingredients are mulled into paint, I scooped the paint into the open end of the tube. Then I tapped the cap end of the tube on the slab, to make the paint fill in the tube compactly.
The tubed paint is then crimped closed with a pair of canvas pliers. Tubes are labeled.
These hand-mixed paints will be field tested over time, and will be mixed with other white pigments and paint colors for various effects. This board (below) has fifteen teaspoonful size mixes. From this small test, I chose the combinations of pigment to hand-mix into larger batches for tubes. The tubed paint will now become part of my plein-air palette.
White pigment and oil mixes on board, 2020
