Tad Spurgeon

oil paintings

Nobody expects the pastoral resistance.

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unsun oil
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history

This oil began with a pet theory, always a little dangerous. But it seemed that several different
older Dutch painters had access to a medium that was somewhat gelatinous: it flowed but also
held. What was it? The usual answers to this question involve a resin. But resins don't show up in
modern conservation research nearly as often as they show up in the many theories of scholars
and purveyors. After abandoning resins -- and solvents -- for the chalk and oil putty medium, I
began to work directly with the oil. The more experience accumulated in the context of 17th Century
formulas, the more it began to seem possible that this mystery medium was simply an oil which
had been specifically modified. But how? Many experiments were subsequently undertaken to try to
create an oil with the right characteristics using period materials and techniques. This took several
years, using the formulas in the De Mayerne manuscript as a point of departure. While there are
several related lead technologies which produce a somewhat modified and thicker oil -- see oil
formulas for more on this -- I kept returning to working with the simplicity of the metal itself.

lead metal

If a thin layer of oil is put in

a lead tray open to the air, a
complex series of reactions
take place over time, resulting
in an oil which is thick and
polymerized on the one hand,
but with a different rheology
than stand oil or sun oil. This
process takes several months
at room temperature, I've let it
go as long as seven months.
Up until a very thick viscosity,
this oil has the unique
characteristic of both holding
and sliding.

consistency

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The oil produced by this

process has significantly more
body than raw oil, but is not
sticky or glutinous like stand oil
or sun oil. It begins cloudy, but
clears over time. The cloudy
oil
dries
transparently,
however.

impasto white

Used quite thick, this oil

can be used to make white
lead paint seize. A very small
amount will immobilize a large
amount of handmade white
lead paint, turning it into an
impasto paint with no other
ingredients.
On the right, handmade
lead white paint and a small
amount of thick unsun oil.

When the unsun oil is

mixed into the paint, the
rheology changes dramatically.

yellowing

But a cold leaded oil which is made from raw oil has a significant tendency to yellow over time
on drying. This is not an issue in the above application, but is a major issue in all but the opening
warm layer of a painting. The material seemed like it had promise, how to keep it from yellowing
became the next priority.

pre-polymerization

If the oil is heat prepolymerized first at a low level

-- 100 to 110 C, 48 to 72 hours
-- before it is introduced to the
lead, no yellowing takes place
in the final product. This is a
procedure I began doing in an
attempt to artificially age the
oil, "old" oil being universally
feted in the older texts. This is
a slightly different concept than
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the "semi heat bodied oil" from

the National Gallery Technical
Bulletin research into 17th
Century Dutch painting. What was actually done to the oil then of course cannot be known: also the
degree of heat involved. But this process results in a very useful product: the real goal.
On the right, the relatively thick skin from a jar of unsun oil. Much thicker than would be used in
actual practice. Not quite fully dry, some spots still have a bit of cloudiness.

Another image of a holding

jar of thick unsun oil, showing
the way it dries clear and
without yellowing.

in use

Unsun oil can be used at several different viscosities. When thinned with spike lavender or prepolymerized oil it becomes a family of mediums which can function in any number of ways . At the
thicker end of the scale, it can be effective in a rich, broken surface alla prima style. The thicker oil
can also be cut with heat pre-polymerized oil to produce a range of working oils for painting. In
practice for layered realism, unsun oil cut with two parts of heat pre-polymerized oil works well for
all but the final layers, when a one to one cut is used. These materials are similar in character to
the Oil of Delft family of recipes created by Donald Fels, except that they are less glutinous, more
mobile and gelatinous.

Various types of unsun oil. It's not going to win any beauty contests, another reason I think it
might in fact be a material of importance before painting entered its more self-consciously aesthetic
phase. The three on the left are thick and uncut, these very slowly clarify and throw a precipitate
over time. The middle jar is cut one to one, and is clearing of the lead salts. The larger jar on the
right began with a very thick unsun oil and was cut two to one. It then cleared very quickly. While
uncut unsun oil may be cloudy, it dries with great depth and brilliance.

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Yellowing test several months old done with a variety of unsun oils made with walnut oil.

surprises

A batch of unsun oil which

is in the process of gelling.

The same gel a few weeks

later, relatively uniform and
firm . Made with lead metal,
heat, and walnut oil.

further research

This work was carried out

using refined walnut oil. The
behavior of refined linseed oil
in this context is now
b e g i n n i n g . This
material
already appears to behave
very differently when exposed
to lead metal. Image shows
refined Swedish linseed oil
which dramatically thickened
on lead in a few weeks, was
then cut one to one with spike
lavender. In the process still of
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settling out, clear oil has been

poured off the top for use. Yellowing test several months old at left. This oil behaves a lot like damar,
sets quickly, dries very fast.

linseed unsun

4-09: As an offshoot of various methods used to refine

organic, cold-pressed linseed oil, experiments have been
ongoing in making an unsun oil with unrefined linseed oil as well.
Pictured here is the unrefined oil used to make the unsun oil
below. This is from Azure Farms in Oregon, a very low acid oil,
aroma like a field of flowers. Relatively inexpensive, certainly
compared to retail nutritional oils, especially in bulk.

The final product. About

the consistency of stand oil or
moderate sun oil. Could be
made thinner or thicker. Less
sticky than sun oil, dries faster.
Procedure was to wash the oil,
then place in a thin layer in a
lead tray exposed to oxygen
but protected from dust. The
oil remained in the tray for a
month with occasional stirring.
It threw no sediment of break.
This oil dried hard overnight at
1 8 C . Living in a northern
climate with variable sun in the summer, this is a perfect material to make instead of sun oil. It takes
a while to begin the process, but a dozen batches a year adds up. For a pdf about the washing
procedure, go here.

variations

Commercially available oils can also be processed using a lead tray. There's also the possibility
of using copper as Cennini discusses. The initial use of a copper tray may produce a green oil. In
my experience, this oil will turn brown and yellow. However, repeated use of the tray results in a light
oil which does not yellow.

Close-up photo of Graphic Chemical Burnt Plate Oil #5 aged on lead for several months.
Thickness where yellowing begins is about a quarter inch.

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Oil number one is the Allback Swedish organic cold-pressed linseed oil, aged in the light for a
year. Oil number two is the Allback oil exposed to the air in the copper tray above for a month. Oil
number three is Burnt Plate Oil #5 from Graphic Chemical, exposed to the air on lead for a month.

lead refined oil

A branch of this project has been using various methods involving lead to refine the oil in the first
place. Number one is the Spectrum Naturals walnut oil heated for 48 hours to about 100C, then
another 24 hours with some litharge and white lead. Number two is half and half number three and
number 4/5. Number three is the Allback Swedish organic cold-pressed linseed oil heated for 24
hours to 100C, then refined with litharge, as discussed by Field and in several even older texts. This
throws a decent amount of break but takes a while to do it. Four and Five are different stages of the
same Allback oil with the same heat added, left open for a week in a lead tray. These get very light
but can take their time clearing, below is older. Oil number two was about seeing if I could get this
material to clear quickly using oil number three: yes. Number six is number seven exposed to the
air for four days in a glass tray. Number seven is the Loriva unrefined walnut oil given the litharge
treatment. These oils all have a lot of body for their relative resistance in use from the combination
of the two different types of polymerization, one by heat, the other by the metallic oxide. While the
oils refined on litharge always lose their color over time, the oil is definitely more saponified by this
technique. The simplicity of the oil exposed to lead metal and air has great appeal.

Yellowing test of oil number

two
above. On gessoed
canvas, several months old.

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conclusion

Much more is possible in terms of

manipulating the oil than is ever
supposed by the relatively devolved
root assumptions of modern painting
practice. These root assumptions are
a kind of puritan reaction to the many
faulty mediums and practices of the
19th Century, but do not address the
core strength of 17th Century practice
-- artist made materials -- because
acknowledging this inconvenient truth
would
prove
a
relentless
inconvenience in a contemporary
academic setting.
An organic oil is quite complex in its make-up, the behavior of chains of triglycerides (image
here) has been studied by generations of organic chemists. Painters have unfortunately become
used to thinking in terms of their materials in the tidy, discreet compartments defined by commerce.
But incredible variations exist between the raw oil and stand oil of the art supply store. While oil in
which the triglycerides are cross-linked through heat is still part of the general awareness, oil in
which the triglycerides are linearly polymerized -- as on lead metal -- is not. When these two modes
of polymerization interact, unusual rheologies occur in the oil, rheologies that have left centuries of
painters and writers thinking that resins or other nostrums -- Constable's term -- must have always
been involved in 17th Century practice. But, as anyone who paints on a daily basis can attest, the
simplest technical system at the easel is the most efficient in both internal and external terms. Is
the interaction of these two modes of polymerization then part of a process for modifying the oil that
was lost? Perhaps, but the very nature of the material itself means that this can never be known
with any certainty. It seems more important to offer that once the limited attitudes of commerce and
modern painting practice are left behind and the materials are addressed on their own terms, the
development of greater facility in handling them is simply a matter of observation and logic within
the cultural gestalt defined so clearly by the De Mayerne manuscript. This is not about finding out
what a given older painter used so much as it is about reversing the prevailing commercial
devolution and reconstructing a living, artisanal craft that makes demonstrably better paintings.

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

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