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Oil Painting Myths: Secret Mediums and
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JANUARY 3, 2007 BY: PAUL 4 COMMENTS
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Aspiring artists do love their magic bullets. This medium will help you paint like so- artists and
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The rather more mundanetruth is that the road to being a competent painter is a bring your pictures to life.

long and sometimes arduous one, a road which mostpeople won’t travel very far
down before either giving up, or deciding that they have arrived attheir destination
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and need to go no further. But we know different, right? We know that there areno
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short cuts.
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Take Maroger medium, the great untold secret of the old masters. Want to paint
like Rubens? Want toknock out masterpieces in an afternoon with a mere ick of
the wrist? This stuff is all you need. At least,that’s whatJacques Maroger would YES PLEASE!
have hadyou believe when he wrote his 1948 book, “The Secret Formulas and
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Techniques of the Old Masters”. Maroger’smedium is at the top of my mind at the
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moment because I just tried out a high quality variant of it onmy last still life
painting. Lovely stuff it is.A magic bullet it aint. Flowers in Oils
Video demonstration: In
 Video demonstration: In
The basic ingredient of Maroger medium, and the one which causes most of the over an hour of high quality
video, I take you through all
controversy, is black oil.Black oil is linseed oil into which lead (either white lead or the steps in detail.
litharge) is dissolved by heating. As faras I can gather, the contention centres
around two points: Did the old masters actually use black oil?And will it harm your
paintings? Show me
more!
I couldn’t care less about the rst question. It seems to me that unless you could
hop in your time machineand travel back to 17th century Antwerp and spend some
time looking over Ruben’s shoulder while he worked,you’ll always be in some doubt
as to the exact manner in which he painted and what materials he used.I’m certainly HI, I’M PAUL
no expert on the techniques andmaterials used by those painters, so I’m not about
to start ponti cating about that.I’m much more interested in the answer to the I'm a (mostly) self-
taught artist. I paint
second question.
realism in oils. I try
to share what
Detractors of black oil will tell you thatyour paintings will darken horribly if you use
knowledge I've
this stuff, and they’ll probably fall apart and crack. Butas far as I can ascertain, there
gained on my learning journey in the
are examples of paintings done with this medium which have been around fora hope that it might help you along on
good few years now, and some of them have darkened, cracked and generally fallen yours.
apart, and some haven’t.The ones that haven’t are in remarkably good shape. Read More…

Faced with this, it seems to me that there is only one logical conclusion – it’s down
to thepainter and how they either made or used their lead based boiled oil SOME POPULAR POSTS:

mediums. Common sense really. If you paintthe rst layer of your painting with
thick paint, mixed with a lot of oil, then paint over that a thin layerthinned with
turps, the top layer will crack since it will dry and contract quicker. We’ve all heard
of thisbasic rule, fat over lean. But that’s just using linseed oil and turps, the most
basic of ingredients. It’spossible to mess up a painting as badly as you could ever
hope for without using any exotic materials at all.The problem is caused by user
error. Why should black oil be any different?

Good, so we’ve got that out of the way. The third and most important question is
Talent: Why You Should Stop
the one that concerns meabove all others, being of a practical frame of mind: Is it
Believing In It And What Will Happen
any good to paint with? When You Do
142 COMMENTS
Well that depends on how you use it. Damn, we’re back to question two again, just
when I thought we weredone with it. My own feeling regarding the craft of painting
is that much basic knowledge has been lost, or almostlost. It would be easy to lay
the blame for this at the door of modernism, so that’s what I’m going to do. It’sall
modernism’s fault. Seriously though, I nd it somewhat worrying that you can go
through four years ofart education thesedays and get spat out the other side
without even knowing how to stretch a canvas properly, but that’s undeniablythe
case. If you can become a successful artist by sticking photos of your ex-lovers in a
tent, or deadanimals in formaldehyde, why bother to learn how to stretch a canvas? Gratitude – What Almost Dying Taught
Or which mediums should be used when?Or what makes good oil paint? Why Me About How To Live
bother to teach it? Who cares? 111 COMMENTS

Well I do, for one. Since I returned to painting, it’s become painfully obvious to me
that, although I’vespent some time in art education, my knowledge regarding the
tools of my trade and how they should be usedleaves much to be desired. This is by
no means an uncommon state of affairs, so I’m not beating myself up aboutit. What
I am doing is attempting to put it right. For the autodidact, the Internet is an
invaluable tool.Out there in cyberspace you will nd, if you’re willing to make the
effort, enough information to at leastpoint you in the right direction. The basic
knowledge of the craft of the painter in oils has not beencompletely lost, it’s just a
How to Practise Drawing Effectively
bit hard to nd. Let me save you some time – you won’t nd it on a ne artdegree
104 COMMENTS
course.

Post 3rd January 2007

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About Paul
I’m a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. On
this blog, I try to share what knowledge I’ve gained on my own learning
journey in the hope that it might help others who may be struggling with the same
things I have – that it might help you.

Comments

Russell Kine says

1
August 30, 2015 at 5:56 pm

Hello Paul!

The fact that here in Europe you have no possibility to get a premium
Quality training in understanding the tools of our trade, I nally got a ash of an
idea how this could be resolved:
I have been acquainted with Natural Pigments,in California, and as I lamented,to
myself, that the 3-day workshop that they offer, has only been presented in the USA
up till now. But alas, in the last Newsletter I found a remark about the fact that they
are planning to launch a try at doing this workshop in Europe in the fall of 2016! So I
immediately wrote George Hanlon, the founder of Natural Pigments, and I received
an e-mail with information pertaining to the workshop. This Info I am sending you
in this e-mail and on the homepage of NP you can read a description of the
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If you are my opinion that this is an excellent opportunity to strive for, let me know
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Have a very pleasant evening.

My best Regards,
Russell

Reply

Paul says

2
August 30, 2015 at 6:58 pm

Thanks Russell, have got your email. I’ll have a look at it

and get back to you. I know Natural Pigments are held in
high regard and George has a deep knowledge of subject.

Reply

aNDREI says

3
October 2, 2015 at 4:56 pm

Hi Paul,

After some research on black oil, I stumbled upon your post, and I
would be very interested to know what do you make of it, as it seems to me you left
open the question whether it is any good to paint with. I am considering
purchasing some and I was wondering if has indeed all of those magic proprieties
like thixotropy and extremely fast drying times.

Reply

Paul says
 October 5, 2015 at 9:08 am

Hi Andrei,
4
I used black oil mixed with gum mastic to make maroger
medium. Yes, it was thixotropic. Yes, it speeded drying times. It
also tended to create an even overall sheen to the painting and meant there
was no need for any oiling out. It’s a useful painting medium. I can’t comment
on its longevity.

Despite all that, I generally eschew all mediums now in favour of simplicity
when painting with oils. I fond that linseed oil and pure gum turps are more
than suf cient, if the oil paint is good quality. Painting well is much more about
what’s in your head than what’s on your palette

Reply

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