WOW!!--Lavender oil as a medium!!

The King (detail)

While I was working on my last finished painting I happened on some web articles about how some old Dutch Masters had used "Spike Lavender Oil" as a medium, and not really being all that happy with the 50/50 stand and walnut oil mix I was trying—it dried more quickly than walnut but usually took 2 days on thin-to-normal paint—I ordered some spike lavender oil and used it a little as I finished that one up. Then I started an 18x36" portrait of our Lynx Point Siamese cat Smokey (I wanted to figure out if I can actually paint fur, and practice my 'fine lines') and have been using the lavender oil exclusively. Wow!--the only pigment that does NOT dry overnight is white—all the other colors are dry to the touch and ready to paint over the next day! With that change, I found I've returned to my long-time habit of working in layers, building up color and implied texture in layers, fine-tuning the blend I want and making use of the translucency of most colors. The photo shows the closest-to-finished area of the painting so far.

The oil dries flat and matte, and is as clear as any other oil medium I've used but has a very faint tint, so it might start showing if  you end up with a thick pile on the canvas, but so far I haven't noticed. It's quite thin as oils go, so it's great for thin glazes or washes. I keep the large bottle next to my palette and use the long dropper that came with it—eazy peazy. Although I'm a fan of lavender in general, I DO recommend very good ventilation, and/or a fan behind you blowing it away from you. I use a fan and an air filter to minimize it, but it is one of the safest essential oils you can find and it's non-toxic and non-flammable, which take it to the top of my list! But if you don't care for the smell of lavender, wait till someone figures out how to deodorize it—without ruining it for painting in the process.

I can rub dry paint off with a paper towel some, so I'm thinking I may finish up the top layers with stand oil—or another mix. But it's fantastic for the way I approach painting—giving myself plenty of freedom to rework areas till they look like I want them to--without a bunch of uneven or unwanted build-up.

As for my fur renderings, it's not quite what I want, I'll probably keep experimenting with it, but it does look enough like fur to not be freaking me out. The fine line technique I wrote about last time is promising for fur. There are so many different tints and shades in his coat that layering is the only way I can think of to reproduce them. I'm not quite half-done, and it'll probably take me another month to complete it. I'll be back with more photos then!