In my last blog post, I talked about how I had been creating my own environmentally-friendly oil paints to clean up my art.
Although I found these oil paints wonderful to work with and I loved their effect on a canvas of raw, unprimed linen, it became apparent that unprimed linen does not react well over time to contact with oil-based paints. It was also proving expensive to purchase Eco Solve (a non toxic and environmentally-safe solvent) which is only available in small quantities at quite a high price.
At first, I was rather dispondent, as there did not seem to be any alternative that would continue to be eco-friendly. I could prime the linen to protect it, but again, this was another product to buy and there seemed to be only one environmentally-friendly primer out there.
I was delighted then, when Natural Earth Paint released their new environmentally-friendly acrylic medium. Knowing 'acrylic' to be a type of plastic, I wondered at first how this could be eco. However, it appears to be made entirely from plant-based materials and is non-toxic. You can read more about it here: Natural Acrylic Medium - 16 oz. - Natural Earth Paint
Using this new acrylic medium with my natural earth pigments, I can create homemade environmentally-friendly paints which only need water to be thinned and cleaned. This makes my whole painting process much less messy. I am delighted with the results. I can now paint confidently on raw, unprimed linen.
Here is an example of a recent painting using these new paints:
I have also been continuing to develop my driftwood "frames". I am using locally collected driftwood from Sussex beaches and sawing them in half so that they have a flat surface with which to stick to the picture. I often need to cut the pieces to size to make them fit, but I like to keep them looking as natural as possible, even if it means certain pieces sticking out asymmetrically.
The linen itself is backed on upcycled MDF and natural twine is used to hang the picture on the wall.
