Dangerous chemicals, fat over lean and so on.....

I'm in a pedagogic mood, spurred by a comment from Podi Lawrence in the Gallery on one of her oil portraits.  She uses - as did my and our late friend, Murray Ince - Artisan water-miscible oils, mostly it seems because of the hazardous chemicals associated with regular oil painting.  And yet - there are no more hazardous substances in the one than there are in the other.  What IS hazardous is solvent - Turpentine (best for the paint, worst for our lungs), White Spirit (horrible stuff), Low Odour Thinners (don't pong, but still present a hazard), and others we'll all be familiar with. There is however nothing hazardous - unless one develops a sensitivity to it, and that can happen with almost any substance known - about Linseed Oil, or Walnut Oil.  You can paint in oil quite successfully by just using a little extra oil where necessary (and not just as a matter of habit and course: mediums should be available, but not used every time like watercolour water).  But what about fat over lean, you'll be asked, if you say this?  Generally speaking, pish on fat over lean - it hardly applies as a meaningful concept with alla prima and direct painting, especially on a rigid surface.  Where it does apply is in the older technique of monochrome underpainting, allowed to dry (usually) and then glazed - sometimes with multiple glazes.   If using that method, and I would imagine that very few do these days, you do have to be careful not to use oil rich paints in the underpainting, glazed with 'leaner' paint; especially so if you use as many glazes as some of the old masters.  Even adding more oil to subsequent layers won't necessarily avoid subsequent cracking if the pigment itself is underlain by thick cadmiums and cobalts, or by Titanium White - which really needs to be avoided in this sort of underpainting; and Zinc White even more so.   I went through a period in which I used only Linseed Oil as my medium - wasn't a problem, although I have gone back to stand oil mixed with a little Turpentine for some of what I self-deprecatingly call "my stuff": it's not particularly easy to stain a canvas without a bit of solvent, so I've used Turps there, too; though - provided you remember to fill in those little gaps - working on the white of a canvas is perfectly possible, even if it does make judging tone a bit more difficult.   So there we go - I put this here as an invitation to be contradicted, as much as anything else!  We could do with a good argument about the respective merits, and need for, different types of oil paint.  Murray had asthma, and if I had, I'd avoid all solvents too: but I think he'd have been an advocate for water-miscible oils in any case; and of course, he achieved spell-binding results with it - it enabled him to paint the kind of realistic, post-Impressionistic work at which he excelled; or if it didn't enable it, it helped.  We agreed to disagree on this, because it's all about personal choice, ultimately - Murray was VERY indulgent in argument: and all he had to do was point to the results he achieved.  We had too few opportunities to discuss our respective approaches to painting, and I wish he were still here to have a natter with.  

I'm  going to have trouble answering Helen 'caúse I;ve got a bandage iver my right hand which I sliced open on a tin I was drying with a paper towel: to hold turps 0 old fool!  Oil paint shouldn't smell any more than water mixed, though; it's the solvent or Liquin that smells & u don't have 2 use them.   U shld have seen t'blood..

there was a hint of langwidge, yes - u do wonder how b. stupid u can be, at times

all good things to have - I prefer stand oil to Liquin: if you can't smell liquin, you're lucky -  prob not though - sense of smell useful & helps u taste ur food; v, important to foodie like me,  liquin Ok tho' - i do  hate the smell bút it;s a good product.  agree with u entirely about artisan oil; don't like the 'feel' of it, nor the colour satúration (i keep hitting /alt/! discovering lots of new accents,,,).  Hand'll be ok thanks - the cut was over the knuckles, skin v thin there and bleeds copiously: always be sure to have 1st aid kit in ur new studio - v important; i'd be a menace with a craft knife.. linseed or liquin -  they do different things really - plus some of the same; prefer linseed & stand oil; thre's also a product called oleogel from Natural Pigments -      haven;t used it am told it;s good.  

Large bandage removed, smaller one in place, typing fingers freed.  Gary - your anecdotes are more useful than you might think, because you prove the point about clean-up, and also indicate that there are other water-miscible oils than Artisan.   Some people get on very well with Artisan, but if they'd like to, there are several other brands they could try. Your daughter sounds like something of a holy terror - the really important things to keep away from her are Turpentine and any other solvent, no matter how non-toxic it's claimed to be, and lead white, genuine Naples Yellow, and - I just bet you haven't got this anyway - Chinese Vermilion.  All very good pigments, but lead is toxic if ingested (not otherwise), and Chinese Vermilion contains mercury.  I doubt in fact, from your comments, that you use any of these other than those solvents which are claimed to be safe - safer perhaps, but you still don't want the ankle-biters taking a swig.   For anyone's information - and I fully understand that most of us will know already - the lead whites are: Flake; Cremnitz; Flemish; Silver; Stack - and one or two other uncommon ones most won't encounter.  Flake White (hue) exists, as a warm white, but doesn't contain lead (nor does it behave like real Flake White).

there was a hint of langwidge, yes - u do wonder how b. stupid u can be, at times

Paul - just in case .... this was a bit ambiguous!  I mean, 'you do wonder how stupid ONE can be, at times' - i.e. me, certainly not you....