Claybord experiment [No.2] DISCONTINUED.

I've lost the plot a bit in the last couple of weeks, fighting an infection that wouldn't go away; but I think you were using akyds with walnut oil on Ampersand clayboard - and that you primed the clayboard. So far as I remember, I've used gessoboard rather than clayboard - that didn't  need priming; I'm not sure that clayboard does either, but I'll look into that...  Walnut oil with alkyds - I think you'd have been better off with alkyd medium, or modified Linseed Oil.  Walnut oil is perfectly fine stuff - it's not prone to cracking, but it is more slow drying than Linseed, and a lot more slow drying than alkyd medium or just alkyd on its own.  Add that characteristic to a surface without much by way of texture, and you are likely to find yourself swimming on the surface of the board.  (Safflower or Sunflower oil would be even worse, and neither is the best for painting).   I do think the Ampersand boards take some getting used to: I was quite happy with using oil plus a very small amount of Linseed Oil - i.e. hardly any - on the gessoboard: but I had the devil's own job with acrylic on the same surface.  I can quite see why you'd prefer to use a canvas, or canvas board: the fabric surface does give you some confidence that the paint won't just smear all over the place.   I think though that you were setting yourself up for trouble by using Walnut oil, and alkyd, on a smooth surface. Alkyd is a quick-drying form of oil paint: Walnut oil on the other hand is a slow-drying oil - - the use of the one contradicts the advantages of the other.  

Understood.  As I don't think I've ever used alkyds - though keep meaning to - I don't know enough about the mediums to be used with them.  Or rather, which of the mediums available would be best for painting on clayboard - I shall enjoy researching this over Christmas (well, we all have our own ideas about pleasure!  I enjoy research....).  I'll also do a bit of investigating into clayboard - instinct, as much as anything else, suggests that a walnut oil preparation is likely to smear on that very smooth surface; though as it's supposed to be absorbent too, that should minimize it - maybe just use less medium, whatever the medium is?  See how the paint goes on without it?  (Might not go on at all, of course.... I'm trying to extrapolate from what I know about oil paint to alkyds, and suspect the transition is more complicated than I might suppose.)