Tell me about a time when art changed your perspective!? 📣
I thought I’d share how I prep my oil painting palette to be away from it for a few days. 🎨
I’m able to paint pretty regularly, so tend to use up my paint before it gets the chance to dry on my palette. I no longer even use an air-tight or ‘wet’ palette which extend the paint’s dry time.
But if I’m not going to be able to paint for more than about 3-4 days that’s when I tend to remove all the wet paint onto a seperate palette & put it in the freezer.
The oil in most paint has a lower freezing point than the average freezer so it actually doesn’t freeze, but slows the rate of oxidation so that the paint stays wet. This is a GREAT way to ensure you don’t waste paint & allows you to put paint on the palette freely even if you know you won’t be able to paint for a few days.
Btw the mini palette I now use is part of the modular Krudrufi paint kit – check them out on kickstarter. But I used to just use a glass chopping board for this & I’ve seen a few DIY options you can check out.
There are other ways to stop oil paint from drying eg. clove oil or submersing it in water but the freezer is the best IMO – don’t try this for acrylics or other types of paint.
I also scrape off the dry paint that still hasn’t fully cured so is still wet/flexible enough to remove. It’s good to keep this up so the piles of paint don’t build up & get too high.
Like many oil painters I put my paint colours in the same place every day (organized by colour spectrum on the top & by tints/shades/tones along the side) & never fully clean those areas so it’s good to keep the piles as low as pos!
