Oleogel—Solvent-Free Painting Medium

Oleogel is a thixotropic painting medium made with linseed oil and pyrogenic silica. Oleogel is a clear pale amber gel that adds transparency and a thixotropic body to oil, resin-oil, or alkyd paint. Add directly to your paint to give it transparency without thinning its consistency. Add pigments or extenders to thicken it to create impasto effects that do not sink in.

Oleogel does not contain driers, so it is safe to use in oil painting without the worry of cracking. When mixed with colors, Oleogel does not slow the drying time.

Oleogel adds transparency to whites without losing the body of the paint

Oleogel in the center, Flake White on the left, and a mixture of Oleogel and Flake White on the right. The Flake White is stiff, plastic, and short, but when mixed with Oleogel, the mixture is semi-transparent, soft, yet sculptural.

Oleogel increases transparency without flow out and leveling

Rublev Colours French Raw Sienna at the left and a mixture of Oleogel and Raw Sienna on the right. Below each is a brush out of the above examples. Rublev Colours French Raw Sienna is long yet holding strokes well. When Oleogel is added to Raw Sienna, it increases transparency without causing the flow out and leveling of brushstrokes.

Directions

Mix directly into your paint right on the palette.

To make your paint with Oleogel, add directly to pigment powder until a stiff paste is obtained (almost the consistency of putty). Grind the paste with a muller on a flat surface before storing it in a collapsible tube. Some of its thixotropic properties will be temporarily lost when grinding Oleogel with a muller but should be restored when allowed to stand.

Health and Safety

No acute or known chronic health hazards are associated with this product's anticipated use (most chemicals are not thoroughly tested for chronic toxicity). Always protect yourself against potentially unknown chronic hazards of this and other chemical products by keeping them out of your body. Do this by avoiding ingestion, excessive skin contact, and inhaling spraying mists, sanding dust, and vapors from heating. Conforms to ASTM D-4236.