My journey began back in the fall of 1992, during my freshman year at art college. It was at an orientation fair that I first stumbled upon a groundbreaking innovation: water soluble oils. Back then, MAX Water Soluble Oil Paints were at the forefront of artistic technology, and they were a rare gem to come by.

I discovered a glorious way of getting my hands on some a couple of years later, art catalogs! This was before you could order online from places like Cheap Joe’s, Jerry’s, etc. So, I spent a fortune with Dick Black and got a handful of MAX paints. They were very difficult to work with, not at all what I had hoped. The directions said to mix no more than 20% water to thin them out. How was I supposed to do an underpainting? I had no medium with which to blend my paint, and water didn’t exactly clean the oil out of the brushes.

To make matters worse, my paintings darkened tremendously as they dried.

I tried several more paintings with the stuff and than swore off the disappointing, empty promise of water soluble paint. 

 

They have come a long way, and I even renewed my hope in water soluble oils off and on over the last 10 years, but they are just not the same as regular oils!

​

Over the years I've tried many things including baby oil, canola oil, walnut oil, even some herbal concoction made by a local artist. The effects on the paint were all different, but the results were the same. They all made the painting process too difficult in terms of controlling the paint consistency and painting techniques. Nor did they clean my brushes effectively. So time and again I would return to the toxic Turpentine or Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS).

Searching the internet, I found yet another product. I was afraid to believe that this time it would be any different, but still I had to try. I had been disappointed so many times in the past, but hope still lived on in my heart. Skeptically I tried this new "artist-friendly" oil paint thinner, I almost just dismissed it, but something urged me at the last minute,

“What the heck, what have I got to lose. After all, I must turn over every stone. At least I can mark it off the list of things that don’t work.” 

It worked. Worked well. Like one in a dream I did painting after painting, experimenting with different techniques, using it with other solvent-free oil painting mediums for different effects. LOVE. Well, ALMOST.

This thinner had two major draw backs:

1. Smell. It wasn't too bad at first but became overwhelming with time.

​2. WAY TOO AGGRESSIVE!!!! One of the ingredients in that thinner is a "Natural" paint stripper. It stripped the lacquer off of my paint brush handles and would pull dry paint off of the canvas, even removing the gesso! NOT GOOD.

After extensive research, I found the main ingredients in the other thinner. Fueled with new inspiration by this other product, I created my own recopies using modern and tradition ingredients and methods of refinement. I experimented until I came up with a solution that I loved. I hand make it in small batches in my studio. It is an extremely time-consuming process, a labor of love. It is worth every minute I spend with it. 

I have now been using this new, art and artist-friendly recipe in my art studio and painting classes since 2018. I am thrilled to have finally found a user kind cleaning oil that has almost no smell (faint vegetable oil smell) and NO harmful VOCS and is actually a pleasure to work with.