As Borat might say, "Thisa snow isa NOT white!"

When I first moved into my house and set up the studio, my husband encouraged me to go BIG since I finally had the space to do so. We had just returned from visiting his parents in the Northwoods and I was inspired by the vast snow covered landscape filled with birch trees. I decided to do an 6 x 8 ft. painting of this.

At the time, I was using a "mix" of 1 part damar varnish, 1 part turpentine, and 2 parts linseed oil. Mediums are used to dilute color, increase gloss and transparency, reduce drying time, and avoid over-thinning. You can buy ready-mixed mediums or use your own mix. Preference varies greatly from artist to artist. Linseed oil has been used in oil painting for over 500 years; I knew that it could cause "some" naturally occurring yellowing of lighter colors but still, I never doubted it (mostly because in all my years of painting, I have never painted anything with a lot of stark white areas).

So in 2005, I finished the painting...the whites were white; the painting was big. It hung for a year at the Manna Church office building, but when I brought it home I didn't have the space to hang it. I had to take it off the stretchers, roll it up, and put it in storage to make room for new work in the studio.

Eventually I decided to rethink my "mix" because I found the turpentine to be a little overwhelming in my studio. I switched to low odor mineral spirits for awhile but realized that "sinking" started to occur in a few paintings (parts drying faster than others causing both dull and glossy areas). I had to counteract this with Retouch Varnish but soon discovered that this took FOREVER to dry! In my research, I read more about how linseed oil can cause whites to yellow over time, especially when stored in the dark. I changed my "mix" to 1 part damar varnish and 1 part stand oil, which takes longer to dry but is non-yellowing.

It's been nearly two years since I changed my "mix", and so far I feel comfortable with it. Now I'm getting ready for a solo exhibition of landscapes in January and the huge snowscape is going in it. Yesterday I dug it out of storage and was shocked at how much the painting had yellowed. You can't really tell by the photos but it's too yellow for my likes. At least I have plenty of time to repaint all of the white areas (this time using straight Titanium White from the tube. This is a permanent soft-bodied, opaque, non-yellowing white--and I'll leave out the linseed oil).