When it comes to oil painting, artist-grade 100% natural gum spirits of turpentine and spike lavender oil are preferred.

Many of you know I love nifty technical facts, the kind of which I started collecting during my Master of Science days at Pratt, and how they inform my choices in the studio and classroom.

Most of you don’t know, however, that when I was in Lucca during grad school, I fell in love with a blonde Italian beauty, and her name was Essenza. Essenza de Trementina…

The good stuff: Essenza de Trementina by Maimeri. I don’t remember the Belli Arte where I bought it. But Zecchi is probably a good guess.

Isn’t she gorgeous?!

Every day, I’d head up to my studio and paint with this sexy elixir. I’d go downstairs in the afternoon to grab an espresso with whomever was free and clear my lungs. Her pine scent was one of the perfumes of my summer abroad. She also flowed like silk. She was, to borrow some Catholic phrasing, a revelation.

In recent decades, many schools and organizations in their efforts to make cleaner, safer programs have wisely referred to the NIOSH data on turps which recommend, among other precautions, not drinking or huffing it. Truly, as little as a tablespoon in your belly can be fatal. It should be noted industrial turpentine made from wood pulp and twigs renders a sister product with a very different odor from pure gum spirits. I think it smells like a zombie fluid - living death. So that gallon canister of turps from the hardware store…? If you can still find one, as they have been banned in California and elsewhere, the contents work similarly to artist-grade turpentine but I don’t recommended it for artisanal use in the studio or close quarters.

Fun fact: in the old days, some right quacks and snake oil salesmen touted its medicinal properties. Currently, “celebrities” and “influencers” are claiming turpentine has “wellness” benefits…

This mixture is a paint medium, not a vital medicine. Do not try this at home, people.

It doesn’t. Seriously, they’re wrong. Leave it off and out of your body. Make sure you paint with turpentine in a space that is well-ventilated. That means: open to the sky, such as a garage or en plein air; with two opposing large windows for cross breeze (with an exhaust fan preferably); or under an industrial grade HVAC system like those found in art schools. This also applies to Odorless Mineral Spirit (OMS) aka White Spirit.

Dorothea Lange took this FSA image of turpentine farming in Florida, ca. 1936. (detail)

Turpentine is made from the distillation of the oleoresin of pine trees, which in layman’s terms is simply boiled sap.

As a product from the backyard of country painters, it is yet another natural product, like linseed oil, hog-bristle brushes, or tempera that further prove artists are essentially organic, and we’re basically all just crafty farmers.

As a product of trees, it blends well with other plant-based media, like linseed, walnut, and poppy oils, as well as spike lavender oil (which is also a rectified spirit just like turpentine, but lavender-scented). These go well on natural surface preparations like traditional gesso on authentic linen or cotton rag canvas, and, you guessed it, wood panels.

Yum, paint syrup! Dr. Chase’s quackery made him historically important in ways he didn’t imagine. Image courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Meanwhile, OMS is an insidious, petroleum-based product that is super-toxic and worse than turps. It also doesn’t play well with most of your traditional media. Even though many people say it’s perfectly fine to use in traditional painting, it’s really not, and full of inherent vice. Schools prefer its low-odor quality that makes it less noticeable when used indoors. Worth noting, however, is that even though most students think they are reacting to the aroma of turpentine, it’s usually poor ventilation, and more likely dehydration, they are experiencing.

OMS and turps have effectively the same impact on your system, with similar volatile compounds evaporating at comparable rates. Since you can detect the turps because they are strongly odorous not odorless, people blame them. As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather smell them so I know they’re there; then I can deal with them properly. Ultimately, turpentine (as well as OMS) is combustible and inhalation of its flammable vapors should be kept to a minimum.

Using Turpentine is simple - up to 50% by volume in any solution.
Therefore, max 1:1 turpentine to paint by volume.

Who makes the best turpentine?

Diamond G Forest Products, Georgia, USA.
Maimeri, Mediglia, Italy
Chelsea Classical Studio, New York, NY

Diamond G are lovely people and a multi-generational family business that makes turpentine the old-fashioned way. I have some in my studio, and it’s perfect.

Maimeri was my first turpentine affair, and delightful. Maimeri, as far as I know, still makes turps well, even though since I bought my original bottle, they have gone corporate and are now a subsidiary of a major company.

Chelsea makes a Lavender Spike Oil, which has been shown elsewhere to actually be turpentine flavored with lavender oil… so theirs is just fancy marketing, but I like the product nevertheless. Just think of Chelsea’s Spike as even-nicer-smelling turps.

So, now that you have a little backstory, a simple rule for volume, and some suppliers, perhaps the next time I write on La Bella Trementina, I’ll share some recipes….

7. Turpentine! Turpentine!