solvents

Kama Pigments is proud to offer it's new line of solvents for oil painting, encaustics, wood finishing and other "oil techniques". It is well known that oil painting is one of the most ancient and permanent technique there is. However, today many artists are turning away from it for "toxicity reasons". But really, what is so toxic about oils ? Oil paint is simply a mixture of two things: a pigment (which is the same for any painting technique)1 and linseed oil (a vegetable oil, both natural and edible !)

In fact, if so many are moving away from oils today it is mainly because traditional solvents are raising major health concerns for the artists who use them, thus the oil painting technique is abandoned. In our new line, we are proposing 3 new solvents. Of gradual intensity, they allow the artist to chose both the appropriate strength and toxicity level of the solvent he uses:

• The mildest solvent, IZOSOL is used to dilute oil paints and clean painting tools.
• The second solvent, ORANGE SPIRIT, is used as a turpentine replacement to dilute ready-made paintings mediums.
• The last solvent, and the most potent, is ORANGINE and it is used to melt natural resins such as dammar.

1. A toxic pigment is just as harmful when used in acrylics as it is in any other types of paints. Also note that a pigment's toxicity is limited to skin contact once mixed in paints because it is contained in the binder of that specific paint.