A Piece of TRAC 2015

I was given the opportunity to go to TRAC 2015 by a generous friend who gifted me with her pass when at the last minute an injury prevented her from attending. I couldn't take advantage of every event, but caught some wonderful highlights. 

I arrived in time for Breaking In: 21st Century Museums and Representational Art, a panel discussion between Elliot Davis, Michael Zakian, Peter Frank, and Vern Swanson, moderated by Joseph Bravo. The content of the discussion was just as you'd imagine, as the panelists explained all the ways the deck is stacked against all artists and biased against representational artists in particular. Paradoxically, museum attendance is highest for representational artists, as Elliot Davis, Curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston explained, giving the Jamie Wyeth retrospective as an example.

Two other presentations I found informative and thought provoking were Joshua Risner, Understanding Representational Narrative Painting as Implied Narrative and Deborah Paris, The Training and Use of Visual Memory for Representational Landscape Painters. Both of these presentations put forth ideas that deserve more thought and I'll go into them in greater depth next week.

Between presentations I managed to scoop up a big bunch of Rosemary and Co's Brushes. I went for the synthetic ones, of course, to spare the animals. The synthetic brushes also seem to last longer and hold their spring and snap for longer.

Later in the afternoon, a line of shiny, black, limousine buses whisked us away to Thousand Oaks to California Lutheran University. One side of the bus had ocean views of the sunset through turbulent storm clouds turned red from the sun. The other side was a vista of mountains glowing gold set off by the deep, dark, blue sky and illuminated by a fat rainbow.

At the end of the rainbow was Brad Kunkle's Artist in Residency at the Kwan Fong Gallery, Michael Zakian's talk Meaning in Contemporary Realism, and Transmission, a group exhibition at the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art.

It was cold, the wind was nippy, the hors d'oeuvres disappeared quickly, but yes, it was worth it.

Detail of The History of Nature Brad Kunkle

A big part of the appeal of the TRAC events is the opportunity to meet other representational artists. Artists and educators travel from all over to attend so it is a unique opportunity to share ideas. It is also a pleasure to re-connect with TRAC alumni met during previous conferences.

I wish I could have stayed longer.

Showing Metal

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint

Coastal Pine Katherine Kean
3 x 3 inches silverpoint, aged one month

I have been wanting to try drawing with silverpoint for ages. An artist friend suggested it to me years ago. I have a light touch, which serves me well in watercolor and oils, but for which I must compensate by using very soft pencils. With metalpoint drawings it doesn't matter so much how hard one bears down - the mark will be about the same. 

I decided to try it out with a tiny drawing of very familiar subject matter.

All the marks one makes in silverpoint are indelible. There is no erasing. Metalpoint drawings are ethereal at first and darken with age as they oxidize. You can see a slight difference in the early drawing above, compared to the same drawing photographed again about a month later.

A quality I like about metalpoint is that one piece of metal lasts a long time and I don't find myself taking trip after trip to the sharpener. Without a stylus, metal to work with can be found in the silverware drawer or coin pocket. I also like that the finished surface has a silvery sheen when the light hits it. Silverpoint is difficult to photograph - the scans here are blurry from the light bouncing around, and the drawings look better in person, which I think is true for much, if not all artwork.

Smooth, Dark, and Fast

I wrote previously about the end of the original Blackwing pencils and how disappointed I was when Eberhard Faber stopped making them. At the time I didn’t know that I was far from alone in my admiration for this particular pencil, and it seems to be a particular obsession here in LA.

My pencil supply has been dwindling, so knowing that other than the name, and a reputation and quality to live up to, and that the Palomino Blackwing and the Pearl have no connection to the original, I went ahead and ordered and have tried out both.

From top to bottom: the original Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602, Ebony,
Palomino HB, Palomino Blackwing, and Palomino Pearl

After working with them, I’m starting to lean towards liking the Pearl the most. It seems a little smoother and blacker. They both live up to the slogan, are smooth on the paper, dark, hold a point a bit longer than most, and they smudge and erase well. For now I’m happy to have the familiar shape (not round, so they don’t roll away) and the removable, replaceable (and customizable) eraser. These are made by the Palomino Company, the same company whose pencils I turned to when I first ran out of the original Eberhard Faber Blackwings. The tagline printed on the original and new pencil is “Half the pressure, twice the speed” – clearly the choice for anyone with a light touch.

Another plus in my estimation is hearing back from Customer Service at Pencils.com that "No animal tallow is used in the manufacture of our pencils. Some lead suppliers used to dip their graphite leads in the fat from whales, but this practice ceased a long time ago. Pencil leads are now dipped in a petroleum-based liquid."

Will it live up to its predecessor? Seems promising. I guess we'll see.

Keeping Stored Oil Paint Fresh for the Palette

Over the years I’ve tried many ways of preserving paint, using everything from closeable palette boxes; which only work in the short term – ultimately the paint hardens, or submerging blobs of paint in water overnight; works okay, but it’s a chore fishing the paint out of the water and getting it ready to work with, and there may also be problems with the water breaking down the binder. Overall, the best and easiest way I found was to put the whole palette in the freezer. However, as my palettes have grown larger this has become less convenient.

Recently I learned a new trick. I have smaller pieces of glass to hold the paint, like these from School Specialty. These are lightweight and have smooth beveled edges. I load them with individual colors and line them up around my regular palette. I take color from the smaller glass panes and mix it on the larger glass. The smaller glass stays clean and at the end of the day I put them in the freezer. The cold slows down oxidation so that the paint doesn’t dry out. They are small enough that they don’t take up too much room.

The panes are 4 x 6 inches; inexpensive and small enough to slide into a Tupperware container to prevent accidentally getting oil paint inside the freezer.

Why save paint? One – it’s economical to do so and two, I’m keeping in mind that some of these pigments are mined and once they’re gone - they’re gone. I prefer not to waste them. Three, I don’t want to add anything to landfills if I don't have to. Four, any leftover paint fragments need to be dry before tossing and it’s messy and space consuming to have smears of half used color scattered about drying.

I like to put out more than enough color on the palette when I start painting. Have you ever heard “paint like a millionaire?” It seems to me this makes the work looser and more confident, plus it seems a waste of time and stops the flow to stop in the middle of painting a passage to squeeze out more color.

Please feel free to share this post if you find it helpful!

Pencil Appreciation

Clouds Moving Over the Angeles Forest Sketch  ©2013 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper approx 8 x 8 inches

This past two weeks saw me trip a circuit breaker by turning on the vacuum, while one of my computers randomly and stubbornly refused to burn anything to a CD. Then a space heater died, my hair dryer died, and the oven stopped working, followed two days later by the microwave. The oven simply cooled down and then refused to warm back up. The microwave on the other hand went out in a shower of sparks and arcs of blue electricity crawling across the outside of the door, leaving little burn marks in its wake.

While all of these technical issues are being resolved I’m feeling very grateful for my pencil. It’s very reliable, always ready to go, easy to carry, and doesn’t need an outlet. It doesn’t require warming up, or cooling off and it won’t over heat and shut itself down or refuse to start. I don’t need to study a confusing owner’s manual to use it and it doesn’t require technical support, service calls, repairs, or upgrades. It works very much the same way each and every time I use it - no matter how long it has been since the last time I needed it.

More pencil facts:

Pencils write in zero gravity and although I’ve yet to try it, apparently under water. (But on what?)

A typical pencil can write as many as 45,000 words. A single pencil can make a line 35 -70 miles long.

Pencils were invented in 1565, but didn't get embedded erasers until the 1800s. I also hear that pencils without erasers are more common in Europe.

March 30th is Pencil Appreciation day.

"The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead."  Robert Brault 

Wrap Em Up, Ship Em Out

I was caught by surprise when returning from my trip to learn that Paint America had been trying to get in touch about delivery of artwork to Saint Louis for exhibition. I had to drop everything and scramble to get the work shipped out. Fortunately the organizers of the exhibition had arranged for a discount to the artists on AirFloat Systems lined strong boxes. I really like using these boxes to ship because they give me great confidence that the artwork will arrive undamaged.

As soon as the boxes arrived I wrapped the framed paintings with plastic pallet wrap to prevent dings in the frames or scratches on the paintings' surfaces. Then I created a custom sized pocket for each painting  - easy to do in the pre-perforated foam - I didn't even need a knife. Then I sealed the boxes and took them to the Post Office during the first downpour of the season. I got soaked! But no matter. The people at the Post Office gave me a stack of paper towels. I dried off my packages and then sent them on their way. All three boxes were delivered to the Jefferson National Expansion Monument within 24 hours.

This leg of the Paint the Parks 2011 traveling exhibition will be on exhibit  through January 9, 2012.

Preparing Plein Air Panels

While considering what to bring on a painting trip I looked at buying plein air panels to paint on. They tend to be light and small - great for carrying and it seems a good idea keep luggage weight as low as possible while traveling. And since  there are slots to carry thin panels built into my painting box, I might as well use them. My other criteria were that they be quality material, archival, and cruelty free. In other words I wanted oil primed linen mounted on a board - not on a paper or foam product. Inexpensive would be nice also!

I finally found what seemed like the perfect product, oil primed linen, mounted on a board. I ordered a half dozen. They arrived and as I was about to tear into the plastic wrapping, I noticed that the label stated "primed with rabbit skin glue". Fortunately the supplier agreed to take them back. I never did find the product with the exact specifications I wanted, but I did find Art Boards Plein Air - Archival Mounting Panels. These are a thin maple board coated with a heat activated reversible archival adhesive. I have plenty of small pieces of oil primed linen - trims left over from stretching larger surfaces, so using these I've tried them out and I'm happy to say they are quite easy to use. The boards need to be briefly heated: two minutes at 250 degrees - an oven works great - then press the linen (or canvas, or paper, or whatever you are using) to the adhesive surface while it cools. Once it has cooled to about 150 degrees or so, the bond is made. I also tried the reversal to see if it really worked - and it does. All you need to do is reheat the panel and while it is still warm the linen lifts right off.

I used mini clips to press the edges of the linen to the adhesive surface.

I'll also bring along some pieces of unstretched linen to tape or clip to a board as I work that I can stretch back in the studio.

Mid-Summer

Connect the Drops -SOLD ©2011 Katherine Kean 
oil on linen 12 x 16"

I'm balancing enjoying summer "leisure" - and nearly perfect weather - with painting and getting ready for fall. I'm preparing for a trip to Scotland for a painting workshop. So far, I've equipped myself with a lightweight tripod and pochade box. The pochade box holds paint, palette, and brushes, has slots to hold small panels and fits in my suitcase. The tripod works well with the box and my camera. Because airlines charge so much now for baggage or extra weight this works out economically. My old French Easel, though beautiful, is heavy, and setting it up sometimes feels like teaching a new born giraffe to stand for the first time.

In the garden the grapes have come early and I've managed to save some from the wildlife to eat myself. I found some reusable nylon shopping bags that I slip over the bunches and tie. The mesh is fine enough to keep out the animals, but still allows light and air in. I also have squash, lettuce, chard, asparagus, arugula, and artichokes this year. I cannot grow beans - literally, not metaphorically - which is puzzling because they used to be the easiest for me to grow. I'm surprised to still have lettuce so late in the season, but I'm not complaining at all!

I delivered El Matador: Silhouette, Shadow, Reflection to TAG Gallery. The painting above, Connect the Drops, sold there last weekend. This week I"ll be in the studio making new work.

Synthetic Paint Brushes

Passing Through work in progress  ©2011 Katherine Kean

24 x 36" oil on linen on panel

Since removing animal products from my diet, I've learned more about all the ways that animals are used and abused to make not only food, but cosmetics, clothing, shoes, furniture, and even art supplies, As I wrote about here, I started to research new products to replace the non-vegan supplies I've come to rely on all these years. I'd been taught that the best brush for an artists must be a natural bristle brush, preferably a sable. No longer willing to buy and use a brush derived from killing animals, not to mention abhoring the cruel trapping and farming practices, I started looking for a synthetic substitute.

The first brushes I tried out were okay, far better then the ones made years ago, but just not quite as responsive as the natural bristles I've become used to. I've wondered if I would have to learn to make do and adjust my painting style accordingly. Whenever I'm in an art store I look at what they are offering in the synthetic bristle category and recently while browsing in a Utrecht store, I picked up a synthetic mongoose brush made by the Princeton Art & Brush Company. I didn't have high expectations and didn't even try it out for some time. It just sat there on the easel shelf, all clean and new.

Then the other day when I was about to begin painting the numerous twisty branches in the painting started above I decided to try it out and what do you know - it was fantastic! It did everything I would expect from a natural bristle brush. It carried a good load of paint, so I could start out on a long, broad stroke, follow through all the twists and turns and end with a fine point.

This one was a number 6 round. What a joy to paint with. The next time I'm buying brushes I plan on getting some more.

What is Your Most Used Color?

Marsh Labyrinth work in progress ©2011 Katherine Kean
30 x 24" oil on linen

Other than white, which may be the most used color for many painters, what is the the most often used color on your palette? For me it's a toss up between Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Orange. I use both of them a lot in mixing. The blue is obvious in the end results, but the Cadmium Orange might be a surprise. Not only do I use it a lot in under painting, but I just get something out of looking at it. Is there such a thing as a "color high"?

New Glass Palette

I've used this round glass palette for quite a while. I believe it's original purpose was meant to be as a table topper. It's heavy and thick, about 16" in diameter, and the edges are beveled and smooth. There is nothing wrong with it other than it seems a little bit small when I'm working on a larger canvas.

For my new palette I'm using a glass kitchen counter protector. It has a crinkly surfaced top, but the bottom is smooth, so I flipped it over. It also has smooth beveled edges. There were little silicon pads on the bottom four corners which I found easy to scrape off - really easy, I just lifted an edge with a fingernail and then they just peeled off. I then stuck them on the other side - the side that was the top and is now the new bottom. The rectangle fits well on the table next to my easel and provides a lot more room for mixing. Here it is, below, in use.

The colors at the moment, from the lower left corner and moving clockwise, are as follows: Titanium White, Hansa Yellow Deep, Cadmium Orange, Quindracinode Red, Venetian Red, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Grey Green, Olive Greem, Terre Verte, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, and Mars Black.

DVDs For and About Art and Artists: Jeremy Lipking's The Portrait Sketch

Recently I had a few artists over and we watched Jeremy Lipking's two hour demonstration of a portrait sketch on DVD. In the DVD Lipking paints a profile of his wife Danielle. As demos go the production value on this is high. We loved that there was an inset view of the model at times throughout so we can see what the artist sees as he paints. The demonstration is divided into chapters: Introductions, Materials, Blocking In, Painting Eyes, Nose, Lips, Ear, Hair and so on. He says very little as he goes, clearly absorbed in his work, however there is an alternate version with ongoing commentary with Tony Pro, the producer and an artist in his own right. Also included on the DVD is a written listing of materials; his palette, panels, and brushes. a selection of paintings and a bio written by Michael Zakian. I always find it a little bit magical to watch a painting unfold. It was even more fun with friends and a few snacks.

Underpainting Again

Raindrops 2 Underpainting work in progress

©2011 Katherine Kean

Raindrops 3 Undeprpainting work in progress

©2011 Katherine Kean

I'm following up last weeks server problems with online backup challenges this week. I use an online backup service so that there's one less thing to worry about in the event of a fire or other disaster. This week I've been deleting unnecessary files, such as the multiple copies I seem to collect of artwork images that end up in various folders on my hard drive. I thought that with all the deleting that my backup storage would increase. There was one more step I had to follow to make more room, but I didn't know what it was. I got in touch with Norton and they fixed it remotely, which was fun to watch as well as informative. Now it all seems to be working well again, yay!

Above are a couple of vivid underpaintings. I've been experimenting with Gamblin's new fast drying alkyds for underpainting. These alkyd oil colors dry within 18 - 24 hours. I like the idea of cutting drying time while retaining a good bond with the subsequent paint layers. I've already painted over the two underpaintings above and while they dry I'll be working on other things.

Vegan Art Supplies

Marsh - Boat graphite on paper 4 x 6"

©2011 Katherine Kean

This drawing is being worked into a painting. I may have decided to change the direction of the boat, perhaps because it's the start of a new year, it feels like it should be sailing out instead of in.

One of the changes that I've decided to make in 2011 is to seek out and use vegan Art Supplies. At first glance this doesn't seem to be too much of a challenge, but a closer look reveals animal products used in a variety of products that I would not have thought of. Brushes made from animal fur and paint named "bone black" are obvious. Bone black is a component of Gamblin's Van Dyke Brown, Ivory Black, Asphaltum, Portland Greys, and Payn's Grey. Gamblin's website lists the ingredients used in their paints. That the sizing used in my favorite Arches watercolor papers includes gelatin derived from animals is sad news. I had been using their watercolor paper for both drawing and watercolor and  I'm still looking for something to replace it with. I've heard that both Strathmore and Yupo use no animal products when they manufacture their papers. For drawing I might consider using Arches cover stock, which has no sizing.

The good news is that these days good synthetic brushes are available, so there's really no need for animals to be captured or killed to make a brush. I was also concerned that the oil primed linen that I like might be sized with rabbit skin glue. However it is not. Signature Canvas, who supplies my favorite painting surfaces considers rabbit skin glue as too unstable in humidity changes to use on linen, so they size instead with a synthetic glue. The gesso that they use for acrylic priming is also a kind that does not include any animal products. UPDATE: Signature Canvas is no longer in business. Most of the oil primed linen surface manufacturers I have contacted while sourcing substitutes have told me that they no longer use animal hide glues. Claessens pre-primed oil primed linen uses no animal products.

Updates: I've used Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketchbooks for about as far back as I can remember and I'm happy to report that the sizing used is cornstarch based, not gelatin or animal based.
Daler-Rowney Canford Drawing Papers are vegan.
Claessen's oil primed linen is vegan. 
Recent correspondence with Golden about their gesso discloses that there is no rabbit skin glue in their acrylic gesso, or in any of their acrylic products. Here is a link concerning vegan use of their products: http://www.goldenpaints.com/animalingredientsanimaltesting.
If in doubt contact the manufacturer to ask. I have found all of them responsive and helpful with the exception of Arches.

I will continue to update this post as I find more materials. Feel free to share this post if you find it useful. 

Finding My Missing Cadmium Orange

 Grey Surf Under Summer Storm SOLD
24 x 30" oil on linen
© 2010 Katherine Kean

Last week when I reached for some cadmium orange paint and came up empty I was confused. I'd recently bought two tubes and I don't have any orange paintings, so where did it all go? The answer is qute simple, not that I realized until after looking high and low, through every paint drawer and box, and on every shelf that I might store back up art supplies. I use cadmium orange in underpainting, especially under green grasses like this marsh painting and also to mix darks. I mix it with ultramarine blue and a bit of alazarin to get a deep color that is nearly black, as in the new painting above. Fortunately I happened to be going by the art store the following day and I was able to restock, because one can't get cadmium orange from mixing cadmium red and cadmium yellow.

Some say we are lucky to still have the cadmium pigments to paint with. In the 90's legislation was proposed to ban all the cadmiums due to health and environmental hazards. Amid great outcry from the art community paint for artists' use was excepted from the ban. This article, from the Golden Paints website mentions that even though it is still allowed for art use, it may become increasingly difficult to find as widespread manufacture declines. I sure hope that isn't true.

Back to Work

Storm Clouds Over Lava Field Underpainting

© 2009 Katherine Kean

Now that I've unpacked all the hastily stowed paintings from the trunk of my car and got back to work things feel almost back to normal. The sky here is clear again and temperatures are below normal - perfect weather, really. Painting is one of those activities that always help me to feel at ease, so I got back to it as fast as possible.

This is the latest large linen with the initial underpainting for another in the "volcano" series. I had a lot of fun doing the cracked lava forms in the foreground. I'm working on a Signature Canvas and it's the first time I've worked on one of their products. So far I like it quite a bit.

This weekend I got to see the Pompeii exhibit at LACMA which along with sculptures, jewelry, and frescoes from the excavation also included later painterly interpretations of the Mount Vesuvius eruption.

Eruption of Vesuvius Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes

While we were at LACMA we wandered over to the new wing and rode the red escalator up to the third floor. The third floor! I didn't look up as I stepped on and it was about halfway up that I realized how high we were - and we still had about 45 feet more to go!

My schedule is in need of revision. I lost about a week because of the Station Fire, so I'm still working on paintings that I expected to complete by Labor Day. They're moving along though, so perhaps I'll catch up soon.

Related Post:
Storm Clouds Over Lava Field Sketch

More Underpainting

Ash Plume Underpainting work in progress 40 x 60"
© 2009 Katherine Kean

Here's the underpainting for another large painting - one of the ones I'd like to have complete at the end of the month. I started by toning the entire surface a pale yellow/gold and then painting over that mostly with violets, orange, and brown.

It's been fun working larger and mixing up the paint in recycled cups instead of on a palette while using a bigger brush overall. After working on this size going back to make some revisions on a 30 x 40" painting felt like I was working really small!

Besides mixing larger quantities of paint and using larger brushes another way to make working larger easier is by using a Reducing Glass - also known as a Lover's Glass. A Reducing Glass gives you a viewpoint as if from a distance.

Ash Plume and Lava Field sketches

Ash Plume Sketch
© 2009 Katherine Kean

It has been a busy week. I've been finishing up on some older pieces and starting new ones both. These are the beginnings of two new works. I've already started the underpainting on the second one. You can see some of the grid lines on the drawing as well as a smudge where I dripped some paint.

I ran out of gloves in the middle of the week. I usually order several boxes when I'm ordering paint, but the paint orders seem to take a long time to arrive. It all of a sudden occurred to me that I might find gloves on Amazon.com and that they'd arrive more quickly. Sure enough they had several selections to choose from and they are a lot cheaper to boot. Now, where is the paint?

Lava Field Sketch© 2009 Katherine Kean 

Related Posts:

View-of-Halemaumau Ash Plume

Progress

5 Ways to Avoid Toxicity When Using and Buying Art Materials

Lightfall IV 40 x 18" oil on linen
© 2006 Katherine Kean

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately and came to the forefront again with my recent solvent concerns during the direct heat termite treatment. I have gradually stopped using some of the most dangerous substances, like turpentine. Here are some more things that I do to avoid exposure:

1. Use gloves

2. Don’t keep any open containers. I mix my mediums with any thinner in a squirt bottle that stays capped when not being used.

3. Gamsol instead of OMS. More expensive yes, but has a higher flashpoint and lower evaporation rate which means there are a lot fewer fumes in the air to breathe in.

4. All leftover solvents, mediums, and brush cleaners are taken to the hazardous material disposal facility. Nothing goes down the drain to end up in the ocean or fresh groundwater through the sewer system or by seeping through the soil.

5. Any leftover paint is allowed to dry before disposal, also to prevent contaminating water supplies through seepage. Oil paint is expensive so I don’t allow much waste. I put out tiny amounts on the palette. If there is any left when I am done painting I mix it all together to get a good gray to paint the edges with.

In addition certain manufacturing companies are known to handle materials responsibly. Among them are Gamblin and M. Graham.

Here is an article with more safety tips for artists.

Here is Gamblin on Studio Safety and Solvents.

Related Posts:

If You Took All the Pigments...

Brush Cleaning With Safflower Oil

Termite Treatments, Solvents, and Their Flashpoints

Infini II 30 x 40” oil and pigment on canvas
© 1996 Katherine Kean

I didn’t get much done in the studio Monday – instead I had a termite treatment. After much research on the various methods - from orange oil to posion gases - I chose a direct heat treatment applied to the sub area, followed by electricity and borates. The “crawl space” right next to the studio was heated to 175 degrees to kill a recent termite infestation. The day before the treatment I gathered up all the solvents, many of which have low flashpoints*. There is some insulation between the crawlspace and the studio, but I thought better safe than sorry. The direct heat crew thought the same and proceeded to move paintings aside and tarp the studio off from the main part of the house.

The flammable qualities of solvents isn’t something I think about a lot, mainly because my studio is below the house and tends to stay a little bit cooler overall. It’s heaven on those occasional Santa Ana heat wave days in the summer. The rest of the house can easily get into the nineties on the worst days if I am not running the AC. I don’t have a lot of solvents, I’ve switched from using odorless mineral spirits to using Gamsol because it has a slower evaporation rate and I’ve stopped using turpentine altogether. I do still have some leftover in the studio and there was more than I had initially realized.

Below is a list of the flash points of the various solvents I have in the studio:

*Flash Point
The lowest temperature at which a solvent produces vapor in sufficient concentration to create a flammable mixture.

Turpentine 90 degrees Fahrenheit

Mineral Spirits 104 degrees Fahrenheit

Odorless Mineral Spirits 125 degrees Fahrenheit

Gamsol 145 degrees Fahrenheit

I also removed all of my encaustic supplies so that I wouldn’t run the risk of having all the colors fused together at the bottom of the container.

Now my house is termite free and my subarea is sanitized.