But...

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I got more questions! Dawn Littlepage asks:

“Hi Carol, I have a question about length of drying time for paintings.... How is it possible for your oil paintings to be dry so quickly that you can mail them out to buyers in a week or so? Mine take ages and then I need to varnish as well. Thank you.”

Thanks, Dawn! I get this one a lot. There are several reasons my paintings are usually dry by the time my auctions end. One is that I am often ahead with my paintings - by the time I post a painting (in a 7-day auction) it has usually already had a few days to dry. I also paint fairly thin. I’m not necessarily advocating for this, it’s just the way I’ve always painted, but it definitely speeds up the drying time (and I find it easier to control the paint, but I digress). I also use a medium (that I mix myself) that I suspect helps the paint dry faster. I’ll add my recipe below, but there are also commercial mediums you can buy that do the same thing (like Gamblin’s Galkyd Medium).

One more thing that I should note (and no, I do not get a kickback from Gamblin) is that when I varnish, I use Gamblin’s Gamvar. My understanding is that you don’t have to wait quite as long before you varnish as you do with traditional varnishes (it is also odorless!). After varnishing, I can ship the painting the next day. I let my buyers know that it will take up to 5 days to ship, which gives me a little leeway in case the paint is thicker than normal, or I have other things going on that prevent me from shipping immediately.

My medium recipe: 2 parts linseed oil | 1 part stand oil | 1 part OMS (I use Gamsol)