What is cold wax medium and how is it different from other oil mediums?
Cold wax medium is a medium that thickens the oil paint and allows you to create beautiful textured paintings. It is made from natural beeswax with a solvent and damar resin, resulting in a buttery and malleable consistency.
This mixture can then be mixed with oils, usually at a 50%/50% ratio. Most other oil mediums will make the mix thinner, the wax however makes it more creamy and will have to be applied with a palette knife or a squeegee or a bowl scraper. You can create textures which almost anything you can find around your house!
Creative freedom
A big advantage is that once the wax is mixed into your oil paint, the rule ‘fat over lean’ does no longer apply so you can create without stressing over the strict traditional oil painting rules!
One of the key advantages of incorporating cold wax medium into your painting process is its ability to create beautiful rich paintings. By layering the medium, you can build up a depth that adds history and interest to your pieces (be sure to let the layers dry in between!)
What I noticed during my expositions that people are facinated by the technique, it gives a certain softness to your paintings and people not only want to look at my work but also touch it!
The reason why I love the cold wax medium is that it lends itself well to experimentation and mixed media approaches. It can be combined with various materials, such as pigments, powdered metals, or collage elements. My Moto:
Explore, Experiment and have fun!
If you want to dive deeper into the different tools and cold wax techniques, check out my online starter class ‘Getting started with cold wax medium’
Starter Class: Getting started with CWM
Do try out the cold wax medium, I am sure you will soon be as addicted to painting in oils and cold wax medium as I am!
