Painting with Charvin Paints
Like good canvas and brushes, good paints are really important to oil painting. Paints are even more important for direct painting techniques like plein air and alla prima. You need paints with right consistency and quality. Direct painting is hard enough! I face challenges of direct painting when I paint live at Weddings and Events. That is why I like Charvin paints. I was introduced to Charvin paints few years ago by Jerry’s Artarama. I have the benefit of living close to Jerry’s Artarama’s Raleigh store. While I enjoy shopping online, visiting store allows me to look at the actual products up close. The staff is great and is always willing to help and answer questions.
The paints are beautifully packaged:
I never had trouble opening tubes of old paint. Each tube is marked with pigment and permanence information. This information is also available on Charvin website.
What make Charvin paints different from other paints is the binder: Charvin uses Poppy oil and not the Linseed oil. Poppy oil dries slower than Linseed oil. This is great for direct painting as it allows paint manipulation for a longer time. The paints will not yellow and maintain the original hue when dry. Poppy oil also imparts a creamier texture to Charvin paints. That is important for the brushing quality. I use paints out of the tube, but, occasionally add Clarified Poppy Oil to thin the paints.
Here are some examples of paintings done with Charvin paints:
Portrait (painted over multiple sessions):
Still Life (painted over multiple sessions):
Plein Air (painted over single session):
Landscape (painted over single session):
– Tesh Parekh
Fine Artist & Live Wedding Painter
www.TeshParekhArt.com