Cold Wax Medium is made from naturally white, pure beeswax. Formulated to knife consistency, Cold Wax Medium makes oil colors, Gamblin Mediums, and Gamvar thicker and more matte. It can also be applied alone as a matte varnish.
As an oil painting medium, Cold Wax Medium can be used to make oil colors thicker and more matte. Its soft paste consistency can be thinned to brush consistency by dissolving in a small amount of Gamsol. The surface of paintings made with Cold Wax Medium will become only as hard as a beeswax candle.
Please note, painters who are using more than 1/3 cold wax medium to 2/3 oil paints should paint on rigid supports (e.g. wood painting panel) or paintings may crack when moved. By mixing 1/2 Cold Wax Medium and 1/2 Galkyd Gel, painters can paint on flexible supports like stretched canvas.
You may add Cold Wax Medium to Galkyd oil painting mediums or Drying Oil (linseed/Stand) to reduce gloss. Use up to 25% wax to reduce gloss in a painting medium without adversely affecting the strength and flexibility of the medium.
When adding wax to thicker mediums like Galkyd Gel, Neo Megilp or Solvent-Free Gel, blend directly with a palette knife.
When adding Cold Wax to a fluid medium, thin it first with Gamsol. On a separate palette, add a small amount of Gamsol into some Cold Wax and blend thoroughly with a palette knife until you achieve a very soft paste, nearly slurry consistency. This is your matting agent. Add the desired amount of Cold Wax slurry into a premeasured amount of fluid painting medium. Mix/shake thoroughly until you can hold the jar up to the light and it looks uniformly cloudy (no wax bits floating about).
Straight Cold Wax Medium can be applied to a dry painting as a removable, matte varnish. Once applied, the Cold Wax can be left to dry for a matte finish or gently buffed for a soft luster. Cold Wax Medium can also be used to reduce the gloss level of Gamvar Picture Varnish.
It’s a rare occurrence for one specific painting medium to have a whole genre of painting associated with it, but Cold Wax Medium is one such medium. Cold Wax Painting is not defined by subject matter nor the degree of realism or abstraction, Cold Wax Painting is unified by artists’ shared interest in experimentation, texture and the physicality of paint layers.
Cold Wax Painting is any type of painting that heavily utilizes Cold Wax Medium into oil colors. In its own way, Cold Wax Painting blurs the line between oil painting and encaustic painting.
Gamblin Cold Wax Medium a mixture of natural beeswax (wax pastilles), Gamsol and a small amount of alkyd resin. The term “cold” in Cold Wax Medium and Cold Wax Painting refers to the fact that heat is not required for working with this wax medium – as it dries by solvent evaporation (Gamsol), rather than the cooling of the wax, as in encaustic painting. As the Gamsol evaporates out of the medium, the soft wax hardens to the density of a beeswax candle.
Unlike other Gamblin painting mediums, which increase the flow and gloss of oil colors to varying degrees, Cold Wax Medium makes oil colors thicker and more matte.
Cold Wax medium is a dense paste, it is excellent in creating a variety of textures within a painting. It has a “short” characteristic and gives a clean break off of the brush or knife, retaining the sharp peaks of impasto. These working properties allow for expressive brushmarks and the ability to carve into paint layers with palette knives. Cold Wax also gives oil colors a beautiful translucent quality, similar to the seductive surfaces of encaustic paintings.
Cold Wax Painting utilizes experimental approaches, including the use of brayers, stencils, and textural elements such as bubble wrap or wire screens. The possibilities are endless!
Cold Wax Medium is compatible with oil colors, alkyd/oil colors, alkyd-based painting mediums, and Gamsol. Fast-drying mediums such as Galkyd and Galkyd Gel will increase the tack when mixed with Cold Wax Medium. Neo Megilp, our silky, soft gel medium gives the wax a smoother feel and will round the peaks of impasto. These alkyd mediums will increase the gloss level of Cold Wax (just as adding Cold Wax lowers the gloss level of these mediums). Adding Gamsol to Cold Wax Medium will make it more fluid without adding gloss.
We recommend adding up to 1/3 Cold Wax Medium to 2/3 oil colors. Beyond this amount, approximately 25% Solvent-Free Gel or Galkyd Gel should be added to 75% Cold Wax Medium. The addition of these mediums will increase both the flexibility and durability of the resulting paint layer, making it less prone to cracking.
Just like encaustic paintings are done on rigid supports such as panels, we recommend the same for Cold Wax Paintings. Wood or aluminum panels are appropriate, as are panels with fabric adhered to the surface. Rigid supports limit movement the paint layers and will help prevent cracking.
When using Cold Wax Medium alone as a painting medium on stretched canvas, we recommend limiting the wax to 1/3 of the total paint mixture. To use higher percentages of Cold Wax Medium on stretched canvas, add 25-50% Galkyd Gel, Solvent-Free Gel, or for more fluid results, Galkyd. The addition of these mediums will increase the flexibility and durability of the resulting paint layer, making it less prone to cracking.
The wax we use to formulate the Cold Wax Medium has a melting point of approximately 155 degrees F. In most environments, Cold Wax paintings will remain quite stable. However, if you need to transport or ship the painting through a warm climate in the summer, consider air conditioning!
Brilliance, oil, Cold Wax and Rich Gold Metallic on canvas.
C$44.99
