Langridge Refined Safflower Oil

Very pale, Refined safflower oil.
Has little tendency to yellow and is often recommended for use with whites, blues and pale colours. Adds a slippery quality to oil colours. Slow drying. Care should be taken when used for underpainting.

Drying time: 6-9 days to touch dry.

Product Application

Langridge Refined Safflower Oil may be used for the grinding of oil colours. It may also be added to oil colours and oil mediums at the discretion of the artist.

Refined Safflower Oil is used extensively for grinding pale pigments because of its’ very light colour that will alter minimally the colour of the resulting milled oil paint. It does not have as great a wetting power as cold pressed safflower oil however its refinement process makes it less prone to yellowing over time and slightly faster drying. Safflower oil is considered, alongside poppy, to be the most desirable drying oil for making white, blue and other pale coloured oil paints. For more information on the grinding of oil colours.

As a medium, Langridge Cold Pressed Safflower Oil adds a loose, slippery quality when added to oil colours. Safflower oil, however, does not dry to as tough a final film as linseed and the use of safflower should be kept to a minimum as a medium to aid fluidity or transparency. Use sparingly, and if wishing to employ glazes or washes Langridge recommends the use of Stand Oil, a virtually non-yellowing oil which dries to a tougher, more resilient film than safflower, as the basis for painting mediums.

Refined Safflower Oil is very slow drying. The paint film will stay open and is easily moved or reworked for up to 72 hours, the surface of the paint film staying wet for up to a week.

This can be problematic in severely slowing down the painting process. Cobalt driers may be introduced to accelerate drying rates, but the potential for increasing the yellowing of the paint film when driers are incorrectly added should be noted.

Langridge Refined Safflower Oil should be considered a slow drying ‘fat’ medium. It should not be used for underpainting if oil colours with no additional safflower oil is to be applied on top.

Dries to a gloss finish.