These days, more and more people are buying products that gel with their concerns for the earth. Fortunately, there are quite a few environmentally-friendly art supplies on the market. These supplies work for both fine art endeavors, like the creation of oil paintings, as well as any arts and crafts projects that are made with colored pencils, pastels and encaustics.
If you'd like to bring some more eco-friendly products into your art studio, Milan Art Institute founder, Elli Milan, has some recommendations for you. These recommendations cover the brands that she considers some top green brands.
About three years ago, Elli Milan discovered Eco-House, a company that uses orange peels, tree pitch and other nature products in all their solvents.
She went looking for a new solvent, because many of her students would get headaches after using their previous solvents for a long time.
Her daughter, Dimitra, another one of the school’s owners, would also break out after using their previous solvents. Even odorless solvents didn’t solve the problem.
In the video, Elli discussed a couple of products worth noting, particularly if you’d like to take a more environmentally-friendly approach to work (where possible).
Video caption: Watch Elli’s video if you want to see what each of the products below looks like.
Eco-House Thinner: A non-toxic thinner that doesn’t harm the environment. It’s reusable. You can recycle it to save yourself cash and to help out the planet.
By recycling and reusing this thinner, you can cut down on the amount of thinner you use to clean your paint brushes. Elli says she goes through about a can a year by doing this.
Eco-House Damar Varnish: This varnish is made from tree pitch. You can varnish your paintings indoors with it. No mask required. Because you can use it inside, you won’t have to worry about wind or dust getting on your oil or acrylic paintings as you’re varnishing them.
Eco-House CoZICa: It’s purple-colored, but it doesn’t affect the color of your paint. You can use it as a drying medium for your oil paint. It’ll dry oil paints in 30 minutes to an hour. It works really quickly.
Eco-House Damar Medium: This also makes your paint dry faster. It’s a glazing medium, like galkyd or liquin. These mediums work well with oil colors, giving your oil painting canvases a natural beauty.
Nowadays, it's possible to find art supplies that are earth friendly and non-toxic. The Eco-House brand is one that we use and recommend for ourselves and for the students in our Beginner Art Program and our Mastery Program. These products are heavy duty enough to get the job done but without many of the adverse effects that often come with using other types of solvents.
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