The Gumoil Blog

The US distributor of my favorite safflower and poppy oil lamp black paint for printing with gumoil is currently moving its warehouse to New England, and that means that this paint is not currently available in any of the online shops that I buy it from. So, I have no alternative but to mull (mix) some of my own right now. I started doing this a while back, but since Maimeri makes a great version of this paint already, I've been quite happy just buying it in a tube, all ready to go. Mulling paint is fun, but it's a lot of work, it's messy, and you should always wear protective gear, including a full face respirator mask, because some powdered pigments are highly toxic.  Here is a YouTube video I made (with help from my husband) of what it takes to mull paint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJFlTwJzyao

9x17 inches, Arches Platine, 1:3 plus 30% dist. water gum solution, ("green" curve and transparency) I first heard about the gumoil process in July of 2013. I was introduced to it during an advanced alternative processes workshop led by my friend and go-to mentor for all things alt pro, Christopher James. Christopher  asked Cotton Miller, his assistant for the workshop, to do a quick gumoil demonstration because he had become quite familiar with this elusive process while using it for some of his MFA work, creating a series of beautiful and haunting portraits of Boston subway commuters. At the time, I had no idea just how frustrating gumoil could be, but after a few years of trial and error, I have found ways of reining it in. My work was included in The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Third Edition, by Christopher James.   You can  buy it   here  at Amazon . The process was developed in 1990 by painter, printmaker and photographer, Karl Koenig, who