The Ingredients

Dedicated to Quality

Making Old Master Mediums is tricky business. The ingredients are exotic, the formulas are delicate, and cooking the mediums requires patience, expertise and precision. This is why professional-quality mediums are so rare today.

An integral part of making mediums of the highest caliber is using the finest ingredients available.
At Old Masters, we search the world over for the finest, most pure raw materials on the market to ensure that every tube of medium meets the highest standards.

Cold-Pressed Linseed Oil

Linseed Oil is the strongest binding vehicle used in oil painting. The purest form of linseed oil bares the name 'cold-pressed,' which simply means the oil has been pressed directly out of the flax seed without the use of heat. Old Masters only uses Cold-Pressed Oil, unlike other companies which resort to cheaper refined oils.

  

 

Litharge

For centuries the old masters used this ingredient as a siccative, or drying agent. Today, many companies use synthetic polymers (plastic chemicals) to save money, sacrificing the strength and durability of the medium. The paintings of the Old Master have lasted over 400 years. At Old Masters Maroger, we think your paintings should last just as long.

  

 

Pure Gum Spirits of Turpentine

Old Masters uses only Pure Gum Spirits of Turpentine which is essential to the gelling process. Other turpentines, such as distilled, refined, or rectified, will not acheive a solid medium. This solvent is also the basis of our Mastic Varnish.

  

 

Mastic Tears

Mastic is a resin, like sap, which grows on trees. It has many uses: mastic is a common ingredient in Greek desserts, people take mastic pills for health, and painters use mastic to make varnishes and mediums. Old Masters uses only the world's highest quality mastic from the Mastic Gum Growers Association in Chios, an island off the coast of Greece.

  

 

Beeswax

This is the key ingredinet of the Italian Wax Medium. Old Masters uses a natural organic beeswax, which is unbleached, yet a beautiful, clean white color. This purity is achieved through a refining and filtering process that does not involve the use of chemicals, thus keeping the integrity of the beeswax intact. It's thick luster adds a bold tactile quality to our Italian Wax Medium.