How I Store My Oil Paints

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog. Here I share some tips I’ve learned along my art journey. Nothing super fancy but hopefully some helpful information for you and I’ll keep posting as I learn more.

Today I’m going to show you how I store my oil paints and what I do to keep them from drying out.

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First off I live in Las Vegas and it is wicked dry here. When I first started using oil paints my palette wouldn’t last very long and I hate wasting paint so I did some digging and experimenting and figured out what works best for me and today I’m going to show you what I do.

I have found that glass makes the best palette for oil paints. If any paint happens to dry out completely it can be easily cleaned off using a sharp edge like a razor blade and the smooth surface is so nice for mixing paints. I turned a glass 11×14 picture frame into my mixing palette by simply taping the back side of the glass with clear packing tape to prevent shattering and using the frame itself to protect the shape edges of the glass.

What’s great about this palette is that the color of the palette can be easily changed by just changing the paper under the glass. I currently have white paper but I know some artist prefer gray to help with color accuracy.

Now to store my paints along side my palette I use a glass pie dish. Might not be much for looks but it works! I put the colors I want on the sides of the dish and use my brush to take from this to mix on my mixing palette.  I cover the dish with a thin sheet of plastic to protect the paints and I store the dish in a 2-gallon seal-able plastic bag to keep air out.

What really helps the most though is clove essential oil. I don’t know how it works but it does and I was lucky enough to find this out. I periodically place a few drops of oil on a sponge kept in the middle of my pie dish and this helps keep my oil paint usable.  My burnt umber is always the fastest to dry but using this method I’ve had yellows and purples last for 2 months. It really is great! All this allows me to keep colors out that I use regularly without them drying out every time. I’ve also tried sticking my whole palette in the freezer and while this does work I find the clove oil to be more convenient.

So there is it, my DIY mixing palette and storage. Like I said, nothing fancy, but it works for me and I hope this helps if you’re finding your paints dry out to fast.

Let me know what you think and your methods