July 16, 2024

Michael Harding Miracle Medium

a review by artist David ‘DJ’ Johnson

The use of toxic oil painting solvents and mediums has been a health issue for oil painters, workers in the painting industry and the environment for many centuries now.

Michael Harding has recently developed a medium which is a safer alternative to traditional oil painting solvents such as Turpentine and White Spirit. It can be used both as an oil paint diluent and as a brush cleaner, is 100% vegetable based, produces no toxic fumes and is biodegradable, meaning it is safe for our health and the health of our environment.

Could this be the answer we have been looking for? and does it perform as well as traditional mediums and solvents? I was invited to test out a selection of the new range of Miracle Mediums currently available.

Miracle Medium

Available at Pegasus Art here

The Miracle Medium itself is completely clear in colour and virtually odourless. If you take a big sniff from the bottle you can detect a very faint smell, but otherwise I didn’t notice any odour when using it.

Michael Harding Raw Umber - a review of Miracle Medium by David DJ Johnson

For the first test I added a small amount of Michael Harding Raw Umber oil paint to a small pool of miracle medium to create a thin wash, and applied this to a canvas board. The medium allowed me to create a very thin and subtle wash which dried quickly for oil paint. After 3 mins it was slightly tacky to touch and after 30 mins it was dry.

I then cleaned the brush with the Miracle medium which was a great success, and when I wiped the brush on tissue it left only a very faint trace of colour. Unfortunately at current prices, this is a bit of an expensive way to clean your brushes, but hopefully this will change with time. White spirit is a cheaper option to clean your brushes, but it does have a damaging effect on the hair and glue binding the hair in your brush. I’m not sure of the long term effects of using miracle medium on brush hair and glue, but I’m optimistic.

Oil paint Medium

The Oil paint miracle medium has a consistency similar to a thin oil, with a very faint odour of linseed oil. I decided to test the medium on 2 colours, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. The medium thinned the paint nicely and evenly, and was easy to move the paint around. You can see from the test images that the medium allows you to see the brushstrokes clearly, and this did not change as it dried.

Unfortunately it does not speed up the drying time like other solvent based oil painting mediums, but If you do a lot of wet-on-wet, or Alla Prima painting like myself, then this is not a problem.

The medium also appeared to increase the gloss of the paint, and is apparently non yellowing which is nice to know.

For me personally, it does exactly what an oil painting medium should do, and i look forward to using it in the future.

Quick Drying Dammar Glaze

Available at Pegasus Art here

When opening the glaze medium, the first thing I noticed was the smell – or lack of it! Many of the glazing mediums i have used contain turpentine, and smell quite strong and toxic. I did a glazing workshop with one of my classes recently, and had a small jar of glaze medium containing turpentine with me. The Chemical smell soon filled the room and was uncomfortable for some of the students, until doors and windows were opened for ventilation.

The Miracle Medium quick drying Dammar glaze has a very faint smell of linseed oil, which I personally have always found quite pleasant, and brings back early memories of painting with oils as a child.

I painted a strip of Titanium white mixed with Yellow Lake, and then applied graded glazes of Transparent Oxide Red, and Ultramarine blue over the pale yellow strip. As you can see from the photo, the glazing medium allowed me to achieve some very thin and subtle glazes of colour without it breaking down.

The other benefit of this glaze is that it dries quickly! This allows for the layering of glazes in a shorter time frame, which can be very useful in some circumstances.

The results of adding glazes of colour can be seen clearly here in my painting of a winter sunset. A glaze of transparent Oxide Red was added to the top half of the sky, and a mixed glaze of Scarlet Lake and Alizarin Claret was applied to the bottom half of the painting. It really does boost the vibrancy of the colours in the painting.

Resin-Oil Wax

Available from Pegasus Art here

Resin-oil wax medium is a new one for me, and I was excited to test this on a portrait of my daughter Daisy which i’d recently done for a painting demonstration. I felt the background would benefit from lightening up, and so mixed a light grey using the resin-oil wax medium.

It certainly adds lustre to the paint and leaves a subtle satin finish. You can see where the paint was applied generously, it produced a very creamy and soft finish. I can imagine this would be excellent for painting skin tones. Where the paint is thinned out and scrubbed with a brush, it still retains the lustre and softness to the brushmarks which complemented the sharper brushmarks in her hair nicely. I was personally very impressed with this medium, and I’m looking forward to using more of it with my artwork.

Beeswax Paste

Available from Pegasus Art here

I do enjoy painting textures in my work, and so I was intrigued to see how the beeswax paste would influence the paint. I decided to produce 3 varieties of textures using a brush and palette knife, and produced one set of textures with the beeswax paste and one set with neat oil paint.

The textures were achieved by firstly using a knife to spread the paint like butter on bread, secondly by stippling the paint delicately with the blade of the knife, and thirdly by using a bristle brush to achieve some thick impasto brushmarks. In the top right corner you can also see the edge of the palette knife blade with paint after stippling.

The first thing I noticed was how much body the beeswax added to the paint, it really did fatten it up and made the paint even more buttery, delicious to work with.

The biggest difference for me was how the beeswax paste influenced brush marks. Those produced with beeswax paste were a lot softer with more body to them, and had a rich quality to the overall feel of the brushmarks. When using neat oil paint the brushmarks which were sharper and thinner, with more individual bristle marks visible. Definitely worth investing in if you are looking for a softer richer finish to your brushmarks.

Conclusion

The Miracle mediums produced by Michael Harding certainly appear to fulfil all the needs for artists painting in oils, and compare very well with other oil painting mediums currently available. Although the long term effects on the artwork have yet to be seen, they are fluid, versatile and most importantly – non toxic.

In the 15 years I have been teaching art classes and painting workshops, I have met many people who are affected by the toxic mediums associated with oil painting, ranging from headaches and sickness, to severe respiratory issues. More and more people are also becoming consciously aware of the environmental impact of toxic mediums entering our water systems and the natural world. With this new range of non-toxic mediums, Michael Harding has opened-up oil painting to a much wider arena of artists. People affected by oil painting solvents or concerned about the environmental impact of using solvents can now enjoy oil painting with peace of mind.

I believe that this fact alone makes the Miracle Medium range a Game Changer, and I encourage you to try them out for yourself – seeing, and smelling, is believing.

DJ is an independent freelance artist and tutor based in Stourbridge. He teaches art classes, 1-2-1 coaching, public painting demonstrations, painting workshops and painting holidays throughout the UK & Europe.

Website www.artbydj.co.uk

Facebook artbydjdj

Instagram art.bydj