: Solvent-Free Oil Painting

For painters working in confined studios, at home with children around, or who have developed sensitivity to traditional solvents over years of use, the solvent-free approach offers a genuinely different working method — one where the bottles on your bench don't contribute volatile organic compounds to the studio air.

Michael Harding's Miracle Medium leads this category. It's a plant-based, ester-oil formulation with VOC content roughly an order of magnitude lower than mineral-spirit solvents, and a flashpoint above 180°C — effectively non-flammable at room temperature. It does the work of both a medium and a solvent alternative in one bottle.

For the full picture on solvent vs solvent-free working, see our guide to solvents vs mediums.