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My pleasure, George. I hope to offend no one, it seems passions can run high when mediums and painting additives are discussed. There is more mis-information at large than truth, and the whole subject is a minefield for painters.
Add to this the fact that many high-quality standby materials (those " . . . tried and true . . . used for generations . . . " Michele requested) have been out of use by mainstream art materials suppliers for some time, and are becoming ever more scarce and difficult to obtain.
Examples: linseed oil has been supplanted by safflower oil as the vehicle in most tube paint, not because it results in superior paint, but because it is inexpensive, and readily available in vast quantities as its main application is in the fast food industry.
Pure gum spirits of turpentine is practically impossible to obtain, where at one time it was a common hardware-store or paint store item. The currently available foul-smelling stuff is steam distilled from stumps and forest waste, rather than fractionally distilled from pure sap tapped from living conifers. There is a world of difference in quality.
The natural and fossil resins have been supplanted by petrochemicals such as alkyds in the production of commercial paints and varnishes. Again, availability and low cost is the driving force behind their introduction into art materials, supplanting traditional resins such as copal, damar, venice turps, balsam, mastic etc., etc.
With a track-record of 500+ years of durably provable techniques, it seems to me there is little reason to re-invent the process of oil painting by employing synthetics and different materials that lack this provenance.
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