Mother and child painting cardboard house outside - Fiona Jackson-downes And Dirk Lindner/Getty Images Painting can be a therapeutic activity, and you don't have to be Van Gogh or Kahlo to enjoy it.

Though the term is used interchangeably with oil-based paints for most practical purposes, alkyd paints are actually not oil-based but alkyd resins mixed in some sort of thinner. When most people ...