Did you know that oil painting is the number one favorite of most people? This is probably because of the rich deep colors used in oil painting and the depth the hanging picture brings to a room. Another reason why oil paintings are so well-liked is that they can be framed so beautifully.
Other art forms don't lend themselves as well to the richly ornate picture frames used with oil paintings.
From the earliest times in history, people have created paintings to express the beauty they see around them and celebrate their triumphs.
Oil painting was a tremendous leap in the creation of art work that looks real
A good artist can use oil paint to create a piece of art completely from his imagination or he can view an object and paint it to look as thought it was real. Oil painting on canvas, in the hands of a skilled artist, re-creates life and gives the object being painted a three-dimensional look.
A fine artist can also create emotion, capture nature, or represent triumphant events with the stroke of a brush. An artist using oils has the ability to give life to inanimate objects so that we see them in a new way. Think of a ship riding out a terrible storm. An artist is able to put the intensity of that storm onto the canvas so that we can see, for ourselves, the fury of nature.
Many brilliant paintings have come from the artist's view of a truly historic event, like a ship crossing, or a major battle in war. Before photography, paintings were the only way to depict actions such as these, and oil painting brought the events to life.
Near 1500 A.D., artisans discovered how to make colorful paints by mixing ground natural pigments with vegetable oil. Interestingly, from the early Greek period, the chemistry of art was closely associated with the chemistry of medicine. Many of the recipes used for both were written into the same books. It was the Christian monks who were the gatekeepers of these treasured recipes until the broader world began to use them during the middle ages.
Some of the drying oils used in the early days were walnut oil, poppy oil, hempseed oil, castor oil and linseed oil. They were used like varnish in order to seal the images on the canvas and protect them from water damage. If the oils were thickened, they actually became excellent coatings.
In later years, yellow pigment was used in the oil which was spread onto tin foil to give the appearance of gold leaf. This was an economical way to offer this treatment to art lovers. As early as the 13 th century, oil was even used as a way to paint details over tempera pictures.
The oils were set in a sunny place for bleaching and purifying. If metallic oxides, such as Litharge or White Lead, were added to the oils, the drying time was hastened. Oils were also prepared by boiling and mixing them with other substances right up to the Renaissance, and beyond.
It was not until the 15 th century that the process for making oil paints was perfected. The Van Eyck brothers, Flemish painters themselves, are credited with perfecting the oil paint development process.
There are many different terms that are important when trying to understand oil painting. Some of them are described below.
Local Color refers to the actual or true color of an object, not the color it looks like when viewed as part of a whole painting or when influenced by the effects of light or other natural conditions.
Alla Prima Painting is painting directly from life, using a subject that is completed in one session prior to the paint drying. This method was later used by the Impressionist painters.
Chiaroscuro uses bold contrast with many highlights and is generally used to paint dark scenes. The word also refers to an element of this effect in any picture.
Double Ground refers to a method where a painting is superimposed over another distinct layer of color.
Fat-Over-Lean is a rule used in painting in layers. Each successive layer of paint must include more oil than the preceding layer to reduce the risk of cracking or flaking.
Gesso is a binder used in oil paints to allow the paint to glide easily.
Ground is the main surface on which the color is applied.
Chroma refers to the brilliance of color apart from a neutral value.
Highlight refers to the lightest tone in a painting.
Imprimatura is a transparent stain of oil color applied to a whole surface and giving a midtone effect. The most common imprimatura colors are brown, earth-red, gray, or gray blue.
Lightfast is a term that means the paint is resistant to fading and this is judged in terms of centuries, not years.
Impasto means to paint very thickly with a bristle brush or palette knife. This creates interesting surface texture.
Grisaille is painting in various tones of gray.
Understanding oil painting is useful for the collector, the art framer, or the artist. The more we know about a medium, the more likely we are to appreciate its cost.
About the author
Stefanie Spikell is a writer and artist who excels in watercolor, mosaic and acrylicpaintings. Stefanie writes for a1paintings.com and other business and art websites.
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