Oil painting has been the most dominant and popular art medium used in the history of the art world. This particular medium is largely lauded and celebrated because of its versatility, property to create a wide and varied range of opacity, and intensity in the art through the combinations of infinite colors and forms. Moreover, this handmade artwork started a whole new art movement to be followed by many.
If you are just starting to build a passion for the painting world, here is a simple definition of oil painting.
Well, it is the layering process of paintings with colors that are bound seamlessly with a medium of drying oil. The most commonly used oils for the process are linseed oil, walnut oil, poppy seed oil, and safflower oil.
History of Oil Painting
The history of oil painting dates back to ancient times when humans just started to try their hands-on in the painting work. It’s been recorded that the first handmade artwork of oil paint was used for the Buddhist paintings created by both Indian and Chinese painters. The record of this has been found from the fifth to the tenth centuries. However, it gained popularity only after the 15th century as the art style migrated towards the west during this period.
Oil painting ultimately became the prime intermediate used for the creation of the magnificent artworks after its advantages became widely famous all across the world. As a medium in its modern form, Belgium painter Jan Van Eyck developed oil painting by mixing linseed oil and oil from nuts with diverse colors. The Belgian painter was not the first to experiment with oil paint; rather he was the one who perfected the technique and medium.
Pioneers of Oil Paintings
When it comes to famous oil painting artists, oodles of names strike our mind. Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jan Van Eyck are among the popular names associated with the oil painting. The possibilities of creating masterpieces with oil paints are actually limitless and know no bounds.
But perhaps, it seems almost impossible for someone to craft a masterpiece more fascinating than the world-famous Mona Lisa by the legendary artist Leonardo Da Vinci or ”Starry Night” by Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. Such artworks are very costly and almost unaffordable to the commoners, however, the replicas of these masterpieces have been generated to make them available at a lesser cost.
The medium of Oil Paintings
One of the beauties – or you can say it a mystery – of oil painting is the use of the veritable plethora of mediums available. These mediums can be oil or spirit-based and are perfectly blended with the paint as the painting process starts. Poppy and sunflower oil, Linseed oil, Walnut oil, Turpentine, Thinners or White Spirits are some of the best known and available mediums for oil painting.
These mediums are used to alter the properties of the paint, such as transparency, consistency, drying time and others. Linseed oil is the best-known oil medium due to its flexibility and resistance to cracking. Similarly, poppy oil and safflower oil are used to avoid the yellowness in the painting due to the linseed oil and they tend to take a longer time to dry and have crackling properties.
As for spirit-based medium, turpentine is the old-fashioned solvent that has been used by artists all across the world to create and dilute the paint. It is mixed with a little pigment to a thin wash so that the color dries quicker.
Why is Oil Painting famous?
The most obvious reason behind people liking and purchasing oil painting is due to modern fashionable thinking and an intense desire to beautify their homes. Oil paintings have always been considered to showcase a high status to the homeowners. Besides people showcasing their classiness and elegance through oil paintings, they are also very popular among genuine art-lovers. They tend to purchase the artworks based on their personal taste and their understanding regarding the art piece.
Pioneer in Oil Painting Reproduction
With the arrival of online shopping, numerous online art-galleries have started all over the web. With the origination of these online art-galleries, the art-lovers do not need to walk around the street art-galleries to purchase or get your favorite oil painting and made-to-order oil painting reproduction.
What’s better about the reproduction masterworks created using oil paint is that they help you décor the house with the art piece that you have always instead of owning the original that cost fortunes. This art movement lets you gift your loved ones a portrait of them, a family picture for the wall gallery, or a painting by the famous artist.
In the end, oil painting is not going to fade away in popularity anytime sooner, and the previously stated masterworks will always remain idolized by everyone.