Oil painting

The advantages of oil for painting images include "greater flexibility, richer and denser color, the use of layers, and a wider range from light to dark".

[1] The oldest known oil paintings were created by Buddhist artists in Afghanistan, and date back to the 7th century AD.

The choice of oil imparts a range of properties to the paint, such as the amount of yellowing or drying time.

This rule does not ensure permanence; it is the quality and type of oil that leads to a strong and stable paint film.

The earliest known surviving oil paintings are Buddhist murals created c. 650 AD in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

The artworks display a wide range of pigments and ingredients and even include the use of a final varnish layer.

[6] However, Theophilus Presbyter (a pseudonymous author who is sometimes identified as Roger of Helmarshausen[7]) gives instructions for oil-based painting in his treatise, De diversis artibus ('on various arts'), written about 1125.

The increasing use of oil spread through Italy from Northern Europe, starting in Venice in the late 15th century.

Renaissance techniques used several thin almost transparent layers or glazes, usually each allowed to dry before the next was added, greatly increasing the time a painting took.

The underpainting or ground beneath these was usually white (typically gesso coated with a primer), allowing light to reflect through the layers.

Among the earliest impasto effects, using a raised or rough texture in the surface of the paint, are those from the later works of the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, around 1500.

Until the mid-19th century, there was a division between artists who exploited "effects of handling" in their paintwork, and those who continued to aim at "an even, glassy surface from which all evidences of manipulation had been banished".

The artists of the Italian regions moved towards canvas in the early 16th century, led partly by a wish to paint larger images, which would have been too heavy as panels.

The gesso layer, depending on its thickness, will tend to draw the oil paint into the porous surface.

An artist's palette, traditionally a thin wood board held in the hand, is used for holding and mixing paints.

Pigments may be any number of natural or synthetic substances with color, such as sulfides for yellow or cobalt salts for blue.

A brush is most commonly employed by the artist to apply the paint, often over a sketched outline of their subject (which could be in another medium).

A variety of unconventional tools, such as rags, sponges, and cotton swabs, may be used to apply or remove paint.

After this layer dries, the artist might then proceed by painting a "mosaic" of color swatches, working from darkest to lightest.

Artists in later periods, such as the Impressionist era (late 19th century), often expanded on this wet-on-wet method, blending the wet paint on the canvas without following the Renaissance-era approach of layering and glazing.

Several contemporary artists use a combination of both techniques to add bold color (wet-on-wet) and obtain the depth of layers through glazing.

When the image is finished and has dried for up to a year, an artist often seals the work with a layer of varnish that is typically made from dammar gum crystals dissolved in turpentine.

Oil painters such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh revolutionized the medium in ways that profoundly shaped the evolution of modern art.

Their groundbreaking innovations in technique, color, and form redefined traditional oil painting and set the stage for various art movements that followed.

His emphasis on capturing the transient effects of light and his near-abstraction of form in his late works, such as Water Lilies: The Clouds (1920), pushed the boundaries of traditional representational painting.

Artists like Jackson Pollock drew inspiration from Monet’s large-scale canvases and his focus on the physical process of painting, using techniques that emphasized the action of creating art over the final product.

[12] Vincent van Gogh's influence on modern art is equally significant, particularly through his emotive use of color and texture.

[13] His impasto technique, where thick layers of paint create a tactile, almost sculptural quality, was groundbreaking at the time and had a lasting impact on 20th-century movements such as Expressionism and Fauvism.

[14][15] His iconic works like Starry Night and Sunflowers showcase his emotional intensity, using exaggerated colors and dramatic compositions to convey psychological depth.

Early 20th-century Expressionists, such as Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, were inspired by Van Gogh’s ability to express inner turmoil and existential angst through distorted forms and vibrant hues.