Oil Paintings

Mesmerizing Oil Paintings

Paintings are considered one of the most beautiful creations of man, bearing the power to exert a pull on the spectator. And among these, oil paintings personify the beauty of the genre of paintings, as a whole. Simply put, oil painting is the process of painting with pigments bound with a medium of linseed oil. In the recent years, water soluble oil paints have come to prominence, to the extent of replacing the usage of traditional oils as well. These paints contain an emulsifier that permits them to be thinned down by water and even facilitates faster drying.

Oil paintings were very first used by Indian and Chinese painters for Buddhist paintings between the 5th and 9th centuries. However, they did not gain popularity until the 15th century, when it eventually became the principal medium for producing beautiful artworks. It is noticed that great artists and painters preferred oil paintings because it rendered a very realistic output. They looked more attractive and lavish than the paintings created by water colors. Plus, oil paintings also offered long lasting resistance and greater durability.

Creating an Oil Painting

Original oil paintings are invaluable today, bearing great historical importance for they depict the era of the nation at a particular period of time. However, the true beauty behind oil paintings lies in the hard work of the painter. A classic oil painting may take several weeks to months to be completed. Oil paintings are said to consume a lot of hard work simply because it does not dry easily; so, if the artist wants to create his work in layers, he would have to wait for the paints to dry at each layer for weeks. Oil paints comprise of color binders and pigments and oils such as linseed oil, safflower oil, poppy seeds oil and walnut oil are mixed in the pigments. Even the brushes are made up of different fibers to facilitate the right kind of strokes.

It is interesting to note that oil paintings reached their zenith during the period of renaissance, when artists chose wood panels as their base medium. They stretched their canvas on the wooden panel and used a variety of brushes, blades, knives and even fingers, to paint different types of strokes with unique effects. Popular oil painting styles include contemporary oil paintings, Islamic oil paintings, portrait oil paintings, abstract oil paintings, landscape oil paintings, floral oil paintings, still life oil paintings, etc.

Beauty of Oil Paintings Today

Undoubtedly, oil paintings are an astonishing form of art and even today, millions of artists across the globe express themselves through oil paintings. Though, there are more sophisticated tools, colors and brushes available. For instance, the oil colors used are water miscible, so that they can be thinned and also cleaned by water, rather than the conventional method of turpentine. There are thousands of galleries spread across the world, depicting artists’ creation and recreation of mesmerizing oil paintings. Moreover, people adore decorating their homes and offices with wonderful oil paintings. They are also ideal gifts for painting enthusiasts.