Oil Painting - Most Popular Art Form Of The Modern Times

By Amitseo Kumar Singh

Oil painting is a distinct genre of painting where drying oil is applied as paints. Timeless possessions of arts, oil paintings down the ages are visual documentations of the history culture and lifestyle of the yore. With the moving courses of time new styles and techniques have made way into the paintings making them more enriched and versatile. Oil Painting is also very popular in the modern times. The modern artists and connoisseurs admire them and innovate new ideas from them.

Various types of oil were used to create oil paintings. Linseed oil, poppy seed oil, sunflower oil and walnut oil were used commonly. The painters mixed the oils with the pigments with great dexterity and precision. Pine resins and frankincense were applied to bring a glossy effect on the paintings. Generally the paintings were carved on a canvas. But in some cases the paintings were framed out in paper sheets, cardboards, linoleum and wooden panels. Animal glue and gesso were used to coat the panel paintings. Modern gesso is a combination of calcium carbonate and polymer acrylic. It is used to increase the absorbency of the primer coat of an oil painting. Animal glue saves from the harmful acid effect of the paints.

In oil paintings the outline of the subject of a particular painting is first carved out on the canvas. Then pigments are mixed with oils to prepare shades of colors. Pigments having cobalt, manganese and lead were used in the early days to increase the drying process. The oil colors are then applied on the painting in the form of layers. With the advent of oil painting tubes the painters have been freed from the hazards of mixing oil with pigments.

Painting in layers is the conventional method of oil painting. This is done to enhance the effect of colors and bring perfection into the painting. First the "underpainting" is sketched out using thin coats of paints like the turpentine paint. The layer is let to dry up. After this several layers of oil paints are applied consecutively letting each layer to dry up completely before applying the next layer. It can take several weeks to months to dry an oil painting completely. After the work is sealed by the artist varnish is applied to bring the shining effect.

Oil paintings have been influenced by various styles of art namely renaissance art, figurative art, folk art, abstract art, contemporary art and modern art. The themes of the paintings were collected from various facets of nature, figures of animals and human beings, modern architectures and every day life. The inherent self of human beings and the various human moods and psychologies are also captured into bold lines and colors in the modern oil paintings. Raphael's 'La donna velata' (1516) Titian's 'The Rape of Europa'(1562), Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' (1503-1506), Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night'(1889), 'Sunflowers'(1889) and 'Wheat Field With the Crows' (1890), Claude Monet's 'Water Lilies', Salvador Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory' ( 1931) and 'The Metamorphosis of Narcissus' (1937) are legendary oeuvres of oil painting that inspire awe and veneration to the votaries of arts from time to time.
Here we are from the house of ethnic paintings with our online displays on oil paintings. Just take a tour and get acquainted to our chosen collection. For comprehensive information on oil paintings and related topics, please visit Oil paintings

Amit Singh is Content Coordinator for http://ethnicpaintings.com This website gives you comprehensive informations on painting history, development, trends, popular painting styles, great painters, famous paintings, painting galleries and museums, painting tips, painting classes. In other words, this website is a treat to painting freaks.

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