Preamble
This is the sixty-second post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed below all the posts in this new series:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II
Limited or Restricted Palettes
Testing of Pigments - Part I
Testing of Pigments - Part II
Further Refinement of Pigments
Color and Light - Part I
Color and Light - Part II
Color Effects - Part I
Color Effects - Part II
Oil Painting
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Oil Painting [1]
Introduction
While the history of paints made from vegetal drying oils goes back to the Middle Ages (the era of European history from approximately the 5th to the 15th century, falling between the decline of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Renaissance) and oil paints were known to painters of the fourteenth century and earlier, they were not widely adopted for use in easel painting until the fifteenth century, because they were mainly used for decorative purposes rather than utlized in works of art. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the method was in full swing in a rather well-developed form, and ever since, oil painting on canvas has remained the standard technique for artists' easel painting.
The oldest oil paintings in the world are Buddhist murals dating to around 650 AD found in caves in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan. These murals were created using drying oils from sources like walnuts and poppies, predating the widespread use of oil paints in Europe by centuries. This discovery shows that oil painting techniques were used much earlier than traditionally thought in Europe.
The oldest known oil paintings in Europe date to the 11th century, with the earliest dated example being the altar frontal at Tingelstad, Norway, from around 1180. Its use in Europe for painting statues and wood was more common before the 15th century. The technique became fully developed and widely used for panel paintings in Northern Europe during the Early Netherlandish period, with artists like Jan van Eyck.
Presumed Self Portrait, 1433. National Gallery, London.
Born: Sometime around 1380 or 1390 AD.
Career: Maaseik, Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Holy Roman Empire.
Died: 9 July 1441. Bruges, County of Flanders, Burgundian Netherlands.
Nationality: Flemish.
Education: Robert Campin (disputed).
Career: Known for painting.
Art Movement: Early Netherlandish painting, Northern Renaissance.
Patrons: John III, Duke of Bavaria. Later Philip the Good.
Although all other techniques are practiced for certain advantages they have over oil painting, the latter remains the standard because the majority of painters consider that the advantages outweigh its defects and that in scope and flexibility it surpasses watercolor, tempera, fresco, and pastel.
Winner: Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar.
Title: Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene).
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Size: 240 x 180.4 cm.
More recently Marie-Therese Wisniowski and others, have decided to shift the medium away from paper and canvas onto cloth and so called this new revolution as ArtCloth. Here cloth is the canvas for these artists to express their artistic endeavours.
Title: Flames Unfurling (wall hanging - full view).
Size: 60 cm (width) x 120 cm (height).
Click on the following link to see more of this new artistic endeavour - When Rainforests Ruled. ArtCloth Exhibition@Purple Noon Art and Sculpture Gallery.
From the view point of permanence, however, all these accepted and time-tested methods of painting (e.g., oil painting, watercolor, tempera, fresco, pastel, artcloth etc.) may be considered of equal merit. They all possess certain inherent defects which the careful painters do their best to overcome. Materials for each must be carefully selected; oil paint, temperament fresco, and ArtCloth must be correctly manipulated and applied if they are not to deteriorate; and the fragility of watercolors and pastels as well as the substrate (such as artcloth) requires that they are carefully preserved.
In the recent past, oil painting has dominated the field to such an extent that from the standpoint of public acceptance, the other methods of painting were regulated to the status of minor techniques. This is especially demonstrated with respect to the widespread publicity that is awarded to the winner in certain categories of art techniques.
With the development of art, and especially, in modern practice with so many facets of art being appreciated in the same area, there is now not so wide a gulf between the leadership of oil painting and the secondary use of other techniques, and some of our greatly admired artists create their major works using techniques other than oil.
The basic points of the oil technique's superiority in terms of the number of practitioners and moreover, the general public acknowledgement of its greater importance centre on:
(i) Its greater flexibility and ease of manipulation, and the wide range of varied effects that can be produced. For example, some painting methods and materials such as ArtCloth must be more carefully or precisely applied than others. Unlike oil paintings, in the case of ArtCloth, the method of creation requires a procedural order that is important for its successful creation.
Artist: Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
Title: Fire Storm.
Technique and Material: Multisperse dye sublimation on cloth.
Framed Size: 45 cm (width) x 55 cm (height).
(ii) In the case of oil paintings on canvas the artist's freedom to combine transparent and opaque effects, glaze and body color, in full range in some paintings.
(iii). The fact that the colors do not change to any great extent on drying; the color the artist puts down is, with very slight variation, the color that the artist wants.
(iv) The dispatch with which a number of effects can be obtained by a direct, simple technique.
(v) The fact that large pictures may be done on light-weight, easily transportable linen canvases.
(vi) The universal acceptance of oil painting by artists and the public, which has resulted in a universal availability of supplies, highly refined, developed, standardized, relatively inexpensive and moreover, easily accessible.
Its principle defects are the eventual darkening or yellowing of the oil, and the possible disintegration of the paint film by cracking, flaking off etc. The former may be limited or reduced to an acceptable minium by correct selection and use of materials and the latter by correct handling on the technique. Alternative artistic outlets, such as prints on paper, suffer from paper moulding from the nonprinted borders, whereas in the case of ArtCloth, moths and other fabric seekers are in play.
Detail of oil painting on board with severe paint cracking and flaking.
Detail after painting restoration. Painted by Robert Finlayson.
Probably the most common situation with a painting though is dirt build-up on the surface of the paint. If your painting has lived with you for around 20 years and it hasn’t been sponged down by a resident ‘Do-It-Yourself restorer’ (something I don’t recommend), then it will likely have a layer of dirt over it. Sometimes a dirt layer can look almost as disturbing as a darkened varnish. Both dirt and dark varnish can completely change the colours in your painting.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
This is the sixty-second post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed below all the posts in this new series:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II
Limited or Restricted Palettes
Testing of Pigments - Part I
Testing of Pigments - Part II
Further Refinement of Pigments
Color and Light - Part I
Color and Light - Part II
Color Effects - Part I
Color Effects - Part II
Oil Painting
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Oil Painting [1]
Introduction
While the history of paints made from vegetal drying oils goes back to the Middle Ages (the era of European history from approximately the 5th to the 15th century, falling between the decline of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Renaissance) and oil paints were known to painters of the fourteenth century and earlier, they were not widely adopted for use in easel painting until the fifteenth century, because they were mainly used for decorative purposes rather than utlized in works of art. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the method was in full swing in a rather well-developed form, and ever since, oil painting on canvas has remained the standard technique for artists' easel painting.
The oldest known oil paintings in Europe date to the 11th century, with the earliest dated example being the altar frontal at Tingelstad, Norway, from around 1180. Its use in Europe for painting statues and wood was more common before the 15th century. The technique became fully developed and widely used for panel paintings in Northern Europe during the Early Netherlandish period, with artists like Jan van Eyck.
Born: Sometime around 1380 or 1390 AD.
Career: Maaseik, Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Holy Roman Empire.
Died: 9 July 1441. Bruges, County of Flanders, Burgundian Netherlands.
Nationality: Flemish.
Education: Robert Campin (disputed).
Career: Known for painting.
Art Movement: Early Netherlandish painting, Northern Renaissance.
Patrons: John III, Duke of Bavaria. Later Philip the Good.
Although all other techniques are practiced for certain advantages they have over oil painting, the latter remains the standard because the majority of painters consider that the advantages outweigh its defects and that in scope and flexibility it surpasses watercolor, tempera, fresco, and pastel.
Title: Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene).
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Size: 240 x 180.4 cm.
More recently Marie-Therese Wisniowski and others, have decided to shift the medium away from paper and canvas onto cloth and so called this new revolution as ArtCloth. Here cloth is the canvas for these artists to express their artistic endeavours.
Size: 60 cm (width) x 120 cm (height).
Click on the following link to see more of this new artistic endeavour - When Rainforests Ruled. ArtCloth Exhibition@Purple Noon Art and Sculpture Gallery.
From the view point of permanence, however, all these accepted and time-tested methods of painting (e.g., oil painting, watercolor, tempera, fresco, pastel, artcloth etc.) may be considered of equal merit. They all possess certain inherent defects which the careful painters do their best to overcome. Materials for each must be carefully selected; oil paint, temperament fresco, and ArtCloth must be correctly manipulated and applied if they are not to deteriorate; and the fragility of watercolors and pastels as well as the substrate (such as artcloth) requires that they are carefully preserved.
In the recent past, oil painting has dominated the field to such an extent that from the standpoint of public acceptance, the other methods of painting were regulated to the status of minor techniques. This is especially demonstrated with respect to the widespread publicity that is awarded to the winner in certain categories of art techniques.
With the development of art, and especially, in modern practice with so many facets of art being appreciated in the same area, there is now not so wide a gulf between the leadership of oil painting and the secondary use of other techniques, and some of our greatly admired artists create their major works using techniques other than oil.
The basic points of the oil technique's superiority in terms of the number of practitioners and moreover, the general public acknowledgement of its greater importance centre on:
(i) Its greater flexibility and ease of manipulation, and the wide range of varied effects that can be produced. For example, some painting methods and materials such as ArtCloth must be more carefully or precisely applied than others. Unlike oil paintings, in the case of ArtCloth, the method of creation requires a procedural order that is important for its successful creation.
Title: Fire Storm.
Technique and Material: Multisperse dye sublimation on cloth.
Framed Size: 45 cm (width) x 55 cm (height).
(ii) In the case of oil paintings on canvas the artist's freedom to combine transparent and opaque effects, glaze and body color, in full range in some paintings.
(iii). The fact that the colors do not change to any great extent on drying; the color the artist puts down is, with very slight variation, the color that the artist wants.
(iv) The dispatch with which a number of effects can be obtained by a direct, simple technique.
(v) The fact that large pictures may be done on light-weight, easily transportable linen canvases.
(vi) The universal acceptance of oil painting by artists and the public, which has resulted in a universal availability of supplies, highly refined, developed, standardized, relatively inexpensive and moreover, easily accessible.
Its principle defects are the eventual darkening or yellowing of the oil, and the possible disintegration of the paint film by cracking, flaking off etc. The former may be limited or reduced to an acceptable minium by correct selection and use of materials and the latter by correct handling on the technique. Alternative artistic outlets, such as prints on paper, suffer from paper moulding from the nonprinted borders, whereas in the case of ArtCloth, moths and other fabric seekers are in play.
Probably the most common situation with a painting though is dirt build-up on the surface of the paint. If your painting has lived with you for around 20 years and it hasn’t been sponged down by a resident ‘Do-It-Yourself restorer’ (something I don’t recommend), then it will likely have a layer of dirt over it. Sometimes a dirt layer can look almost as disturbing as a darkened varnish. Both dirt and dark varnish can completely change the colours in your painting.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
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