By Chelsea Reed
Oil paints, watercolor, acrylic, gouache… There’s a lot to consider when an artist gets ready to make a painting. Often, the creation of a painting begins long before the artist brushes the first stroke on the canvas. It starts with inspiration, an idea, and any materials the artist wants to use to help bring the vision to life. Those materials include what types of paint to use, and there are a lot!
Today we’re going to focus on oil paint, a popular medium that’s used in traditional painting for centuries. Why do so many artists like to use it? What makes it different? Let’s take a closer look.
So what is oil paint exactly? Oil based paint consists of a certain pigment that is ground into powder and suspended in a type of oil. Pigments can be made from various natural or synthetic sources depending on the color. The most common type of oil used is cold pressed linseed oil, which comes from flax seeds. The natural antioxidant properties of linseed oil help preserve the quality of the paint for a long time.
Artists tout that oil based paint often has richer bolder colors than water based paints like watercolor and acrylic. But is that actually true? It turns out the answer is yes, for several reasons. First, the aforementioned natural preservatives in linseed oil maintain the paint’s vibrancy and integrity. Second, the fat molecules in oil have the ability to hold a higher concentration of the pigment compared to water molecules. Third, oil dries slower than water, allowing the artist more time to mix and add more layers of paint to the piece to give it greater visual depth and richness. And finally, oil is naturally water repellant, making it possible to display oil paintings almost anywhere indoors, even bathrooms!
Now that you know what makes oil paint great, you may be motivated to collect oil paintings or even try your hand at painting with oil. But before you start, it’s important to know the difference between two main grades of oil paint - student quality, and professional quality. Student grade oil paint is less expensive than professional grade, which makes it great for practice. However, it also has more fillers and does not last as long after it cures. Professional grade oil paint is higher quality with little to no fillers. Serious artists use professional paint to create pieces meant to last a lifetime. Lee Mims, for example, is an expert modern master who paints with professional grade oil. As a result, her paintings contain astonishing color and beautiful shadows that will last for years to come.
You can see more beautiful art painted with oil like Lee Mims on Seaside Art Gallery’s website and in person at the Gallery. From classic still lifes to whimsical wildlife, one can find oil paintings in almost any subject and taste. Oil paint is the medium of choice for the imagination!
Chelsea Reed is a copywriter who writes winning content, articles, blogs, and websites from her base in North Carolina. She might not be building sandcastles or swashbuckling with pirates these days, but the Outer Banks beaches continue to keep her young at heart.
