Oil Painting

Oil painting

Oil paint is named for the binder in which the pigment is suspended. This liquid  is made from the ground seed of the flax plant called linseed oil. Its use  began in the 15th century and was most assuredly heralded as a major event.  Oil paint is extremely flexible and when thoroughly dry is rock hard (durable);  two characteristics of paint desperately sought after, by generations of artists.  Further inventions such as canvas and tube color have little changed the basic  innovations of oil painting. It became, and remains for many, the perfect medium.

Today artists rarely make their own paints by grinding raw pigments with small amounts of oil.  Paints with a high degree of coloring ability  (saturation) have less  oil and fillers and more pigment. Cheaper paints possess less brilliant coloring matter.          The paint is scooped from palette (mixing surface)  to canvas with chiseled shaped bristle brushes.They have a "desirable springy effect" for blending,pushing  and spreading paint upon a surface. Details are later added by small sable brushes. A limited  palette or number of colors to paint with is considered best to learn color  mixing.

During this course students will explore the incredible flexibility of this medium.  Oil paint can be applied very thinly, thus producing effects by the layering of transparent colors called glazing. It can also be applied  thickly (impasto), overlaying with opaque colors to give a softening effect called "scumbling". Textural surfaces can be created by brush work or by a thin flexible blade called a palette knife. Special mediums are added to the  paint to produce certain handling characteristics or surface effects.        As in all courses at KidsArt, information is always presented  in a manner and in language students can comprehend and utilize at their level of ability.To enable  students to work with the proper materials, an oil painting kit has been prepared. It is comprised of materials chosen for their quality. The materials fee for the Oil Painting Course covers all oil paints. canvas, boards, brushes, palette, palette knife, linseed oil, and glaze. All of these materials are necessary for success.