Oil Painting

The application of colors mixed with linseed oil and applied with a brush or knife to canvas, board, or other suitable support. Oil Painting developed during the late middle ages in Europe, and is now the most common means of artists making pictures. The oil medium has proved itself over centuries as a very durable medium, although the public is unaware that for every painting that has survived a long period there is an unknown number that have not stood the test of time, and of those that are with us many have suffered massive damage and what we see is often as much due to the restorers art as to the good qualities of the paint. There has also been a tendency on the part of many artists to add various concoctions to the paint in the belief that it is for the good. Many of these special formulas have been dismal failures. The approaches to oil painting that have worked the best are generally the simplest approaches following the fat over lean principle, keeping paint layers thin, and preparing the support well.