Oil painting
In the beginning was white
Slowly, ideas become images. Colours grow into each other, figures break their paths, and the white disappears with every movement. Until an artist is absorbed in his format, contours slowly sharpen and sensuality slowly takes shape, weeks, months, sometimes years pass - a home accessory with history. Anyone who has ever lost himself in sunflowers, explored the countless nuances, scanned landscapes with his eyes and explored the subtleties in portraits, has had a small taste of the remarkable variety that oil painting has to offer. Light and shadow, heights and depths, sharpness and blurriness move the viewer in front of oil.
There are moments when one would like to say goodbye to photography, because the painting technique holds such manifold surprises that simply have to fall by the wayside in our fast-moving times. In the interplay of colours, bodies appear mysterious, yellow is suddenly much more than an optical phenomenon, pictures become a challenge whose secret not everyone succeeds in deciphering. Only those who allow themselves to embark on the emotional journey of a contemplation can immerse themselves in a very special form of communication - an interaction with wood and oil, all filigree formed, art style overlapping landscape, not always addicted to the stylised flower.
Oil painting - How does the technique come into play?
Fine feathers, powerfully spread with a palette knife or delicate pigments dissolved - no matter which technique an artist prefers for the moment, at the beginning there is always the white. The primed board, the textile, the wood - step by step the surface takes on a new appearance. It is a long way until flowers and landscape become recognisable on wood, along known and unknown art styles. Time hardly plays a role, because the oil paint does not dry so quickly. Nevertheless, prima painting is possible, i.e. the painting can be completed in one go. It becomes interesting, however, when the oil gives life to the painting. When layer after layer is applied to an already coloured basic structure and suddenly a plasticity comes into play. The eye can lose itself groping in the path of the brush or palette knife.
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| Image - Oil Painting P.Berger "Interflight", 980,- EUR | Show original oil painting - available immediately "Moments" 1.600,- EUR | Oil painting M.Marz Art Styles "Nude 150", 1.500,- EUR |
Between varnish and oil
Oil painting moves in the shadow of the great models. Albrecht Dürer, Pablo Picasso, Jan Vermeer, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne - they all chose oil. They loved the richness of facets and the versatile possibilities of oil painting - far more than just a home accessory. If you want to try it out for yourself, you will quickly recognise the first advances with which landscapes, flowers, still lifes and portraits acquire their liveliness. However, there are hardly any limits to the complexity. The more filigree the details are worked out, the more the shadow play is to unfold its effect, the more technique is required. At times, the comparison suggests itself that flowers open up, just as the paint seals the wood stroke by stroke. Sometimes artists occupy themselves for years - sometimes their entire lives - with their own view of how to handle oil paint.
Layer after layer must be meticulously planned, each brushstroke building on the other. Usually a thin application is started and the build-up develops upwards. Those who do not observe the technique will be punished with folds, wrinkles, cracks and simply unfinished picture passages. Just paint away - no way. It simply doesn't work, the unencumbered play against technique.
Image - Unique painting painted in oil: Annette Schmucker, "The City", 80 x 40 cm, 2019, shipping possible, available immediately - 950,- EUR show more oil paintings by this artist: Oil Painting
A look back and at the painting
About 800 years ago, before the first oil paintings were created in Europe, people were already painting with oil in Afghanistan. A few years ago, researchers found traces of this painting in a cave and were able to recognise that this form of art, this painting, must date back to the 7th century. With modern technology, the scientists were able to reconstruct that the samples contain dry oil. The caves had been painted in fine and thin layers. This shattered the idea that the oil painting technique could be a European invention. In the Afghan caves, too, different paint bases were combined with each other, organic materials were combined with oil, and the durability is fascinating.
Oil painting properly staged
The painting must neither fall out of the frame nor be tied up by it. Whoever decides on an oil painting, on living art, should at least think about the frame. Even if it is desirable that the frame lends an oil painting even more attention, sometimes less is more. For only those who recognise the painting will be able to pay attention to the frame. Intense colours sometimes allow for a dark frame. Like the painting, the frames are often documents of the times. Worn gold around a roaring stag was fashionable, is bound to come back - but today almost any picture can be hidden in this way. If you are not quite sure which frame is right for you, we are happy to advise you. In the meantime, we have been able to gather enough experience and sometimes advise complementary colours that do not compete with the picture.
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| Oil painting on canvas "Rendevouz II", available immediately Price 400,- EUR | Oil painting handpainted by Mila Plaickner "Relationships" Price 2.700,- EUR | Original canvas mural "Garden of World X", price 870,- EUR available immediately |
But space in the room is just as important. Some oil paintings demand their space, others can be combined well in the smallest of spaces. If you always want to discover new lines in a painting, leave your ideas open, you should give your work of art space and light. Only in this way can the viewer also go to a distance without first equipping himself with a headlamp. Especially with abstract pictures, enthusiasts give away perspectives if they tie up and smother their picture or flood it with artificial light.
Picture / Photo / Image : Original oil painting on canvas "Weltengarten VI" as a mural in a living landscape, 2017, 890,- EUR - available immediately - shipping possible
Our artists
Many established artists entrust us with their works. Marcin Marz, for example, manages to make oil and canvas communicate with each other so that his contemporary female nudes seem alive and, as it were, approach the viewer. It is the beauty of the colours and forms that Marcin Marz unites. This creates an aura - seductive without innuendo, obvious and mysterious.
Annette Schmucker likes to combine oil and acrylic to create pictures of one art style. She moves between concrete and abstract in her works. She gives her paintings the concrete form they need to attract the viewer's interest and then quickly seduces with abstract ideas into a visual exchange of ideas that is never quite completed. Light and viewing angles shift, revealing artistic approaches that captivate and impress.
Peggy Berger's pictures come from the here and now. She relies on small snapshots, which she gives a new context. She surprises the viewer again and again. With oil, she lets the dynamics of everyday life stand in space and animates the viewer to move himself, showing in an enchanting way the power an oil painting can have.
Hand-painted passion, always speaks to you when you engage with Mila Plaickner. Her figures appear authentic, balanced and interested. This is exactly the style the painter plays with. Her men and women are taken from life and appear without frills. They are embedded in a barely perceptible aura of the present impression. She does not adorn herself with chance encounters, which are at best good for superficiality; her painting is a multi-layered analysis - a perfect style for our time.
You can discover a pre-selection of the oil paintings available at Inspire Art here:
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| Canvas painting - oil painting "World Garden No.34", 805,- EUR - shipping possible | Flowers oil painting v. Wittkowski "Kunstvolle Leichte" 850,- EUR - shipping possible | Picture Oil painting handpainted by Peggy Berger Bobby BOYS, 1.520,- EUR - available immediately |