Oil Painting

Having spent most of the last eight years painting in acrylics and watercolours I have decided to take a proper look at oil as a medium.

There is a lot of prejudice and bullshit written about the merits of oil versus acrylics, much of it driven by snobbery, that oil is the superior medium. There are merits and drawbacks to either medium but any competent artist should be able to get a quality result from either.

So, a few months ago I took the plunge and began experimenting with oil in between other projects. I had dabbled with oil occasionally many years ago but never for long enough to form an opinion as to whether it would suit me as a regular painting medium.

Superficially they look the same, with a toothpaste like consistency and these days some brands of oil can be thinned with water. But that is where the similarity ends. It has been like going back to school, mixing colour and getting the appropriate fluidity has been an issue as well as the basic techniques of constructing a painting.

Below is a slightly impressionist oil sketch of the Gare du Nord in Paris. I was aiming for a feeling of movement with depth and perspective.

Gare du Nord Paris