Oil paint was not suddenly discovered, but rather evolved through the 15th century. Previously, painters had known that it was possible to obtain a greater softness of transition in handling from the egg-bound tempera paints they used, by adding small amounts of walnut oil. As this century progressed, first Flemish artists, such as Jan Van Eyck, and then Italian, such as Antonello da Messina, made this addition routine in order to make their paints capable of capturing the richness and variety of a developing artistic sensibility. Oilier paints permitted greater tonal range and intensity of colour. By the following century, linseed oil was also being used, and the original egg binder was frequently dispensed with.
The pre-eminence of oil paint amongst artist’s paints since then is largely explained by its susceptibility to so many different modes of application and combination: from the glazes of the 15th century to the striated impasto of late Titian, to the thin stain-like veils of Goya. Its adoption is also due to its robustness as a material, which allows for a generous notion of good practice as regards durable results. As long as certain basic norms are respected, oil paint will permit varieties of use without rapid failure. These norms are themselves quite “fuzzy-edged”; for each there can be found cases in the past where artist have slightly stretched them, “lived dangerously”, and still produced work which has lasted in good shape. But if they are ignored altogether, the dangers are a range of physical or chemical changes quite unanticipated and unwanted by the artist, which will leave the work, however brilliantly executed, in a state which diminishes or even conceals its original qualities.
This section of the website offers a summary of such basic advice, with additional relevant information. If you wish consider some deeper aspects of the use of paint, go on to the section Colour and Technique.
Whilst every care has been taken to check the soundness and accuracy of this advice, Michael Harding and his associates cannot be held responsible or liable for problems resulting from its application in circumstances of which they have no knowledge and over which they have no control.