Starting With Oils

It seems hard to believe that I've avoided using oil paints for so many years.  I think I've had an oily epiphany!

As a sufferer from many allergies, I didn't think my system would cope with the vapours and smells one normally associates with oil painting.  I just crossed the possibility of using this medium off my "To Do" art list and puddled along with pen and wash, acrylics and pastels.  I had the tubes of oils and the brushes.  I'd bought them as slightly used tubes on eBay.  Then a friend gave me heaps more used paints and masses of hard, crusty brushes plus a few new ones too  -  just enough to make me realise I had a lot of work to do with brush cleaner to try and rescue most of the others.

In the past, I had thought that using natural gum turpentine might be okay, but had a go using it on pastel underpaintings and the smell was atrocious!  It permeated the house for months.  Really yuk!  I considered buying a set of water mixable oils, but where is the sense in that if one already paints with acrylics?  Besides, I had quailed at the expense of starting from scratch with yet another medium.  (For those of you who are not familiar with water soluble oil paints, Winsor & Newton have a nice explanation and history of this medium here).  Besides, I sensed a definite lip curl when oil painting purists heard the words "water soluble oils".  It was as if a brash new contender for the throne had pushed their way onto the holy turf of the oil purists.  So I ruled out taking up oil painting in the foreseeable future.

Then I discovered odourless turps for my pastel underpaintings.  Have now been using it for about 12 months.  Sometimes I worry about my mental faculties.....  It took me twelve months to equate the odourless turps with being able to try oils without the headache imposing side effects of horrible smelling mediums like the natural gum turps.  It was one of those light bulb moments!  Couldn't wait to give them a whirl.


For a first effort, I thought I'd better start small on a cheap canvas.  If it was a failure, I wouldn't be wasting too much paint or too many dollars on a canvas that was heading for the bin.  Initially I was very daunted about this wet on wet technique.  Kept wanting to break out the hair dryer as I would with wet acrylic paints.  I found myself obsessively chanting "do not make mud, do not make mud".  Huh!  Easier said than done, but lots of fun trying.  I quickly learnt to use the flat side of my brush instead of the tip and to gently lay the paint on top instead of dabbing.  That helped a lot.  It avoided disturbing the underlying wet paint and I could thus lay different colours on top of the wet paint underneath.  Not always successful mind you, and I confess to cheating and letting it dry a few days and then retouching the muddy bits.

Drumroll please..................................here, is my very first Oil Painting, entitled Track in the Ranges, that I completed before Christmas, but have only just plucked up the courage to show here.  I did promise warts and all didn't I?  This has a lot of warts!  Not entirely happy with that tree in the right foreground, but I've fiddle and fiddled and am sick of it so it can stay as it is.  30 X 40 cms (12" X 16") on el cheapo, pre gessoed, gallery wrapped canvas.

I'm about to start my fifth oil painting.  I definitely have an addictive personality.