Reporter : Emma Bobis Marilag , BSED-ID

Subject : HUMANITIES I
Topic : Mediums of the Visual Arts Painting – Oil
Teacher : Mrs. Criselda Serrano
Mediums of the Visual Arts
Painting – Oil
Medium – the materials which are used by an artist
– The means by which he communicates his ideas

Painting – the art of creating meaningful effects on a flat surface by the use of pigments
Different Mediums
Oil, Tempera, Water Color, Pastel, Fresco, Acrylic
Oil painting – the paintings are mixed on oil
– Surface used is usually canvas
History
From the time of the Greeks the chemistry of art and the chemistry of medicine were closely related and the recipes used for
both were frequently written in the same books. These recipes were kept throughout the early centuries of Christianity by monks until
their broader use outside of the monasteries in the middle ages. The use of drying oils is recorded among these recipes, listing walnut
oil, poppy oil, hempseed oil, castor oil, and linseed oil as varnishes to seal pictures and protect them from water. Adequately thickened,
they became resinous in and of themselves and therefore worked as varnishes quite well. Later on, yellow pigments were added to the
oil and it was spread over tin foil to mimic the look of gold leaf, but at less cost. And as early as the thirteenth century oil was used for
painting details over tempera pictures.
According to Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) the technique of oil painting, as used till now with few technical modifications, was
invented or re-invented in Europe around 1410 by Jan van Eyck (1390 -1441). In fact, as said before, this Flemish painter was not the
first to use oil paint, his real achievement was the development of a stable varnish based on a siccative oil (mainly linseed oil) as the
binder of mineral pigments. It could be established that the Van Eyck secret was a mixture of piled glass, calcined bones and mineral
pigments in linseed oil maintained a long time up to a viscous state at boiling temperature. Besides linseed oil, walnut oil and poppy-
seed oil were also used while not so quick-drying. It is probable that painters have already observed that these oils led to accelerated
drying time of canvas under the sun.

Source of pigments
○ Vegetable matter – linseed oil , poppy seed
○ Coal Tarts - brown or black liquid of high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal
tar is among the by-products when coal is carbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas
○ Mineral Salts such as white oxides: lead, now most often replaced by less toxic zinc and titanium, and the red to
yellow cadmium pigments

Methods of Painting in Oil

Direct – paints are opaque – more flexible method
Opaque painting application can be as thick as you want (a good example might be Van
Gogh's work). Paint is strongly coloured and will block light or colour from underlying layers.
Indirect – paint is applied in many thin layers of transparent colors

Advantages of Oil Painting

Possibility of getting a wide range of separate effect
The pigment may be applied in a thick and heavy opaque manner or in washes of almost water color transparency
Best method for representation where exact reproduction of a color tone is necessary
Easy Blending of Tones and the possibility of painting over and over

Disadvantages
Dries slowly and has a tendency to rise to the surface and form a film over the picture making it appear dull
Has a tendency to become yellow and crack

Famous Filipino Oil Painters

Carlos Botong Francisco – Mariang Makiling -
Norma Belleza – Sari- Sari -

Foreign Oil Painters

Bust of an old man with helmet, Rembrandt, 1630,
Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890