Oil paint

Oil paint is a slow-drying paint made of pigment particles suspended in a drying oil (most often linseed) which, on contact with air, oxidises and forms a tough, coloured film. Slow drying is the technique's chief advantage: it allows the artist to blend colours directly on the canvas over a long period, to achieve smooth transitions, glazes and subtle modelling of light and shade. Oil gives deep, rich and durable tones, and by varying the thickness of the layer — from transparent glazes to thick impasto — the artist attains an extraordinary richness of texture. Oil painting spread in Europe in the fifteenth century, with Netherlandish masters, notably Jan van Eyck, playing a decisive role in its refinement. From then until the twentieth century oil remained the principal medium of easel painting — from Venetian colour and Caravaggesque dramatic chiaroscuro to Impressionism. In Ukrainian art, landmark works from the nineteenth century to the present were painted in oil, including landscapes, portraits and monumental canvases. Despite the arrival of acrylic, oil remains the favourite material of many painters for its plasticity and depth of colour.