Indian Oil Painting is the expression of the thoughts, consciousness and imagination of Indian artists in oil colors and lines. The execution and themes are numerous and thus vary as per the sensibilities and style of the artists. From inspirational or religious to abstract and secular; the themes and images of Indian oil paintings display a great variety. The art of oil painting, which was innovated in ancient Greece, was brought to India by the European colonizers. Indian painters adopted this technique and Raja Ravi Verma was considered to be the pioneer who made this new medium popular in India through his realistic portraits and paintings. The magic of Indian oil paintings are definitely remarkable. Humble pigments mix with linseed oil creates poetry on canvas but the process of oil painting is not that magical. It involves sweat, toil and incredible perseverance of the painter.

India has seen a lot of oil painters starting from Raja Ravi Verma in the nineteenth century to M F Hussain as one of the contemporary artists. Ravi Verma who learned this newly introduced technique of that time with a difficult struggle was able to adopt this style in such a manner that the spectators of his paintings became spellbound by the realistic effect of this medium. The oil painting almost recreates life itself by its own delicacy and beauty.

History of Indian Oil Painting
The history of oil paint was traced to western Afghanistan sometime between the 5th and 9th Centuries and it gained popularity during the 15th century. Its practice likely migrated westward during the middle ages. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating art works, as its advantages became widely known. Renaissance oil painting techniques when used in Indian oil paintings had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe. Traditional oil painting techniques begin with the artist sketching the figure onto the canvas with charcoal or a `clean`, which is thinned paint. Oil paint is then mixed with turpentine, linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits or other solvents to create a thinner and faster drying paint. The artist then constructs the figure in different layers. There is a basic rule for the application of oil paint which is, `fat over lean`. This means that each extra layer of paint should be a bit oilier than the layer below, to allow proper drying. With getting more and more layers, the oil paint gets oilier (leaner to fatter) or the ultimate painting will peel or crack.

Use of oil in paintings
Painting by using oil is the process of painting with pigments that are mixed with a medium of drying oil or the linseed oil, available in early modern Europe. Often this linseed oil was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called `varnishes` and were valued for their body and gloss. Other oils occasionally used in Indian oil paintings include poppy seed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. Oils provide several properties to the paint like less yellowing or varied drying times. There are some differences seen in the shininess of the paints according to the oil used. Different oils are often being used by oil painters in a particular painting depending on certain pigments and the desired effects. Oil paints also develop a specific feel with regard to the medium.

There are many other painting media that are lately being used in Indian oil paintings, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These media can help a painter to adjust the translucency of his or her paint, the luster of the paint, the body or density of the paint, and the capacity of the paint to grasp or conceal the brushstroke. These are closely linked with the expressive power of oil paint. When looking at original oil paintings, the various traits of oil paint allow viewer to sense the choices the artist made as they applied the paint. The paint is still for a viewer and for an artist oil paint is a semi-liquid or a liquid which should be moved `onto` the oil painting.

Usually, the oil paint was transferred to the painting surface using paintbrushes, but there are other methods, including the use of palette knives, rags, etc. Oil paintings stay wet for a longer duration than various other types of materials of the artists, thus helping the artist to alter the texture or form and colour of the figure if required. Sometimes a painter also removes the whole paint layer and starts afresh. It is done with the help of a rag and a small quantity of turpentine oil for some time when the paint is wet, however after some time, the layer which is hardened should be scraped. Scraping may also be used to make a portrait smooth before glazing and scumbling. A number of oil paintings display proof of scraping if closely examined, mainly after examining the surface. Oil paint often dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch in a day to two weeks and is usually dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art experts do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is sixty to eighty years old.

The linseed oil of the oil painting itself comes from the flax seed, and this flax was a common fiber crop. Advances in Chemistry of late have prepared modern oil paints which can be mixed with water and the same can be cleaned up and used with water. Small alterations in the molecular structure of the oil create this water miscible property. A still-newer type of paint, heat-set oils, remains liquid until heated to 265 to 280 degrees Fahrenheit for about fifteen minutes. Traditional artists` canvas for oil paintings are made from linen, but the less expensive cotton fabrics has gained popularity. First the artist makes a wooden frame known as strainer or stretcher. Then over a wooden from a canvas is pulled across and the same is stapled or tacked tightly at the back edge. The next step is for the artist to apply a `size` to separate the canvas from the acidic qualities of the paint. Traditionally, the canvas was covered with a layer of animal glue (size), and primed with lead white paint, sometimes with added chalk. Panels were prepared with a gesso, a mixture of glue and chalk that is frequently used on canvas, whereas real gesso is not suitable for that application.

Indian Oil painting brushes
The brushes for oil painting are made from a variety of fibers to create different effects. For instance, for impasto textures and bolder strokes brushes of hog`s bristle can be used. Fitch hair and mongoose hairbrushes are very fine and smooth, and thus cater well to portraits and detail work. The finest brushes are known as kolinsky sable. The fibers of this brush are collected a Siberian mink`s tail. This hair keeps a superfine point, has smooth handling; this is known to artists as a brush`s `snap`. In the past few decades, many synthetic brushes have entered the commercial market. Different types of unconventional tools including sponges, rags and cotton swabs, can also be used. There are also several artists who paint by using their fingers only.

When the image is finished and dried for up to a year, the artist seals the work with a layer of varnish typically made from damar gum crystals dissolved in turpentine. Present-day artists largely resist the varnishing of their paintings, opting to keep their works varnish-free indefinitely. Like in the rest of India, oil painting is immensely popular in Kerala. Born in the year 1843, at the Kilimanoor Palace, 25 kilometers from Thiruvananthapuram, Raja Ravi Verma was one of the greatest artists in the world of Indian Oil Art. He won the first prize in Vienna Art Exhibition in the year 1873, and won international acclaim. The themes of Ravi Verma`s paintings were scenes from the Indian epics which include the Ramayana and the Mahabharata or stills from the myths and legends of India such as the tale of King Nala and Damayanti. His popular themes related to women are brought out best at his masterpiece painting Lady with the Lamp. The lineage of Indian Oil painters has been successfully carried forward by many all across the nation. George Oommen is one of the contemporary Indian oil painters of international acclaim.