The art of oil painting, which was innovated in ancient Greece, was brought to India by the European colonisers. 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. Indian oil paintings are the symphony of Indian artists` thought, imagination and consciousness, in lines and in oil colors. The magic of oil paintings is indeed 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 on nineteenth century to M.F.Hussain as most contemporary artist. 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 beauty and delicacy.
Oil painting 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. These oils confer various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on the oil. The oil painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular feel depending on the medium.
The history of oil paint was traced in western Afghanistan sometime between the 5th and 9th Centuries that 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. Then the artist builds the figure in layers. A basic rule of oil paint application 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. As a painting gets additional layers, the paint must get oilier (leaner to fatter) or the final painting will crack and peel.
There are many other painting media that are lately being used in Indian oil paintings, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or `body` of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These variables are closely related to the expressive capacity 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. For the viewer, the paint is still, but for the artist, the oil paint is a liquid or semi-liquid and must be moved `onto` the painting
Usually, the oil paint was transferred to the painting surface using paintbrushes, but there are other methods, including using palette knives, rags, etc. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists` materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a certain time while the paint is wet, but after a while, the hardened layer must be scraped. Scraping may also be used to smoothen a portrait before scumbling and glazing. Many oil paintings reveal evidence of scraping on close inspection, particularly when the surface itself is examined. 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 60 to 80 years old.
The linseed oil of the oil painting itself comes from the flax seed, and this flax was a common fiber crop. Recent advances in chemistry have produced modern water miscible oil paints that can be used with and cleaned up 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 265-280 °F (130-138 °C) for about 15 minutes. Traditional artists` canvas for oil paintings are made from linen, but the less expensive cotton fabric has gained popularity. The artist first prepares a wooden frame called a "stretcher" or "strainer". The canvas is then pulled across the wooden frame and tacked or stapled tightly to 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.
The brushes for oil painting are made from a variety of fibers to create different effects. For example, brushes made with hog`s bristle might be used for bolder strokes and impasto textures. Fitch hair and mongoose hairbrushes are very fine and smooth, and thus cater well to portraits and detail work. The finest quality brushes are called kolinsky sable; these brush fibers are taken from the tail of the Siberian mink. 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. A variety of unconventional tools, such as rags, sponges, and cotton swabs, may be used. Some artists` even paint with their fingers.
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. Contemporary artists increasingly resist the varnishing of their work, preferring that the surfaces remain varnish-free indefinitely. Like in the rest of India, oil painting is immensely popular in Kerala. Born in 1843 at the Kilimanoor Palace, 25 km 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 1873 and won international acclaim. The themes of Ravi Verma`s paintings were scenes from the Indian epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata or stills from the myths and legends of India such as the tale of King Nala and Princess 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.
