For the Magic of Oil, We paint in Oil!!

For the Magic of Oil, We paint in Oil!!

Oil is an expensive, time taking medium ... only serious artist around the globe use it...Most Indian artists today use Acrylic. Most Indian art buyers buy Acrylic paintings. They don't know any better!! Oil paintings have vanished from the contemporary Indian art scene!! Most artists would confess in private, because of "lack of time" they work in Acrylic paints!! They 'finish' their painting.. Just in time for 'shows' by using this quick-drying-cheap-synthetic plastic-medium!! And here we paint for the sake of painting, for the sheer pleasure of painting in Oil, for its beauty and texture, for it shine and translucent quality, for it's colour range and mixing ability, for the smell of linseed and turpentine on our hands, for the sake of art... For the magic of Oil, we paint in Oil!! And not for 'shows' not for 'deadlines'!! They paint over night... In Acrylic and the very next day a 'painting' is ready!!
So taking some of my printed brochure I went around town dropping them in newly opened galleries. In one such gallery as i entered i saw work canvass being arranged along the gallery floor and against the wall.. getting ready to hang.. a new show! As the girl behind the desk was busy i sneaked and pick a few canvases... all had strange feel to it... the colours all finished at the edges of the canvas with a machine like accuracy!! the revere side had no stains or colour smudges!! They were all digital art... but when I was told very confidently by the gallery manager they were "Oil on Canvas'!!

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One thing which is very close to my heart..   and it use to make me sad.... 
It maybe a bit technical for the uninitiated, but i will try to write this as plainly as possibly. Hope everyone would understand

I love 'oil paintings'. But due to availability of cheap and easy to use Acrylic paints many artists slowly have started to work in Acrylic. The reasons were: Acrylics are cheap.. (it is synthetic plastic paint.)

Acrylics dry up very soon, unlike oils... so you an finish a painting and sell it the next second!!!

Oil takes time to dry and it not so easy to use. You have to spend lot time to hone that skill.

All theses reasons drove many to 'Acrylic'... but a painting in acrylics won't have the charm, lustre and beauty of an Oil. Oil paints like Water colours are 'old school' and timeless classic mediums.

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In India, most artist... especially from the young generation (from 1990-2014) have completely stopped working in oils! In fact there are those who have never ever worked in Oils!!!

Recently I had to find artist from India who work in Oils for a International Art show... I found non!!

The lure of quick money and quick delivery of paintings don't seem to suit our artists from India!! 

They are into 'video art', 'digital art', 'conceptual art' and all such absurd art!!

This is the reason why I was unable to find any good artist from my own country!! Some sent me works but I know that those are not Oils!! Even if they claim they are!! They are ink jets on Canvas!! Or just Acrylic... which they wanted to pass it off as Oils!!

Many Indian Art galleries and artists sell digital prints...  under the pretext of 'hand  painted painting'... 
But are actually digital prints on canvas/paper etc

'Ink jet on canvas' is sometimes get passed off as 'original hand-painted works labelled as: 'Oil on Canvas' or 'Acrylic on Canvas'!! Like the once one can buy in stores like Ikea!! With texture and all... printed on canvas!!! 

One can print thousands!!

Many artists would take out a print out and then add few lose brush strokes to make it look "hand painted"!
Like many of us artists are not great draughtsmen... (lacking the ability to draw accurately etc like a Leonardo or Dali etc.)
so they hide their limitation by taking out print out of a drawing, photograph, painting etc. And then paint over it!! 
To camouflage the print.. some artists take out drawing or sparsely coloured printout and then slap oil or acrylics paint over the print and pass it off as 'original, hand-painted works of art'!! 

When you buy Art works...Be careful!! Get an expert to authenticate them..

I am not against 'Digital Art' per se.. But the buyer/art lovers etc. have the right to know, exactly what the medium etc is...

Let me tell you from own experience.. it was 2006 I was holding my solo show in Delhi after a gap of 10 or more long years!!

Things had changed, galleries I used to know had closed down... Unknown small time galleries were now too snooty to pick the phone and talk to me... 
So went about visiting them personally... in once such up-market gallery in New Delhi, I saw a show was in progress...

Upon asking... was told the works were "all Oil on Canvas"!!

It was a lie... I know the sight, smell and texture of oil... and most importantly no artist can keep the sides of the canvas so clean!! It was of course some kind of ink jet on canvas, where the sides remain squeaky clean!!

Oils and Watercolour will always be there... it is Classic and timeless.

Also 'representative' art will live on... everyone enjoys realism in art.

Recently I was asked to help in selecting artist across the globe.. Oil painters for an International Art show.. alas i couldn't find a single decent Indian Artist who had body of works in Oils!!

Oils in 9x9cm by Hiroshi Matsumoto

9x9 painting (9 cm x 9 cm / app. 4 x 4 inch) by Hiroshi Matsumoto

I stumbled across Hiroshi Matsumoto's Oils on Facebook* and am so happy to see someone painting so well, in Oils in a 9x9 painting (9 cm x 9 cm / app. 4 x 4 inch).

I too love oils and paint mostly in small sizes too...
But unfortunately in my home country (India) artists and collectors have completely forgotten the charm of oils and small sized works. The awareness is lacking. Acrylic has taken over.. and it's ugly colours are everywhere!!

Painting in large size is order of the day. Now size is everything as it fetches more money to the artists... and as for the buyer he is too happy to boast of a large work in his office or drawing room walls?!!

I have written about this in my blogs... But this trend continues... No one has the time to look at a painting anymore.

Oils have just vanished from contemporary Indian Art!! Just visit any online Indian art galleries and you will see Acrylic ruling the roost!!

Acrylic is a quick drying synthetic plastic paint.. and paintings can be executed within hours and sold the very next moment... Flushed with new found money the buyers and the painters both are in a frantic hurry. Unfortunately an acrylic (painting) can never have the quality of an Oil...

Acrylic is a flat, unnatural, muddy, dirty, and difficult to mix... fast drying colour.. there is no lustre, no hues.. Most often the painting can look lifeless, flat, 'hard', 'dirty' especially if applied in thin coats with lots of water. I used to paint in Acrylics too.. but I would use it directly from the tube in thick impasto.... it works OK in small sizes.. as one can work on it quickly without getting dry.. but when you try that on larger size work.. even the thick paint will dry off even before you had chance to think what your next stroke or colour should be or want to mix with other colures to creat a hue etc.!!

My humble wish and urge to Art lovers across the world..(and more so to my fellow Indians) please look at Oils, and at Acrylic.. you don't need prior knowledge or training... to spot the difference!! So before buying and investing your precious funds into Art... Take some time to look at the quality of the colours of the works. If no contemporary artists are around to look for works in Oils in India (!!!) maybe one can visit Museums. There were Indian artists till about 1990 who used oils... It is no co-incidence that the art boom in India in the early 2000 and the mass productions of paintings (Art?) in Acrylic happened at the same time!!

A well executed small sized painting in Oil can look like a 'Jewellery Box'... it can have that shimmering quality. Hiroshi's oils surely has that shimmering, translucent quality!!

As painter Hiroshi Matsumoto says:

"I love oil paint, it’s texture, viscosity, slow-drying time and smell...

I never know what it is going to be until it's complete."
 
you can see his works here:
 
http://www.hiroshimatsumoto.com/
 
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https://www.facebook.com/hiroshimatsumoto#!/photo.php?fbid=211007668941640&set=a.177745932267814.33654.177743925601348&type=1&theater