Landscape Oil Painting - An Overview

Posted by
Rachel Wills
Oct 5, 2009

Landscape oil painting is one of the most traditional forms of expression in Western art and because it is readily available, it is one of the most popular. Some of the earliest cave paintings portray the landscape, and the subject matter is still widely used today. It is so familiar, we hardly even think about it.

The beginner who wishes to try out landscape painting in oils for the first time might feel overwhelmed by the materials available and the techniques involved. However, oil painting can be a simple or as complex as the artist wishes it to be. Artists such as Renoir have been known to use but three colours and white. Similarly, some effective landscape paintings consist mostly of just land and sky with minimal detail. In many ways, landscape painting is a great way of making ones’ first encounter with oil paint. The links below provide essential information on how to get started in terms of the art materials required, including oil painting on a budget, colour mixing and trying out oil painting for the first time.

Guide to Oil Painting for the Beginner

Landscape painting in oils can take many facets and forms, from manipulating mood through colour and tone, to using line in composition. Landscape painting is all about finding an effective way of conveying a personal interpretation of the landscape. Below are some links to demonstrations on how to paint various aspects of the landscape, including weather, skies and atmosphere. Exploration on using oil painting mediums, such as linseed oil and various techniques such as impasto are included.

Some might like to venture outside and to paint the landscape from life. Doing so offers an immediacy that painting from a photo can never match. The links below offer tips on how to prepare for an oil painting jaunt into the countryside and how to make a contraption for carrying wet oil paintings.

As one can see, there is more to landscape painting than one might first imagine. It is only by exploring this diverse subject matter that one can appreciate the vast opportunities for self-expression via a very forgiving and malleable painting medium.