How I create texture and tactile qualities with oil paint and cold wax medium!
Why create texture in a painting?
How to create texture and tactile qualities with oil paint and cold wax medium?
What to do if the paint becomes too murky?
Leave a comment!
More art posts to explore:
A painter's perspective of cold wax medium?
What is the main purpose of painting?
Why would we want to create texture in a painting?
This painting on canvas is 100 x 100 cm and uses a combination of oil and cold wax medium. There really are no secret recipes or techniques when it comes to creating texture. Just an open-minded approach to materials and a willingness to experiment and take risks are all that are required.
Forests are teeming with life and interest, moving through a constant cycle of evolution, growing, decaying and decomposing. The forest floor is often blanketed with decaying leaves, twigs, fallen trees, moss, and other detritus.
There is a perpetual process of dissolution and recycling; fungi, insects, bacteria, and earthworms break down materials and ready them for reuse. Bushes and brambles struggle toward the light passing through the canopy, engaged in a silent, interminable competition for resources. These are the prerequisite elements of texture, to use the senses, to be immersed in the forest, to see, touch and feel the fecundity and rawness of the natural world.
Find out more here on my perspective of painting and its relationship with oil and cold wax medium.
Is there a special way to create texture and tactile qualities with oil paint and cold wax medium?
Aside from the essential philosophy, and the thought processes behind the work, I started this painting with layers of modelling paste and plaster applied roughly with a spatula. For me, detaching myself from the desire to replicate specific details of the forest is the first step. The arbitrary nature of the plaster surface allows me to relinquish control and encourages the development of unplanned and unexpected imagery, chance events take on the mantle of the forest in an oblique way.
Layers of oil paint and soft cold wax are applied with a transfer method using thin sheets of paper, torn, folded and crumpled. Sometimes the paper, soaked in oil and disintegrating, makes a decision to become a part of the painting.
I could paint leaves, grasses, or the bark of a tree, but the facility of a painter's brush and the accompanying motor activity imprisons the artist in the finite game of verisimilitude. I prefer to be guided by the accidental mark or tonal variation where crumpled paper, saturated with pigment creates lines and shapes reminiscent of natural forms and the accumulated debris of the forest.
Wax is a natural material, it comes from nature, some even believe it has healing properties, I wouldn't go that far, but it can be miraculous in conjuring another world. The imperative for the painter is to remain alert, to be ready to see, to be a witness, an alchemist, to capitalise on what unfolds in front of you.
What to do if the painting has gone too murky looking?
And when the outcome resembles that forlorn field of ill-defined mud and murky darkness, at all costs you must not despair, this may be the moment of maximum opportunity.
A bold and timely intervention could free your work from its moribund condition; like the forest itself, regenerating and changing. A painting passes through many stages and will often be on life support, in need a new infusion to the heart, to be resuscitated, to be brought vividly back to life.
Thank you for reading my contemporary art blog. Comment below, let me know how you are getting on with cold wax and oil paint, if you have any questions feel free to ask and, most of all, enjoy the painting, mark-making process! Hope to see you at the affordable art fairs in the next few months!
Please take the opportunity to look at my collection of paintings in the online gallery. All of my paintings are original artworks on high-quality canvas frames. If you are interested in purchasing a specific painting, please get in touch to check current availability or to discuss a commission. Please contact me.
About Artist
I am a UK based abstract landscape painter/artist with a range of compelling and popular original mixed media paintings available to buy. You can follow my artistic practices, latest artworks and painting techniques and news by reading my contemporary art blog.
Buy Artwork
If you have seen an artwork that you like, you can buy my art online and easily order a painting by contacting me directly using the contact form. Please add the name/title of the artwork in your message. It may have already sold, but if that is the case, don't worry, you can request a commissioned piece just and get a painting you will love.
Art Buyers and Collectors: How To Buy Paintings? If you take a look at my art gallery and would like to purchase an original oil painting, you can email my Art Representative, Karl, at The Darryl Nantais Gallery Ltd on karl@linton59.co.uk or get in contact via the contact form on his website https://linton59.co.uk/contact. Please add the name/title of the artwork in your message. It may have already sold, but if that is the case, don't worry, you can request a commissioned piece and get a painting you will love. If you would like to contact me directly with any questions or comments, feel free to use the contact form.
Shipping
I ship paintings worldwide, and they are professionally and securely packaged for National and International courier services. They are delivered to your home in a reinforced box within 3-5 days of your order. You can buy my art online and order a painting or request a commissioned piece by contacting me directly using the contact form.
Framing
Each artwork will arrive unframed with painted edges, ready for you to hang. If you wish to frame a painting, you can make a direct request at an extra cost or contact your local framing shop.
Previous Exhibitions
I am a British artist based in Ely, Cambridgeshire and my work is sought by collectors here in the UK and worldwide. I have exhibited recently at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair, The Babylon Gallery in Ely, The Art in East Anglia Gallery, in Bury St Edmunds, The Darryl Nantais Gallery in Linton, The Michael House Centre and The Locker cafe in Cambridge. I also have collections of my artwork in prestigious office settings in major towns and cities throughout the country.
Upcoming Exhibitions and Art Fairs I will be exhibiting abstract landscape artwork inspired by the British landscape at the Affordable Art Fairs up and down the UK. I will be exhibiting with Linton 59 and Darryl Nantais Art Gallery is representing my artwork. I do hope you can be there and see my artworks up close. Here is an example of an artwork I have exhibited at previous fairs.
Materials Used
I work in mixed media, oil, cold wax, acrylic, bitumen and on both medium and large-scale canvases. My techniques involve a range of techniques and processes including, drawing, painting, collage, printing and mixed media applications. My main subject matter is landscape and abstraction and many of my paintings are located somewhere between figurative and non-figurative approaches to image-making.
Social Media
Newsletter
Please subscribe to my art newsletter to receive news on upcoming exhibitions, specially selected artworks by me, I would love for you to subscribe to my Art newsletter where you will discover new selected artworks, art insights, inspirations, painting techniques, straight to your inbox, as well as invitations to upcoming art fairs, galleries and exhibitions so that you can visit my work in real life! And painting discoveries and my take on art history. If you like, you can scroll through more of my art gallery displaying a selected range of abstract landscape paintings.