Art and Craft

Oil painting: autumn has come!

After a searing hot summer, we finally have the inkling of the cooler months on their way. While we’re not quite looking forward to the frigid ice of mid-winter, we are enjoying the gentler weather of autumn. Which brings us to oil painting.

Now is the time when much of the country gets a quiet beauty of red and green hues – especially in Johannesburg. Which is only matched by the splendour of purple Jacarandas late in spring.

New beginnings.

Studies show the best time to try out new things is when there’s been change of some sort. As you may have already felt, that change is seasonal – and affects the body.

Some people get down, especially when it gets too cold and dark too soon. But we prefer to be glass half-full people. And that’s half-full of water for dabbing on a brush for painting.

Though the paint we most appreciate isn’t often water soluble (though we do have some of the water-soluble variety in stock). We’re talking about oils. Because there’s nothing as graceful as the strokes of oil paint coming off the canvas. Oil painting is special.

A world to colour with oil painting.

During this time of year, as the sun starts to set earlier, you can often capture beautiful light late afternoon. If you’re lucky, there will be decent cloud cover; the sun’s dying light will catch and flare the clouds alive with vivid reds and purples.

There’s nothing more breath-taking…

If you’ve never painted with oils before, come in-store and we’ll have you well on your way to oil painting. What you need are:

  1. Both thick and thin brushes with firm bristles.
  2. An artist’s palette – to drip-drop blobs of oil paint around the circumference. This allows you to easily paint and switch colours without putting down the palette. And it makes it easier to blend colours into unique formulations.
  3. Turpentine! Or a similar cleaning agent. You’ll be applying this to the brushes to clean them off after you’ve finished painting. Careful with this! It is toxic and should never be used in an unventilated room or you could start going whofnr3ornornfofrefoenroenf (we’re just teasing!).
  4. The canvas. We have such a huge selection, though we suggest if you’re starting out to paint on a canvas the equivalent of an A4 page. Or even smaller.
  5. We advise also a nice easel – PNA has many available made of reliable and lovely pine wood.
  6. Finally, of course, the oil paints themselves (for oil painting)! There’s nothing more magnificent than a beautiful set of oils. You can buy colours separately, though we also have painting sets in-store. You may even want to buy an oil painting starter kit, which will have everything, excluding a canvas, to get started.

What to paint: an autumn landscape

To start you off, we’ve found a landscape video tutorial. You can watch it on you iPad or laptop while painting! It is actually perfect for this time of year, because it is a very rich, autumn-coloured oil painting.

You can view the tutorial here. They will mention a specific set of paints to use, but if we don’t have that set in-store, a normal set of oil paints should do, though results will vary slightly – not significantly.

And, at the end of it, you may well find yourself accomplished in oil painting! If so, then you will be off in a bold new direction as we enter a season of change. And change, often, can be for the good.

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