Oil paint is magical, you can make it do anything. I love handling it, as messy as it is. I also love the smell. I can’t imagine using anything else. The medium has been in use for almost 800 years, there is something marvelous about that that I can barely wrap my head around. Last weekend I saw some Bellini, Ribera and El Greco paintings and they looked fresh, almost like they could’ve been painted yesterday. Ha! I don’t expect my paintings to be around that long but its wonderful to be part of that tradition.
The colors are unmatched, the strokes can transform into a thing....the very mark in an oil painting may transfrom into a cloud, a piece of hair a dot in space and ultimately be indistinguishable from what it represents, it can’t be seperated, it’s not descriptive, it is the thing, that’s the magic.