Oil painting by Nigel Overton

Nigel Overton demonstrated oil painting for Pateley Bridge Art Club.
He explained that cheaper paints usually had far less pigment in them. He recommended that members use the artist quality paints.

He uses low odour thinners and fast drying oil. He often prepares his own painting board using MDF. It needs smoothing with sandpaper, cleaning with methylated spirit, sanding and priming. White or coloured gesso makes a good grounding for oil painting.

He mentioned that care should be taken with oil paints to avoid painting thin layers on top of thick layers, as cracking may result.

This was Nigel’s oil paint pallet

Nigel suggested that painting landscapes outdoors can produce more accurate scenes as you can paint what you see, avoiding distortions that cameras often introduce into images.
He also suggested that the painter should try to stay true to the scene colours and to the aerial perspective.

Nigel started by sketching his underdrawing by brush.

He explained how he painted outdoors very quickly, painting with his brush like a drawing, capturing the moment before the weather or tide changes.

Nigel mentioned that, using fast drying oils, the paint may be dry by morning. To add detail at this stage care in needed. For this he used a small brush.