Getting to grips with using impasto painting
Whether the artist wanted to paint expressive portraits, landscapes or abstract works, they’ve often found the texture of paint is an important part of the painting experience. Painters saw how the effect could be used to describe form and texture and, by the nineteenth century had developed it further into the technique now known as impasto. As the nineteenth century progressed, artists started using this technique for it’s own sake, creating works using this method alone.
Van Gogh used impasto extensively in his pictures to add shapes and patterns that helped convey the emotion in a work. Impasto can likewise have a function in creating depth within a painting. If used in conjunction with washes and thin glazes, thick layers of paint can be used to help create the illusion of perspective.
In all probability, van Gogh would have intoduced a small amount of wax to his commercially prepared paints, this would have helped create a rich creamy paint ideal for impasto, it dries solidly without wrinkling, to with an even matt finish. Traditionally, the preferred type of wax for artists to use was beeswax. Beeswax is available in blocks, pellets or small lumps, the white bleached version is the best option for artists. It should be mixed into oil paints after melting 1 part wax with 2 parts stand oil, and then mixing into the paint with a palette knife. Although beeswax melts at fairly low temperatures, it still remains stable and long-lasting. The wax can be gently melted in a water bath, in a similar way that you would melt chocolate. You can adjust the consistency by adding more oil if the paint is too stiff or wax if it’s too runny.
When adding of wax to their paints, artists found an ideal medium for producing brush marks and textures in the heavy layers of paint so typical of the impasto technique. Nonetheless, where paint is applied in thick layers, it will take the painting a long time to dry.
Tags: impasto, oil painting, paintings, portraits
