Holbein: Oil Paints

At Jerry’s Artarama, we offer a carefully curated selection of professional oil paints, artist-grade oil colors, and essential oil painting mediums designed to support every stage of the creative process. From beginner oil painting sets to premium, high-pigment professional formulas, artists can find materials tailored to their technique, budget, and studio needs. Oil paints are created by suspending finely ground pigments in natural drying oils, producing rich color saturation, superior blendability, and extended open time. This slower drying process allows painters to refine edges, develop subtle transitions, and build depth through glazing, layering, or impasto techniques.

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What Is Oil Paint?

Oil paint is a traditional artist paint made by suspending finely ground pigments in drying oils such as linseed, safflower, or walnut oil. Known for its rich color depth, smooth blending, and extended working time, oil paint allows artists to create subtle transitions, layered effects, glazing, and textured impasto techniques with exceptional control. Professional oil paints are valued for their high pigment concentration, archival durability, and versatility across styles ranging from classical realism to modern contemporary painting. Oil paints can be used on stretched canvas, linen, wood panels, and other properly prepared painting surfaces when paired with compatible primers, mediums, and varnishes.

How to Choose the Right Oil Paints

Choosing the best oil paints depends on your experience level, painting style, and desired results. Professional-grade oil paints contain higher pigment concentrations, stronger lightfastness ratings, and smoother consistency for advanced blending, glazing, and layering techniques. Student-grade oil paints are often more affordable and ideal for beginners learning color mixing and brush control.

Artists should also consider drying time, paint texture, transparency, and surface compatibility when selecting oils. Traditional oil paints provide classic working properties, while water mixable oil paints offer easier cleanup with water instead of solvents. Many professional artists pair their paints with specialized oil mediums, varnishes, primers, and archival painting surfaces to achieve the best long-term performance and color stability.

Why Oil Paints Remain the Preferred Choice for Artists

Oil paints continue to be valued for their unique combination of rich pigmentation, extended working time, and exceptional versatility across techniques. Their ability to be blended, layered, or manipulated over time allows artists to achieve depth, subtle transitions, and surface character that are difficult to replicate with faster-drying media. When paired with professional mediums and properly prepared supports, oil paints provide both creative flexibility and the durability required for lasting, archival artwork.

Worthy to Note: Oil painting remains one of the most respected and widely collected traditional painting mediums among professional artists.

See our guide on: Best Oil Paints & Brands

Why Artists Continue to Trust Jerry’s Artarama

Trusted by artists for over 55 years, Jerry’s Artarama has been a reliable source for professional oil painting materials by offering a carefully selected range of artist-grade paints, mediums, and painting surfaces. Our goal is to provide dependable tools that help artists focus on creativity while achieving consistent, professional results. From traditional studio practices to evolving techniques, Jerry’s supports oil painters with materials chosen for performance, value, and reliability.

Oil Paint FAQs

What makes oil paints different from other types of paint?

Oil paints are made with finely ground pigments suspended in drying oils, giving them a slower drying time, richer color depth, and greater blendability than faster-drying paints. This allows artists to work longer, create smooth transitions, and build layers with exceptional control and durability.

How do I choose the right oil paints for my work?

Artists select oil paints based on pigment quality, consistency, and drying characteristics. Professional-grade oils offer higher pigment concentration, better lightfastness, and more consistent handling, making them ideal for achieving durable, archival results.

Oil Painting Tips

Remember, you cannot use soap and water alone to fully clean oil paint from brushes. It is best to use artist-quality solvents, brush soaps, or dedicated brush washers & cleaners.

Oil painters often use solvents and mediums for a variety of techniques and applications, including thinning oil paints, removing mistakes, blending colors, and controlling drying time. For odor-free thinning and studio use, we recommend StudioSolv™ Artist Odorless Oil Thinner.

Want less cracking in your oil painting? The “Fat Over Lean” principle refers to applying paint layers with a higher oil content over layers with a lower oil content. This helps create a more flexible paint film that reduces the risk of cracking as the painting naturally dries and ages over time.