Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil – especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called ‘varnishes’ and were prized for their body and gloss.

In this post we showcase majestic oil paintings by Laurie Masters, who was born in Peterborough, Ontario, May 4, 1976. Having concentrated on music during her school years and completing an honours degree in Mathematics at Trent University, it wasn’t until 2001 that she picked up a paint brush and started to paint. Since then, Laurie has not stopped painting.

Laurie started out painting in acrylics, but after discovering the beauty and diversity of oil, she decided to concentrate her painting to oil on canvas. Laurie excels in painting in vibrant colour, but also enjoys painting black and white portraits. Laurie also incorporates texture into her paintings through palette knives or the use of textured paper to achieve the desired effect. Her paintings are contemporary portraits, all done on a fairly large scale and are intended to give the viewer a “feeling”, whether that be to elicit sympathy, tears, or a smile.

In addition to her realistic portraits, being a fan of Picasso’s work, Laurie has also dabbled in abstract painting. Her technique involves beginning with line drawings on the canvas and then attempting to decipher what can be “seen” in those lines, whether it be people or objects (vases and a guitar are a couple of subjects of her abstract paintings).

Oil Paintings

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