Oil Paintings: A Closer Look

Many people ask why I include detail photographs of my oil paintings on my website. The answer is simple: each painting holds more than a single photograph can show.

A full view reveals the composition. However, a closer look lets you explore the individual brushstrokes, layers of color and small marks that bring it together.

How I Create My Oil Paintings

I spend months creating many of my original oil paintings. I often begin by staining the canvas with washes of oil color and allowing the paint to drip. Sometimes I turn or move the canvas to change the direction of those drips. Then the brushwork begins.

Every brushstroke is like a fingerprint. Each leaves its own mark and becomes part of the painting.

As I work, I build layers of oil color. A finished painting may contain thousands of individual brushstrokes. To create these marks, I use more than 50 types and styles of brushes, with different lengths of natural and synthetic bristles.

In addition to brushing, I may pour or drip the paint, apply it with my fingers, or explore other ways of moving color across the canvas.

Looking Closer at My Oil Paintings

When you first see one of my oil paintings, your eyes may follow its colors, lines, shapes and movement. Yet smaller details can be difficult to see in a photograph of the entire canvas.

Close-up photographs bring those details into view. For example, you might notice one brushstroke crossing another or a thin wash revealing the color beneath it. Elsewhere, thicker paint may sit beside a delicate drip.

Together, these small marks create the surface and character of the finished work. Detail photographs give you time to explore these relationships at your own pace.

What to Look for in the Detail Photos

As you explore the close-up images of my oil paintings, look for:

• Individual brushstrokes and marks left by different brushes.
• Layers of color showing through one another.
• Pours and drips moving across the canvas.
• Changes from thin washes to thicker paint.
• Areas where the surface appears matte or glossy.

These photographs offer a closer view of my oil paintings, even when you cannot see them in person.

Each work is an original, one-of-a-kind oil painting created in my studio in Glen Allen, Virginia. If you would like to look closer in person, studio visits are available by appointment.

For me, it’s all in the details.

Explore my original oil paintings.

For more about the techniques seen in these details, explore oil painting terms explained by Jackson’s Art⁠

https://laurierubell.com/products/vivid-color-abstract-oil-painting