Ah, impressionism! Now we are getting to the sweet stuff, the eye candy of Western art. The name impressionism seems pretty straight forward, in these oil paintings you don't get hyper realism, but rather only the blurred impression of a landscape or portrait, creating a sense of movement. Yet, this art era was actually named cheekily for Claude Monet's painting, Impression Sunrise. It was a critic who coined the term, turning his nose up at the style. But the name actually caught on and the artists themselves began using it.

Impressionist painting is where we begin seeing sculpted, visible brush strokes, or impasto style painting. In these thick brush strokes you may notice that the paint is not mixed properly, producing unusual and vivid colors in the short brush strokes. This at the time was revolutionary, totally breaking the rules of painting.

This was surprisingly also the beginning of outdoor painting. French artists began to perfect their use of light by capturing the play of natural light on a landscape throughout the day. Along with painting non traditional outdoor scenes, portraits became non traditional as well, candid poses were often fuzzily captured, perfectly enclosing the feelings of the moment in which the painting was created.

After deciding on a piece of art you want to hang in your home, there are several more decorative touches to consider. One of these is a decision that comes before the piece of art is made, that consideration is gallery wrap versus framing your piece of art.

Painting on a gallery-wrapped canvas	Back and front of gallery-wrapped canvas	Oil Painting in a French, antique style frame.	Oil Painting in a wooden, black frame.

Oil Painting Through The Ages is a new segment in which I will be wading through art's rich history, exploring how painting was used in the many beautiful and unique eras of art. Each era is full of masterpieces that Oil Painting Express can help recreate for you. For the first installment, we will begin at the Middle Ages.

The middle ages were a period that lasted about a thousand years, from the end of the Roman Empire in 400 C.E. to the beginning of the Renaissance around 1400, covering a vast amount of time for art. This thousand years contained many sub-art-eras within it. This time is also referred to as the dark ages, a term that is said to be coined by philosopher, Petrarch, who felt that compared to Greek and Roman ages, this time was a dim-dip in human achievement.

From what we see of the art of the middle ages today, it seems to be almost exclusively religious. At the beginning of this era, art was almost solely found in churches, as buying art was very expensive. The churches had grown very rich and had the means for large murals, painted texts and grand architecture. The art we are most familiar with from this time depicts scenes from the Christian bible.

If you're an artist or art-lover it would come as no surprise that oil paints cost more than acrylic paints and therefore an oil painting will often come with a heftier price-tag. Whether or not oil is actually better than acrylic is a debated topic. Some artists religiously and solely use thick, buttery oils while some love water-soluble acrylics. There are artists that use both mediums, sometimes on the same canvas no less.

Both oil and acrylic can produce beautiful works of art, the quality of the work is truly all about the artist in the end. Yet, we art lovers are left wondering why do oils cost more? Is oil worth more?

If you are a lover of art history or one who frequents art museums, you know that oil painting has a long and rich history. Oil painting is traced back as early as the 13th century, when it was used in England for interior decorating purposes. It was in the 15th century that oil paints were primarily used for works of art.

Acrylics paints, on the other hand (or palette) are a fairly new invention. They were first available in the 1950's. Acrylic is said to keep color well while oil tends to fade over time, yet we also know from oil painting's long history, that the long-lasting-life of an oil painting is indisputable.