I love painting with oils. I love the thickness, vibrant colour and versatility of tube oil paints. You can use them in so many ways alla prima, impasto, sgraffito, in glazes or with a palate knife – they are so versatile. However, many people avoid them. The main reasons being the smell and the length of drying time. I use oil paints in our group sessions & no-one has complained of the smell.
Smell need not be an issue now as there are options to the traditional ‘Turps’ such as citrus scented & mineral solvents. As for drying my paintings can be touch dry in 24hrs. The use of mediums can speed up drying times.
You could always try water soluble oil paints. I have not tried these as I am happy to use a mix of a mineral solvent & a medium with my traditional oil paints. The image shown is one of my oil paintings, ‘Sunset over Hull’ which was chosen for display at Stockport Open Exhibition 2018. You can see it in the ‘flesh’ if you are coming to our Autumn Exhibition on 17th & 18th November 2018.