Artsz.org

Most often the inspiration for most oil portrait artists came from everyday instances and people around. Often flowers in a painting were used for more complex purposes. In paintings such as the Pre-Raphaelite by Millais of Ophelia the flowers present around her aren’t just for decorative purposes. They have been used to convey much deeper meaning. To name a few, crow flowers symbolise ingratitude, the weeping willow represent forsaken love, the nettles symbolise pain and daisies floating near her right hand represent innocence.

Thus oil portrayers of those times created a mental imagery of complex emotions and used everyday people to represent these.

Simple tools like a canvas with sketch pens, water colours, oil paints, an easel and several brushes make a scene come alive. There is depth and distance portrayed on a piece of canvas, bringing it all into one’s view and within arms reach. This beauty can be brought back home to be put up on your wall and within your reach at all times; to perceive and wonder at and to own as your own. Your own private heaven to dwell in whenever you want and to visit whenever you prefer to get lost in dream land. As Dante Alighieri quoted ‘Nature is the art of God.’

Some of the artists who made a canvas come alive are Aert van der Neer a Dutch painter, Pierre Patel a painter of French origin, Salvador Rosa and Italian and Gaspard Dughet a Dutchman to name a few.