Oil painting

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. Other oils occasionally used include poppyseed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. These oils confer various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on the oil. Painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular feel depending on the medium.

Oil paint Although oil paint was first used in western Afghanistan sometime between the 5th and 9th Centuries, it did not gain popularity until the 15th century. Its practice likely migrated westward during the Middle Ages. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of the Rennaisance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe.

Landscape Painting

Landscape Paintings prominently incorporates the scenes of mountains, sky, sea, river and forest. Drawing of sky is almost essential to landscape painting and weather is the driving factor in such paintings. Roman landscape frescoes painted in 1 st century A.D.have been preserved at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Word landscape is derived from a Dutch word ‘landschap' meaning sheaf, a patch of cultivated ground. History of landscape is thus as old as the early civilization. The caves of Bhimbetka in India were painted as landscapes. Man started with landscape paintings because of the natural tendency to reflect what one sees. This is why landscapes are the reflections mainly of the natural things like seas, mountain, sky, river, forests etc.

Landscapes can be further classified in to many other forms like seascapes, skycaps, moonscapes, riverscapes, cityscapes, aerial scapes etc. Landscape art has developed to great levels and still it's undergoing through many improvements and experiments. landscape painting is done in diverse media and thus

landscape oil painting , landscape watercolor painting , Pastel landscape painting have become hobby object of innumerable people.

Since Landscape Paintings got proper recognition the admirers have also grown in manifolds. Subsequently many a theme has arisen to paint the canvas.

Abstract landscape paintings have been the favorites of many. There are a big number of admirers of floral landscape paintings and forest landscape painting or wildlife landscape paintings. With the moving course of time new styles originated under the auspices of landscape paintings like oriental landscape paintings and American landscape paintings.

Different Forms of Indian paintings

The tradition of painting has been carried on in the Indian subcontinent since the ancient times. Standing as a testimony to this fact are the exquisite murals of Ajanta and Ellora, Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts, Mughal and Kangra schools of miniature Indian paintings, etc. Infact, records have been found that indicate the usage of paintings for decorating the doorways, guest rooms, etc. Some traditional Indian paintings, like those of Ajanta, Bagh and Sittanvasal, depict a love for nature and its forces.

With time, Indian classical paintings evolved to become a sort of blend of the various traditions influencing them. Even the folk painting of India has become quite popular amongst art lovers, both at the national as well as the international level. Most of the folk paintings reflect a heavy influence of the local customs and traditions. In the following lines, we have provided information on the famous paintings of India:

Cave Painting


Cave paintings of India date back to the prehistoric times. The finest examples of these paintings comprise of the murals of Ajanta, Ellora, Bagh, Sittanavasal, etc, which reflect an emphasis on naturalism. Ancient cave paintings of India serve as a window to our ancestors, who used to inhabit these caves.

Madhubani Painting


Madhubani painting originated in a small village, known as Maithili, of the Bihar state of India. Initially, the womenfolk of the village drew the paintings on the walls of their home, as an illustration of their thoughts, hopes and dreams. With time, the paintings started becoming a part of festivities and special events, like marriage.

Miniature Painting


Miniatures paintings are beautiful handmade paintings, which are quite colorful but small in size. The highlight of these paintings is the intricate and delicate brushwork, which lends them a unique identity.

Mughal Painting


Mughal painting reflects an exclusive combination of Indian, Persian and Islamic styles. As the name suggests, these paintings evolved as well as developed during the rule of Mughal Emperors in India, between 16th century and 19th century.

Mysore Painting


Mysore Painting is a form of classical South Indian painting, which evolved in the Mysore city of Karnataka. During that time, Mysore was under the reign of the Wodeyars and it was under their patronage that this school of painting reached its zenith.

Pahari Painting

Pahari painting is the name given to Rajput paintings, made in the in the Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir states of India. These painting developed as well as flourished during the period of 17th to 19th century. Indian Pahadi paintings have been done mostly in miniature forms.


Rajput Painting


Rajput painting originated in the royal states of Rajasthan, somewhere around the late 16th and early 17th century. The Mughals ruled almost all the princely states of Rajasthan at that time and because of this; most of the schools of Rajput Painting in India reflect strong Mughal influence.




Tanjore Painting:

Tanjore Painting is one of the most popular forms of classical South Indian painting. It is the native art form of Thanjavur (also known as Tanjore) city of Tamil Nadu. The dense composition, surface richness and vibrant colors of Indian Thanjavur Paintings distinguish them from the other types of paintings.

Sculpture India

Sculpture first flourished in India in the 2000's B.C., during the Harappan period. Little sculpture survives from the period immediately after that. The beginning of traditional Indian sculpture can be dated to the 300's B.C. and to the establishment of empires that ruled most of south Asia. Much of India's sculpture was made for religious buildings. Before about A.D. 1200, the main religions were Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Training in the techniques of sculpture was passed down within the family. The subheads under which the Sculpture section has been divided are Indus Valley; Buddhist and Jain; Hindu; Islamic, Colonial and Modern.

Know more about Indian Sculpture

Painting India

Despite great gaps in our knowledge of continuities in history, the story of Indian painting has to begin with the art of primitive man which has survived in rock shelters and caves in places like Hoshangabad, Mirzapur , Bhimbetka. Stone age painting belonging to the Magdelanian phase (15,000 B.C.) have been discovered in India.

The epoch of the Indus Valley Civilization (3000B.C.-1500B.C.) was one of elegant urban culture, but since the superstructures have not survived, no murals have come down. Paintings on pottery, although reflect a keen sense of painting among the Indus valley people.

The earliest painting of Ajanta date back to the 1st century B.C. and the latest to the 8th century. The spirit of the compassionate Buddha is their inspiration. The Jataka tales elaborated the vicissitudes of these incamations and the Ajanta artists painted them in sinuos lines and sensitive colours. Ajanta became a fountainhead of Asian painting and murals with the clear stamp of style.

Meanwhile, painting had come down from the extended mural surface to the miniature dimension of the manuscripts. It further spread to western India and is seen in numerous illuminated manuscripts.

Though the imperial court of Akbar was headed by artists from Persia, Mughal painting is not a provincial school of Persian painting. Each painting was most often a cooperative effort of Indian and Persian artists. Akbar even commissioned the translation and illustration of Indian text like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Rajput painting on the other hand presented in line and colour the great myths and legends of the land, the story of Rama and Krishna, of Bhagvat Gita abd Gita Govinda.

A decline followed the close of the Rajput phase. In the British era, western academism became popular. The revivalist school, headed by Abanindranath Tagore, was nationalistic in inspiration. The four pioneers of modern painting in India are Gaganendranath Tagore, Amrita Shergil, Jamini Roy and Rabindtranath Tagore. They gave Indian painting a charter for free variations on naturalism, abstraction and expressionism.
A better perspective to study the painting forms of the whole of the nation is to divide it into various heads such as the Paintings of North India, South India, East India, West India, Central and Deccan India and under some special captions such as the Rajasthani Paintings, Mughal Paintings and the Colonial and Modern Paintings