oil painting question (painter, paint, artists, make)

[buibo]

I have a what I think is an oil painting on canvas but the paint is smooth... I dont see degrees of thickness to the paint. Im curious if the work is a reproduction of something that was painted in the 1970's.



Do oil paintings always have layers of thickness and brushmarks?

[Hemlock140]

There are large format printers that will take a high-resolution pic and print it out on canvas to look like an oil painting. The result is fantastic reproduction, but flat.

Canvaschamp.com

Greatbigcanvas.com

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by buibo

I have a what I think is an oil painting on canvas but the paint is smooth... I dont see degrees of thickness to the paint. Im curious if the work is a reproduction of something that was painted in the 1970's.



Do oil paintings always have layers of thickness and brushmarks?

No image?

An oil painter could use diluted paint (washes) to maintain a smooth glossy surface. Whether it's a print or not may be best determined by looking at the back and edges of the image, not the front. Take it out of the frame/mats and look.

There are clear gel products that can be applied to prints to make them look as if they have layers of pigment and brushstrokes. My parents had such a print...intentionally purchased back in the 1970s.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by buibo

I have a what I think is an oil painting on canvas but the paint is smooth... I dont see degrees of thickness to the paint. Im curious if the work is a reproduction of something that was painted in the 1970's.



Do oil paintings always have layers of thickness and brushmarks?

No. Oil paint can be applied as thin as water. The earliest artists who used oils always painted with very thin glazes, as if the oil paint was water based; until oils were invented, all paints were water-based.

There's a very easy way to tell if the painting is in oils; dampen a Q-Tip with some water and wipe it gently on a spot where the wipe won't be noticed. If the cotton shows color after the wipe, it's probably not oil paint.

But even if it's a watercolor, it doesn't automatically mean the painting is a reproduction. If you can't tell the difference between a reproduction and an original, try to find someone local who can. A reproduction isn't hard to spot for someone with a bit of a trained eye.

The smoothness of the paint and/or the canvas means nothing in this question.