Collection: Oil paints

Professional and student-grade oil paints for artists at every level — from first-time painters exploring the medium to practising artists building a studio palette. All sets feature high-quality pigments, creamy consistency, and predictable colour behaviour. Whether you're working on canvas, board, or paper, you'll find the right oil paint here. Everything ships from the UK.

Oil Paints for Artists — Student Sets to Professional Ranges

Oil painting is one of the oldest and most versatile fine art mediums — capable of everything from thin, transparent glazes to thick impasto knife work. The paints in this collection cover the full range of oil painting practice: starter sets for beginners learning the medium for the first time, and professional-grade colours for artists who need consistent, reliable performance across every session.

Choosing the Right Oil Paint Set

The most important factors when choosing oil paints are pigment quality, consistency, and drying time. Higher-quality paints use purer, more concentrated pigments — which means colours stay saturated when mixed, don't go muddy as easily, and behave predictably across different techniques. Student-grade sets use the same traditional oil binder but at a more accessible price point, making them ideal for learning colour theory, practising technique, and building confidence before investing in a full professional range.

Drying time varies significantly between ranges. Some student oils are formulated to dry in approximately 3 days in thin layers — a genuine advantage for beginners who want to work back into earlier stages without waiting weeks. Professional oils typically have longer open times, which allows for extended wet blending but requires more patience between sessions.

What You Need to Get Started

An oil paint set gives you the colours — but oil painting also requires a few additional materials. You'll need a solvent (such as odourless mineral spirits or turpentine) for thinning paint and cleaning brushes, and a painting medium (such as linseed oil or stand oil) if you want to change the paint's consistency or drying behaviour. A palette for mixing, hog bristle or synthetic brushes, and a primed surface (canvas, canvas board, or primed wood) complete the basic setup. None of these are complicated to source, and once you have them, they last a long time.

Oil Painting Techniques

Oil paint supports a wider range of techniques than almost any other medium. Impasto — applying thick, textured paint directly with a brush or palette knife — takes advantage of oil's slow drying time and body. Glazing — thin, transparent layers built up over dried paint — creates depth and luminosity impossible with faster-drying media. Wet-on-wet blending produces the smooth gradients and soft skin tones that oil painting is famous for. All of these techniques work best with paints that have consistent, predictable handling — which is why pigment quality matters even at student level.

Oils Made in Ukraine

Several sets in this collection are produced by Ukrainian manufacturers with decades of experience in fine art materials. Buying from Ukrainian art brands is both a quality choice and a way to support a manufacturing industry that has continued producing and exporting through exceptionally difficult circumstances. All orders ship from the UK.