Oil paint­ing has cap­ti­vat­ed artists for cen­turies, but too many would-be painters feel hes­i­tant to try it, daunt­ed by com­plex setups or the thought of using harsh chem­i­cals. All of that changes now. In The New Oil Paint­ing, pop­u­lar Los Ange­les-based artist Kim­ber­ly Brooks walks read­ers through every aspect, includ­ing how to paint with­out solvents.

With humor, clar­i­ty, and col­or images & illus­tra­tions, Brooks illu­mi­nates oil paint­ing fun­da­men­tals, includ­ing which mate­ri­als you actu­al­ly need, how to set up your paint­ing space, and – most rev­o­lu­tion­ary of all – how to com­plete­ly elim­i­nate harm­ful sol­vents from your prac­tice and replace them with safer, health­i­er, and more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly alternatives.

Inter­twin­ing his­to­ry, sci­ence, and Brooks’ own per­son­al expe­ri­ence, the book fea­tures help­ful dia­grams through­out illus­trat­ing var­i­ous tech­niques and tools, plus advice on the gold­en rules of col­or mix­ing and think­ing in three dimen­sions. This is a ref­er­ence man­u­al and a sur­vival guide for new­com­ers and expe­ri­enced oil painters alike.