About
Oil Painting - Controversial Views
This book and the associated volume Oil Painting - Controversial Views Exercises & Projects© are designed for artists with some experience who want to explore further possibilities, or more experienced artists who want a ready source of reference, in the two volumes.
The OP-CV trilogy:
1 Oil Painting - Controversial Views for Aspiring Artists©
2 Oil Painting - Controversial Views©
3 Oil Painting - Controversial Views Exercises & Projects©
is designed as a compilation of most of the knowledge that an artist needs during the learning and development phase.
The authors believe that the current dissemination of knowledge about oil painting through galleries and special exhibitions, tuition, instruction manuals, periodicals, videos and more courses, requires a foundation source of knowledge to supplement what can be learned from them. The trilogy is intended to be a working notebook, annotated with references to authoritative publications.
We incorporate Controversial into all the titles because there is rarely one defined way of working in oils to create good, if not great, art. We hope that the word Controversial will encourage readers to press ahead but simultaneously challenge methods and use of materials throughout their painting careers.
Volumes 2 and 3 form the original scope of the project. When Bryony Knight was appointed editor in early 2025, the opportunity was taken to design what ideally would have been the first volume to be issued: Oil Painting - Controversial Views for Aspiring Artists©. The practicalities of life, having a second son, mean that volume 1 of the trilogy is scheduled for publication late in 2026. It will be worth waiting for because Bryony was uniquely a modern apprentice oil painter studying with Martin Kinnear and studio manager of the Norfolk Painting School; she now has her own oil painting tutorial business and has an enviable sales record of works.
Oil Paints
We have chosen a studio palette based primarily on the paints of Michael Harding because of their quality and ready availability in the UK. The Michael Harding range is augmented predominantly by paints from Wallace Seymour.
The author and editor have no commercial connection with any products mentioned in the trilogy; they are what we have selected for our ateliers.
Free Online Publication
Oil Painting - Controversial Views© and its companion volume OP-CV: Exercises & Projects© are published free online to access the widest readership.
It is also intended to publish Oil Painting - Controversial Views for Aspiring Artists© free online.
The volumes are a tribute to the late Maire Ragnhild Hollingsworth in whose memory the Maire Ragnhild Hollingsworth Oil Painting Prize at the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was inaugurated in 2023 and funded for 25 years.
The Author
Paul Hollingsworth
My introduction to oil painting was in Stockholm in 1966. It was not until I saw Le Talisman, 1888 by Paul Sérusier and Paul Gauguin, when first hung at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, that I realised that, given tuition, I might be able to paint like that one day. Text books available then were not very instructive, periodicals provided good information but at random timing compared with my needs. A long series of courses culminating in the Diploma Programme at Norfolk Painting School were inspirational. But that route alone is expensive in time and money. OP-CV, OP-CV Exercise & Projects© and OP-CV for Aspiring Artists© (scheduled for publication late 2026) are designed to fill the perceived void.
I take a purist view about the materials used in paintings: a proven ground ‘system’ on optimal supports, single-pigment, artisanal oil paints (predominantly Michael Harding and Wallace Seymour), oil-based mediums, inclusion of some handmade paint in every painting - part of the reason for the Controversial Views component in each of the three titles.
The OP-CV project commenced in the early days of 2020. It was designed to contain all the information that I would have liked to have had at the outset of my painting endeavours. The project grew and grew. When Bryony Knight became editor early in 2025, and agreed to write Oil Painting - Controversial Views for Aspiring Artists©, I was convinced that we had a viable offering - an offering free online.
The Editor
Bryony Knight
Bryony Knight (née Reed) took a degree in Psychiatric Nursing at The University of East Anglia, before deciding to follow her dream of becoming a professional painter, and becoming the UK’s only oil painting apprentice to painting master Martin Kinnear at the Norfolk Painting School in 2015. Bryony took the school’s Diploma programme immersed in the techniques and traditions of historical oil painting, whilst also teaching students the art of oil painting. Bryony was subsequently promoted to Studio Manager of the Norfolk Painting School, where she continued to teach students from beginner to professional level, whilst also working on her own body of creative work. She accompanied Kinnear on his mission at the SNBA Paris Salon at Carousel d’Louvre 2017-2019, as well as carrying out projects at The Bowes Museum, and The Other Art Fair, among others.
Her work has been featured in multiple publications, such as House and Garden magazine and The Artist as Editor’s Choice. In 2023, Bryony’s paintings appeared on-set for Apple TV’s French and English thriller series ‘Liason’.
In 2021, Bryony set up her own business, Bryony Knight Art, in her native Norfolk teaching oil painting across the UK, while continuing to create and exhibit her own Art Now in an abstract style. Her work has been exhibited extensively across the UK, and has collectors in the US, Europe and UK.
In 2025 she became editor for Paul Hollingsworth’s Oil Painting - Controversial Views© and Oil Painting - Controversial Views: Exercises & Projects©; as well as being a co-judge for the annual Maire Ragnhild Hollingsworth Oil Painting Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025, which awarded Frances Featherstone (a previous student of Bryony’s) the prize for Motherly Loves.
Bryony has agreed to become the guardian for the OP-CV series to ensure that they are made available at no cost, are maintained up to date and reflect responses to valid comments.
Bryony is preparing Oil Painting - Controversial Views for Aspiring Artists© scheduled for publication free online in 2026. This volume is being designed to enable any aspiring artist to commence work with confidence, keep costs to a minimum and be assured that the returns on investment in painting courses will be maximised.
