A focused course series designed to help you develop strong color sense, compositional judgment, and expressive brushwork through small-format oil paintings.
Taught by 冉茂芹 (Yim Mau-Kun), these lectures and demonstrations show how small paintings are not “practice sketches,” but a complete and powerful way to train the eye, hand, and mind—a method used by 19th-century European masters and refined through decades of teaching and painting from life.
This course is designed as a complete small oil painting study, combining in-depth video instruction with carefully structured reference materials that support repeated viewing, deeper understanding, and independent practice.
Video Instruction (Approx. 4 hours 31 minutes)
6 full lecture + demonstration videos
2 small landscape oil paintings
Guandu Plain-52 minutes
Pigeon House-52 minutes
4 small still life oil paintings
Vase, Bottle, and Fruits (33 min)
Flower, Bottle, and Wine Glass (41 min)
Vase, Bottle, Fruit,s and Egg (38 min)
Rose (43 min)
Each video shows the full process—from initial observation and block-in to color development and finishing decisions.
Beginner’s Guide to Essential Oil Painting Principles
A clear introduction to seeing, color relationships, and painterly thinking.
The Role of Small-Scale Oil Painting
Explains why small oil paintings are essential in both classical training and contemporary practice.
These readings provide the conceptual foundation behind the demonstrations.
Small Landscape Painting Process
Small Still Life Painting Process
Step-by-step visual breakdowns that clarify composition, block-in strategy, color relationships, and the logic behind each stage of the painting.
Guandu Plain–complete process images with explanation
Pigeon House–complete processimages with explanation
Reference photos
Early sketch and block-in stages
Color development
Final refinement and completion
These materials allow you to study the decision-making process in detail, beyond what ispossible in video alone.
Curated images of small landscape oil paintings.
Curated images of small still life oil paintings.
Intended for study, comparison, and inspiration—useful for developing your own visualjudgment and color sensitivity.
Click on each item in the "Content" tab to add images, text, and buttons with links. You can style your images and arrange your grid items in columns or rows in the "Design" tab.
A clear visual guide to
Painting tools
Brushes Palette setup
Painting medium
Panels and small-format equipment
A practical reference you can return to whenever you paint.
A clear visual guide to:oPainting tools
Improve color judgment
Learn how to simplify complex sceneswithout losing vitality
Paint with confidence and speed, without becoming tight or overworked
Understand how small paintings support larger, finished works
Across these lessons, you will learn:
How to organize large color masses before details
How light, distance, and atmosphere affect color
Why brush size and paint thickness matter—even in small works
How to decide what to leave out so the painting breathes
冉茂芹 emphasizes thatart is not copying nature, but translating it into a painterly language. Small oil paintings force clarity:
You must decide quickly
You must see relationships, not isolated objects
You must trust color and brushwork
This method develops artistic judgment, not dependency on photos.
Intermediate to advanced students of oil painting
Artists trained in drawing who want stronger color control
Painters who feel their work is overworked or stiff