About Materials and Techniques

Nafi Çil is an oil painter. Except for a group of experimental works he created in 1990 using ink and opaque pigment on straw and found paper as well as four paintings on canvas, all of his works have been made with oil paint on paper. In some cases, he applied whiting and polymer glue to the surface before painting with oil to add texture and density. He deliberately avoided canvas, citing his discomfort with the movement of the canvas surface while painting. To achieve the stability he desired, he adhered thick painting paper to hardboard or water-resistant plywood. To create the textures he wanted, he sometimes rubbed newspaper soaked in thinner onto the painting or scraped the surface with a razor blade. These works can be viewed under the subcategory “Oil on Paper, Canvas or Plywood.”

In addition to his oil paintings, Çil created 60 small-scale works using ink and opaque pigment on straw paper or found paper of various sizes in 1990. These pieces can be viewed under the subcategory “Chinese Ink and White Pigment on Paper.” In 1992, he photographed these works and painted over nearly 80 enlarged prints using oil paint. This group is categorized under “Oil on Photographic Prints of Artist’s Own Paintings.” Both of these groups can also be found together under the “1990s: A Different Series” section of the “Years” category.