Alla Prima Oil Painting

'Alla Prima' is an Italian term meaning 'at once'. It is a method of painting whereby the entire painting is completed without waiting for any layers of paint to dry, usually in a few hours. It is also known as 'wet-in-wet' as often wet paint is applied on top of paint that has not yet dried.

Working a painting in one go in this way, without waiting for any layers to dry, is quite different from the more traditional approach of gradually building and perfecting a painting in layers, and result tends to be a little looser and less refined. However, alla prima can have a richness and energy of paint and brush strokes that is difficult to achieve any other way.

This method takes less patience than layering and means that the satisfaction of a completed oil painting can be attained much more quickly.

During tuition you will learn how to make alla prima oil paintings from start to finish and become familiar with the different stages they can go through.

Below are some examples of alla prima paintings completed by students during tuition:

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