As with most products, there is usually a large selection to choose from and invariably you are unsure of quite where to start, and this is especially the case when choosing an oil painting. Think of practically any object under the sun and there will be an oil painting of it somewhere. You can even get an oil painting of an oil painting; some artists will reproduce an oil painting of an old master. That's certainly a much cheaper option than buying an original! You can even have your favourite photograph transformed into oil painting form. Various Chinese artists will do this and most of the paintings are actually very good. Original Chinese oil paintings though can always be detected by anyone with the slightest bit of experience. However, from the huge selection of themes available, my favourite will always be those based on the seashore.

The seashore depicts tranquility and calm, a naturalness unaffected by the effects of time. Various artists over the years have reproduced this in their paintings. Ivan Aivazovsky, the 19th century Russian artist, was one to note, with several excellent paintings including the appropriately named 'Seashore', 'Seashore.Calm' and 'Sunset at sea', all painted in the 1840's. Other artists to note include Shchedrin as well as Adamson, the artist infamous for his oil painting of the seashore.

Many other great artists have included the seashore theme in their works and I've used the internet to locate many fine examples. Whilst an oil painting can represent an excellent investment if chosen carefully, if I've seen one that I particularly like but can't quite afford, I've cheated and commissioned an artist to create a replica and nobody except and expert would know the difference!