Originals

Banksy’s originals, or unique studio pieces, can be categorised in many ways; this is one way of looking at it:

Oils on canvas
Mixed technique on canvas
Crude oils
Corrupted oils
Mixed technique on metal, board or wood panel
Sculptures
Installations

Oil on canvas

There are some misconceptions out there about whether Banksy can paint or not. Of course, he can paint! From the start, he demonstrated talent not only in ideas and narratives but also in mixing colours and handling a paintbrush on a canvas.

Below are some of his most interesting and well-painted canvases; they are true originals, not paraphrases of other paintings.

*Climbing the pearly gate, 2017. Oil on canvas. From The Walled Off Hotel*

*The Wave, 2015. Oil on canvas. From Dismaland*

*Rodney King, 2011. Oil on canvas. From the MOCA exhibition.*

*Simple Intelligence Testing, 2000. Oil on canvas. From the Severnshed exhibition.*

*Mediterrannean Seaview, 2017. Oil on canvas. From the Walled Off Hotel.*

*Leopard and Lamb, 2017. Oil on canvas. From the Walled Off Hotel.*

Mixed technique on canvas

Banksy did a lot of spray on canvas and acrylic on canvas in the early days. Here are a few from the Severnshed exhibition in February 2000:

The Crude Oils serie

Another good example of Banksy’s brushstroke is the Crude Oils exhibition from 2005, where Banksy painted his versions of 20 classical oil paintings.

Corrupted oils

Banksy has done approximately 50 pieces where he used charity shop paintings as the groundwork. This subgenre has been labelled corrupted oils. One standard corrupted oil depicts a stencilled helicopter with hand-painted details atop a charity shop motif, typically a rural landscape.