In the 1960s, influenced by his great friend and fellow painter Francis Bacon, Freud began using heftier brushes and thick paint.

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He also said the brushwork was clearly legible throughout - a trait of Van Dyck's when he was working in Rubens' studio - and that the use of thick paint in the monk's habit was also characteristic.

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The paint is thick, almost recklessly applied, gloriously messy and richly hued from blue-green to brown to tan to yellowy white.

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To begin with, however thick Dickens may lay on the paint, however disgusting the "pathos" of Tiny Tim may be, the Cratchit family do give the impression of enjoying themselves.

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We're hesitating from calling it paint, because it's actually quite thick.

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He built up the pigment into a thick mask of impasto, fusing the colors by blotting the paint with sheets of newspaper.

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The ornate plaster ceiling of a room, designed to look like the interior of an imperial Chinese palace, was covered by multiple coats of paint, forming a deposit more than a centimeter thick.

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