Impasto is a painting technique and term used to describe thick paint raised above the surface of the painting.

Traditionally in oil painting the darks are thin and transparent. The lights are thicker and opaque. The very lightest whites were impasted as the thickest paint of all. During the last hundred years it has become common for artists to apply impasto effects in all parts of a picture, often in an attempt to emphasize brush-marks as characteristic of Vincent Van Gogh.

Today, Impasto is a technique often associated with modern contemporary paintings or abstract paintings, artists often build up heavy layers of paint with a brush or other tools such as paint scrapers and palette knifes. Painting mediums such as Texture Paste, or Texture Gel greatly enhance the impasto technique.