China’s freehand brushwork oil painting is a unique artistic achievement formed by the collision and deep integration of Chinese and Western arts. With the help of oil painting materials, it integrates the spiritual core of China’s traditional image aesthetics, and pursues the aesthetic realm of “likeness is better than likeness” and “scene blending” in terms of modeling, color application, and artistic conception creation. As the key category of China’s traditional aesthetics, image aesthetics emphasizes the organic unity of “meaning” and “image”, advocates conveying infinite spiritual meaning through limited artistic images, and provides deep aesthetic guidance and a practical path for China’s freehand oil painting creation. Starting from three dimensions: the origin and transformation of aesthetic spirit, the integration and innovation of creative language, and the expansion and deepening of practical path, this paper deeply explores the concrete presentation and application methods of imagery aesthetics in freehand brushwork oil painting, aiming at revealing the cultural genes and artistic values contained in China’s freehand brushwork oil painting, and providing ideas for the inheritance and development of contemporary freehand brushwork oil painting.