Abstract/Abstraction:
Abstract means the modification of a (usually) natural form by simplification or
distortion. Abstraction is the category of such modified images. (See also
non-objective.)
Alkyd:
Synthetic resin used in paints and mediums. As a medium Liquin from Winsor and
Newton works as a binder that encapsulates the pigment and speeds the drying
time. In Paints W&N Griffith paints are good example of alkyd paints.
Anhydrous:
Free from water.
Archival:
Refers to materials that meet certain criteria for permanence such as
lignin-free, pH neutral, alkaline-buffered, stable in light, etc.
ASTM:
The American Society for Testing and Materials. An independent standard for
certain paint qualities, adopted by most manufacturers.
Bleeding:
In artwork, the effect of a dark color seeping through a lighter color to the
surface.
Broken
Color:
Broken color was first used by Manet and the Impressionists in 19th century
French painting, where color was applied in small "dabs," as opposed to the
traditional method of smoothly blending colors and values (lights and darks)
together. This method results in more of a "patchwork" effect, where the dabs
render the facets of light on forms, and/or the planes of the forms' volume, by
means of color and value. Broken color has continued to be used in much modern
and contemporary painting.
Brushwork:
The characteristic way each artist brushes paint onto a support.
Canvas:
Closely woven cloth used as a support for paintings.
Crosshatching:
More than one set of close parallel lines that crisscross each other at angles,
to model and indicate tone.
Cockling:
Wrinkling or puckering in paper supports, caused by applying washes onto a
flimsy or improperly stretched surface.
Collage:
A technique of picture making in which the artist uses materials other than the
traditional paint, such as cut paper, wood, sand, and so on.
Complimentary
Colors: Colors which are located opposite one another on the color wheel (e.g., red and
green, yellow and purple, blue and orange); colors which when mixed together
will (in color theory) produce a neutral color (a color which is neither warm
nor cool). In the case of the three primary colors (red, yellow and blue), the
complementary of one primary will be the mixture of the other two primaries
(complementary of red will be a mixture of yellow and blue, or green). When
placed next to one another, complementary colors will make one another appear
much more intense, sometimes in an "eye-popping" sense, which was utilized by Op
artists of the 1960's to create optical effects. Also in color theory, an
object's primary color has its complementary color in its shadows (e.g., the
shadows on and around a painted yellow apple will contain some purple).
Composition:
The arrangement of elements by an artist in a painting or drawing.
Contemporary
Art:
The term contemporary describes the most recent art, in this case as
distinguished from modern art, which is generally considered to have lost its
dominance in the mid-1950's.
Cool
Colors:
In color theory, colors are described as either warm, cool, or neutral. A cool
color generally is one which contains a large amount of blue, as opposed to a
warm color, which will contain more yellow. In theory, cool colors seem to
recede in space, as the distant mountains or hills tend to appear light
bluish-gray, and the closer ones will be more green or brown (warmer). In
landscape paintings, artists often paint the distant hills in this pale blue
color; and it is generally thought that cool colors will recede into space in
any painting. However, color is a complex element, and colors often misbehave -
it is usually best to go on a case-by-case basis, because colors are influenced
greatly by what colors they are next to, appearing "warm" in one setting, and
"cool" in another. (I recommend reading the abbreviated version of The Interaction of
Color, by Josef
Albers, for his ideas and exercises.)
Dead
Color:
A term for colors used in underpainting.
Deckle
Edge:
The ragged edge found on handmade papers.
Decoupage:
The act of cutting out paper designs and applying them to a surface to make an
all over collage.
Drawing:
Pencil, pen, ink, charcoal or other similar mediums on paper or other support,
tending toward a linear quality rather than mass, and also with a tendency
toward black-and-white, rather than color (one exception being pastel).
Expressionistic:
A characteristic of some art, generally since the mid-19th century, leaning
toward the expression of emotion over objective description. James Ensor, Edvard
Munch and Vincent Van Gogh were perhaps the first expressionists, though there
was not really a movement per se, but individual artists. At the end of the 19th
and beginning of the 20th centuries, expressionism became widely espoused,
particularly by German and Austrian artists, such as Emil Nolde, Kirchner,
Gustav Klimt, and others. Though there is variation, certain characteristics
predominate: bright, even garish, color; harsh contrasts of black and white (as
in woodcuts); exaggeration of form; and distortion or elongation of figures.
There are still many artists whose work has expressionistic tendencies; in the
1980's there was a period of art called Neo-Expressionist. (The word 'neo'
before an art label means that there is a reprise of work similar to the
original movement.)
Figurative:
A term used to describe art which is based on the figure, usually in realistic
or semi-realistic terms; also loosely used to describe an artist who paints or
sculpts representationally, as opposed to painting or sculpting in an abstract
or non-objective manner.
Fixative:
A solution, usually of shellac and alcohol, sprayed onto drawings, to prevent
their smudging or crumbling off the support.
Fresco:
A painting technique in which the pigments are dispersed in plain water and
applied to a damp plaster wall. The wall becomes the binder, as well as the
support.
Gesso:
A white ground material for preparing rigid supports for painting. made of a
mixture of chalk, white pigment, and glue. Same name applied to acrylic bound
chalk and pigment used on flexible supports as well as rigid.
Glaze:
A very thin, transparent colored paint applied over a previously painted surface
to alter the appearance and color of the surface.
Gouache:
Opaque watercolors used for illustrations.
Hue:
The perceived color of an object, identified by a common name such as red,
orange, blue.
Intensity:
The purity and brightness of a color. Also called saturation.
Leaching:
The process of drawing out excess liquid through a porous substance.
Lightfast:
Resistant to fading or other changes due to light.
Local
Color:
The actual color of an object or surface, unaffected by shadow coloring, light
quality or other factors.
Mat:
A stiff cardboard with a window cut out of the center, attached to a backboard.
Matte:
Flat, nonglossy; having a dull surface appearance. Variant spelling - matt.
Medium:
The liquid in which pigments are suspended. Also a material chosen by the artist
for working. Plural is media.
Mixed
Media:
In drawing and painting this refers to the use of different media in the same
picture.
Modern
Art:
Generally considered to be the period from about 1905-6 to the mid-1950's, when
Pop art ushered in what is referred to as the postmodern period in art. Modern
art is generally characterized by formal experimentation and exploration, and
mostly seriousness of purpose. (Dada and Surrealism may be the exceptions to
this rule.)
Mosaic:
Picture making technique using small units of variously colored materials
(glass, tile, stone) set in a mortar.
Mural:
Also referred to as wall painting. this word describes any painting made
directly on the wall.
Naturalism:
A style of painting which uses an analysis of tone (value) and color of its
subject, resulting in a representation of the appearance of forms or landscapes.
Impressionism has naturalistic tendencies, because it analyzes tone and color in
the play of light on surfaces. Naturalism can also have a sensual character (as
against composition and drawing). The Impressionists were influenced by 19th
century researches into the physics of color by Chevreul (a scientist) and
others, which showed that an object casts a shadow which contains its
complementary color (see complementary color). This theory eventually hardened
into Neo-Impressionism, where Seurat and others sought the maximum optical truth
about nature and the ideal composition and color relationships. This line of
inquiry also led eventually to Post-Impressionism, where Gauguin and Van Gogh,
among others, used color in a purely artistic and anti-naturalistic manner,
which was non-intellectual. (Color used by Gauguin and Van Gogh is often
deliberately independent of the local or light-influenced color of objects; and
beyond that in the early 20th century, the Fauve painters used bright color and
forms even more distant from their perceptual origins.)
Negative
Space:
In a painting or sculpture, the areas where there are no forms (the "empty"
areas). In a painting, this means the areas which have no forms or objects
(sometimes also called the 'background' ). In sculpture, this means the "holes"
between forms or within a form (e.g., Henry Moore sculptures). Negative space is
the other side of the coin of positive space, which is space actually occupied
by forms in a painting or sculpture (the figure in a portrait). The notions of
positive and negative space were advanced during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, replacing the more traditional notion of a 'background' which was
subordinate to and separate from the subject image - portrait, still life, etc.
Since about 1950, the notions of positive and negative space have also been
replaced by much contemporary art, which sees the picture surface not as
positive and negative areas, but rather one continuous surface where every area
is equally important, and at the same spatial depth. (See also positive
space.)
Non-Objective:
A term used to describe visual art which is not based on existing, observable
forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as geometric,
mathematical, imaginary, etc. Non-objective art came into existence in the early
20th century, often with much theoretical accompaniment. Mondrian is an example
of an artist whose work is non-objective. (See also abstract.)
Organic:
A description of images which are partly or wholly derived from natural forms,
such as curvilinear, irregular, indicative of growth, biologically-based,
etc.
Palette:
The surface which a painter will mix his colors. Also the range of colors used
by an artist.
Pastel:
A drawing stick made of pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gum water;
also, a drawing executed with these pastel sticks; also, a soft, subdued tint
(light shade) of a color.
Patina:
Originally the green brown encrustation on bronze, this now includes the natural
effects of age or exposure on a surface.
Pigments:
Particles with inherent color that can be mixed with adhesive binders to form
paint.
Plein
Air:
French for "open air". Term describing paintings done outside directly from the
subject.
Positive
Space:
The areas of a painting or sculpture which are occupied by forms or images, as
contrasted with negative space, which are the "empty" areas where no
forms/images are located. For example, in a portrait, the figure would be the
positive space, the "background" would be the negative space. In painting since
around 1950, the differentiation between positive and negative space has given
way to a sense of a continuous surface/space/plane, where all the forms are
located on the picture surface, rather than on different planes in space. (See
also negative space.)
Postmodern:
A term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period,
i.e., from the 1950's until recently. The term implies a shift away from the
formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally
stringent Pop artists, and other art movements which followed.
Printmaking:
The category of fine art printing processes, including etching, lithography,
woodcut, and silkscreen, in which multiple images are made from the same metal
plate, heavy stone, wood or linoleum block, or silkscreen, with black-and-white
or color printing inks.
Refraction:
The bending of light from one course in one medium to a different course through
another medium of different refractive index.
Representational
Art:
Art which is based on images which can be found in the objective world, or at
least in the artist's imagination; i.e., images which can perhaps be named or
recognized. For instance, an objectively faithful depiction of a person is
representational art; also, a depiction of an alien from outer space can also be
considered a representational image. (See also non-representational.)
Scumbling:
The technique of applying a thin, semi-opaque or translucent coating of paint
over a previously painted surface to alter the color or appearance of the
surface without totally obscuring it.
Shellac:
A yellow resin formed from secretions of the LAC insect, used in making varnish.
Size:
Material applied to a surface as a penetrating sealer, to alter or lessen its
absorbency and isolate it from subsequent coatings.
Sketch:
A preliminary drawing of a composition.
Squaring
Up:
A method for transferring an image to a larger or smaller format.
Subtractive
Color:
Color resulting from the absorption of light.
Tempera:
Technique of painting in which water and egg yolk or whole egg and oil mixture
form the binder for the paint. Used also as a term for cheap opaque paints used
in schools.
Tint:
Term for a color lightened with white. Also, in a mixture of colors, the tint is
the dominant color.
Traction:
In oils, the movement of one paint layer over another.
Triptych:
A painting which consists of one center panel, with two paintings attached on
either side by means of hinges or other means, as "wings."
Tromple
L'Oeil:
French for "deceive the eye". A painting with extreme naturalistic details,
aiming to persuade the viewer that they are looking at an actual object, not a
representation.
Underpainting:
The traditional stage in oil painting of using a monochrome or dead color as a
base for composition. Also known as laying in.
Varnish:
Generally, a more or less transparent film-forming liquid that dries into a
solid film.
Vehicle:
The entire liquid contents of a paint.
Warm
Colors:
In color theory, colors which contain a large amount of yellow, as opposed to
cool colors, which contain more blue. For example, a yellow-orange color would
be warm; a greenish-blue would be cool. Warm colors are thought to appear to be
closer to the viewer, while cool colors are thought to recede into the distance.
(See also cool colors.)
Wash:
A thin, usually broadly applied, layer of transparent or heavily diluted paint
or ink.
Watercolor:
A technique of painting using a binder made from a water-soluble gum.
Watercolors can be transparent or opaque.
Wet
on Wet:
The application of fresh paint over an area on which the paint is still wet.
Yellowing:
This effect on oil paintings is usually caused by one of three reasons:
excessive use of linseed oil medium; applying any of the varnishes that are
prone to yellow with age; or most often - an accumulation of dirt embedded into
the varnish.
Zoomorphic:
Describes the forms of works of art and ornaments based on animal shapes.
