Painting

I

Introduction

Painting, the art of applying colour, or other organic or synthetic substances, to various surfaces to create a representational, imaginative, or abstract picture or design.

II

Media and Technique

Throughout history, painters have used a variety of media and techniques. All paint consists of both colouring matter (pigment) and a binding medium. The choice of this will affect the “technique” that the artist brings to the work. “Technique” comprises not just the physical and chemical characteristics of the paint, but the way it is applied.

A

Fresco and Tempera

Fresco painting, which reached the height of its development in Italy during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, involves the application of paint to wet plaster. It is primarily a form of wall painting. The term mural can be applied to any painting that is used for such a purpose, regardless of medium. Tempera painting, only rarely used after the Renaissance, made use of powdered pigment mixed with egg yolk. It suits an art that stresses precision of outline and clarity of colour.

B

Oil

Oil painting, in which the pigment is suspended in linseed oil, subsequently became the dominant medium in Western painting. Unlike the quick drying tempera, it makes possible a greater degree of detail and surface realism—as displayed in the work of Jan van Eyck, once erroneously believed to have invented the medium. Rapidity of application and improvisation become possible—as found in the oil sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, which can be as exhilarating for the spectator as a virtuoso musical performance. The greater ease of correction could free artists from the necessity of elaborate preliminary drawing. Caravaggio in the early 17th century boasted that he worked directly from the model onto the canvas without preliminary drawing and this has been confirmed by modern technical examination. The capacity of oil paint to blend colour made possible the evocation of atmosphere in the work of such great landscape painters as Claude Lorrain and Joseph Mallord William Turner. A remarkable range of surface effects is possible from the use of very thin and diluted paint (glazing) and the thick ridges and bumps of impasto. The hairs of the brush are the usual means of application, but especially since the mid-19th century the knife, fingers, scratching with the brush handle or matches, and even dripping, pouring, or throwing the paint are all found.