Painting

Chapter 5

Painting

• For many, art is painting

• Painting is linked with drawing as drawing is often a preliminary step for a painting

• Began with cave paintings made with pigments from plants and clays

Ingredients

• Paints consist of:– Pigment provides color. Can be made from

minerals, plants, animals…– Binder is a sticky substance that holds the

pigment together• Linseed oil, egg…

– Vehicle makes the paint a liquid• Turpentine, water…

Surfaces

• Support-structure to hold the painting– Wood panel, canvas, paper

• Sizing and priming-often a surface is smoothed and prepared to accept the paint– Gesso is a mixture of glue and chalk

applied to canvas before painting

Watercolor

• Pigments are bound with gum arabic and water is the vehicle

• Watercolor is usually painted on rag paper – Rag paper is absorbant and won’t disintegate in

water

• Dries fast and it isn’t easy to correct mistakes• Opaque watercolor is called gouache

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Winslow Homer. Sloop, Nassau. 1899.14-7/8" × 21-7/16" (37.8 × 54.3 cm).

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Zhang Daqian. Hidden Valley, After Guo Xi. 1962.76-1/4" × 40-1/8".

Tempera

• Tempera is traditionally made with pigment eggs and water

• Created a luminous and matte finish

• Not easily blended or corrected

• Often applied in many layers

• Little used today

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Filippo Lippi. Madonna and Child. c. 1440–1445.0.797 × .511 cm (31-3/8" × 20-1/8").

Encaustic

• Pigments are dissolved into beeswax

• Mixture has to be kept hot while being used to paint

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Anne Appleby. Mother E. 2009.Each panel, 72" × 34".

Oil

• Pigment mixed with oil• Turpentine is used to thin oil paint• Method is attributed to Hubert and Jan van Eyck• Painted on gesso covered wood or canvas• Painted in layers from dark to light• Glaze is a thin translucent layer of varnish to give

the painting depth and glossiness• Dries very slowly and is easily corrected, blended,

and painted over• Impasto is oil paint applied very thickly

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Jan van Eyck. Madonna and Child with the Chancellor Rolin. c. 1433–1434.

66 × 62 cm.

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Rembrandt van Rijn. Detail from Self-Portrait. 1663.Full painting 45" × 38".

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Frank Auerbach. Head of Michael Podro. 1981.13" × 11".

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Inka Essenhigh. Escape Pod. 2003.50" × 50".

Acrylic

• Made of pigment and acrylic polymer

• Fast drying, long lasting

• Can use water instead of turpentine to thin the paint

• Harder to blend

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Audrey Flack. Wheel of Fortune. 1977–1978.96" × 96".

Fresco

• Buon fresco- pigment mixed with water is applied to a damp lime-plaster surface

• A cartoon is usually made– A full scale drawing that is transferred onto the

area to be painted

• The lime-plaster has to be damp, so the artist can only paint a section at a time

• Fresco seco-dry fresco-tempera paint is applied over the buon fresco to add color intensity

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Judith F. Baca. View of Great Wall of Los Angeles. 1976–1983.

Leonardo da VinciThe Last Supper

Michelangelo BuonarottiSistine Chapel Ceiling

Diego RiveraThe Building of a City