Art Forms of Painting
Painting comes in various forms and serves various functions; each style suits certain environments and purposes better than another. Paint types, mediums, and techniques all play an integral part in producing an artwork.
Landscape paintings are among the most iconic works of art, depicting natural elements such as terrains, skies, and mountains.
Oil Painting
Oil paintings consist of vibrant pigments suspended in drying oil. Oil has long been the go-to medium for artists and remains relevant today.
Oil painting allows artists to produce expressive marks with great textural variation. It enables layers of loaded and transparent light colors, glazed effects and impastos. Diego Velazquez was known for his economical yet informative brushstrokes which highlighted form.
Linseed, poppy, safflower and sunflower oils have long been used as drying oils, with each providing different properties such as viscosity, sheen and density to the paint. Their slow-drying quality also allows for gradual development as well as the opportunity to correct mistakes more easily than with traditional paints; satisfying linear treatments and crisp effects.
Encaustic Painting
Encaustic painting (hot wax painting) utilizes heated beeswax combined with pigments. Once this molten mix has cooled off, the paint can be applied onto various surfaces including wood or canvas using various tools such as metal encaustic brushes and spatulas to shape its final form.
After its decline in ancient Greece and Egypt, encaustic painting experienced some temporary revival during the Renaissance with artists such as Lucas Cranach and Andrea Mantegna using it in their artworks. Unfortunately, tempera and fresco painting techniques that didn’t require building charcoal fires to melt the paints soon replaced it as the preferred painting method.
Today, encaustic art is experiencing something of a revival in contemporary art. Lynda Benglis is creating smooth paintings resembling marbleized color fields while other artists work with sculpture and collage techniques.
Gouache Painting
Gouache is a water-based paint used for creating intricate paintings. Similar to watercolor, but with higher pigment concentration and opaque qualities. Due to its quick drying time and short drying times, gouache makes an excellent choice for plein air painting or illustration work.
Gouache painting incorporates the technique of sfumato, in which colors and tones are blended seamlessly together without leaving any visible transitions between them. This gives a seamless appearance without drawing attention to specific parts of the image.
Gouache paint comes in an array of shades and hues, making it the ideal choice for painting landscapes and mixed with other paints to achieve different effects. Artists may combine transparent washes of watercolor with white gouache to achieve light skies or bodies of water.painting quotes brisbane
Painterly Painting
Painterly paintings rely on the spontaneity and expressiveness of their medium, typically oil or acrylic paint, for maximum expressiveness and realism. Thick textures often help convey specific messages or create more realistically inspired paintings.
This style of painting doesn’t need to be highly detailed, but artists should still plan out their composition carefully before beginning. Consider using larger brushes with more visible brush strokes which can add movement and convey a sense of movement into their painting.
Some painters, like Henri Matisse, are renowned for their painterly approach to painting. These artists typically forgo technical knowledge when painting as it might obscure their original vision; instead searching for fresh ways to capture moments.
Realism Painting
Realism painting is an art form centered on representing real objects and scenes as accurately as possible. Notable realist painters include Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. Realism’s popularity challenged guilds and royal courts that once controlled the subject matter and style of paintings.
Art Nouveau placed an emphasis on working-class people engaged in everyday occupations in everyday settings and thus broadened our definition of art; previously artists often focused on biblical, royal, or mythological subjects.
This type of painting requires extensive details, typically completed in mono-tones. Also referred to as grisaille (using shades of gray to create the illusion of three dimensionality) this technique often used to beautify walls and ceilings.