Painting is the practice of applying color to a surface (support base) such as, e.g. paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer or concrete. When used in artistic terms, "painting" means also the use of this arts activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic means in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. … (read more)

Painting is the practice of applying color to a surface (support base) such as, e.g. paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer or concrete. When used in artistic terms, "painting" means also the use of this arts activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic means in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner.

Painting is a mode of capturing, documenting and expressing the varied creative intents, as numerous as there are practitioners of the craft. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature. A large portion of the history of painting is dominated by spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to biblical scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of The Sistine Chapel to depictions of the human body itself as a spiritual subject.

In Western cultures oil painting and watercolor painting are the best known media, with rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In the East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media with equally rich and complex traditions.

(read less)