Painting involves application of certain kinds of paints or pigments or even colors to a medium and when taken in the context of art it refers to the act as well as to the end result. You can do your painting on various kinds of surfaces including on walls and on paper as well as on canvas and wood and even glass, clay, lacquer and concrete. Sometimes, these works of art are decorated with the help of gold leaves while in the modern form, a painting can incorporate several materials including clay and sand and also pieces of paper.

Painting: Expression Of Thoughts

In any case, painting refers to a way of expressing one’s thoughts and beliefs and there are numerous forms to choose from. A painting can be representational or natural and even photographic or abstract and the painter can also choose to add narration to their works while others make good use of symbolism and even emotions while still others like to paint political subjects.

Much of early Eastern as well as Western paintings were dominated by spiritual beliefs and ideas and the best form of such works of art were seen in the depiction of mythological persons that were painted on pottery items. In addition, there were also depictions of scenes from the Bible that were in certain instances painted on the ceiling as well as interiors of The Sistine Chapel and in the East, the rendition of the life of Buddha as well as other religion-oriented scenes were commonly painted by artists of the time.

The distinguishing feature of a painting is its intensity as well as perception and artists use different points in the canvas or surface to change intensities. In fact, artists make use of juxtaposition of surfaces each of which has varied intensities so as to give more articulation to the shapes they are creating. Other important aspects to a painting include the color as well as tone which are used in a manner similar to what musicians use when creating different pitches and rhythms in their music.

Today, modern paintings are vastly different than what was followed by traditional artists and now-a-days use of collages that began with Cubism has helped to change the very concept of how a painting is made.

Oil painting is a bit different than, for example, watercolor or even acrylic artworks. In this form of making artworks, the pigments have to be bound together with the drying oil medium. In traditional style of using oil paints, linseed oil was used though poppyseed oils and walnut oils as well as safflower oils too have been used extensively.