ART

What you think

when somebody
said art
• Art is a diverse range of 
human activity, and resulting
product, that involves creative
 or imaginative talent
expressive of technical
proficiency, beauty, emotional
power, or conceptual ideas.
History
• The oldest known paintings
are approximately 40,000
years old, found in both the 
Franco-Cantabrian region in
western Europe, and in the 
caves in the district of Maros (
Sulawesi, Indonesia). 
• The invention of photography had a
major impact on painting. In the
decades after the first photograph
 was produced in 1829, photographic
 processes improved and became
more widely practiced, depriving
painting of much of its historic
purpose to provide an accurate
record of the observable world. A
series of art movements in the late
19th and early 20th centuries—
notably Impressionism, 
Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, 
Expressionism, Cubism, and 
Dadaism—challenged the 
Renaissance view of the world.
Eastern and African painting,
however, continued a long history of 
stylization and did not undergo an
equivalent transformation at the same
time.
Hot wax or encaustic

• Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax

painting, involves using heated beeswax to
which colored pigments are added. The
liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—
usually prepared wood, though canvas and
other materials are often used. 
Watercolor

• Watercolor is a painting method in

which the paints are made of
pigments suspended in a water-
soluble vehicle. 
Gouache

• Gouache is a water-based paint

consisting of pigment and other materials
designed to be used in an opaque
painting method. Gouache differs from 
watercolor in that the particles are larger,
the ratio of pigment to water is much
higher, and an additional, inert, white
pigment such as chalk is also present.
This makes gouache heavier and more
opaque, with greater reflective qualities.
Like all watermedia, it is diluted with w
Oil
• Oil painting is the process of painting
with pigments that are bound with a
medium of drying oil, such as 
linseed oil, which was widely used in
early modern Europe. Often the oil
was boiled with a resin such as pine
resin or even frankincense; these
were called 'varnishes' and were
prized for their body and gloss. Oil
paint eventually became the principal
medium used for creating artworks
as its advantages became widely
known. The transition began with 
Early Netherlandish painting in
northern Europe, and by the height
of the Renaissance oil painting
techniques had almost completely
replaced tempera paints in the
majority of Europe.