PAINTING

• (a) Key terminology and concepts.

  (b) How artists use subject matter and the conventions of the following genres to achieve specific intentions: history, portraits, landscape, still life and everyday life, non-objective (including abstract) work.

  (c) Materials, techniques and processes, and their impact on meaning and effect
• (d) Manipulation of formal elements to achieve specific intentions:

  • composition

  • colour

  • pictorial space

  • light and tone

  • form

  • line

  • scale

  • texture, pattern and ornamentation
• How to look for composition

  :Think about it as if you were sketching an outline or diagram of the main elements that direct the eye around the painting. First look for lines or shapes as if it was a flat surface, and then as if it really was a scene with depth (fore/middle/background).
• How to look for figures

  realistic/idealised? Poses, costume, expression, relationships, engage with viewer?
• Setting


  relationship to figures; merge or contrast? Natural or artificial?
• Space and depth


  patterned or three-dimensional? Perspective?
• Light


  source – natural/artificial? Strong/weak? Directed/diffuse?
• Shadow and tone


  three dimensional? Contrast and drama?
• Colour/hue


  say what the colours are! But evocatively! Primary/complementary? Naturalistic/expressive?
• Brushwork 


  visible or smooth?
• Central composition 


   the main subject is placed smack in the middle of the image frame. The most powerful way to draw attention to your main subject.
• Vertical composition


  Emphasising height and verticality: Naturally, the vertical painting format emphasises height and vertical lines and shapes.
• Horizontal elements


  Horizontal lines suggest a feeling of rest or repose because objects parallel to the earth are at rest. In this landscape, horizontal lines also help give a sense of space. The lines delineate sections of the landscape, which recede into space. They also imply continuation of the landscape beyond the picture plane to the left and right.
• Vertical elements


  Vertical lines often communicate a sense of height because they are perpendicular to the earth, extending upwards toward the sky. In this church interior, vertical lines suggest spirituality, rising beyond human reach toward the heavens.
• Analytical cubism 


  The phase of Cubism dating from 1909-1912 characterised by a dissolution of form. It involved an analysis of subject by its fragmentation and reassembly, the inner penetration of planes in a shallow space and virtually monochromatic colour palette consisting of ochres/browns/greys.
• anthropocentricism 


  The belief that human beings are the most central or significant species on the planet
• antiquity 


  referring to the classical past
• atmospheric/aerial perspective


  changes in tone or colour that occur when objects recede towards the horizon line
• bel composto

  synthesis of architecture, sculpture and a painting
• biomorphic

  used to describe abstract forms which derive their form from organic shapes rather than geometric ones.
• buon fresco

  meaning 'true' fresco, where paint is applied directly onto the surface of wet plaster
• chiaroscuro

  contrast between light and dark in a painting
• contrapposto

  used to describe one part of the body twisting away from the other
• contre-jour 


  in painting, an object seen against the light
• Counter reformation


  A period of revival for the Roman Catholic Church, prompted by the rise of Protestantism. It started with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ended in the mid 17th century.
• cruciform


  cross shaped
• cubism

  an early 20thC movement which abandoned the single-point perspective in favour of interlocking or faceted planes. It is understood to have three distinct phases: Proto-cubism, synthetic cubism and analytical cubism
• delineating

  drawing using line to create a crisp, hard edged finish.
• fauves 


  Early twentieth-century European avant-garde movement characterised by bold, disharmonious colour palettes and dark outlines for expressive effect. Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was their leading figure. The ‘Fauve’ label was applied derogatorily by critic Louis Vauxcelles at the Salon d’Automne, 1905, where the Fauves exhibited.
• Fordism


  The manufacturing system initiated by Henry Ford to produce standardised goods efficiently and at low cost. It initially related to the manufacture of Ford’s low-cost car, but the term is now used to refer to mass-produced goods generally.
• Foreshortening


  An aspect of linear perspective where the depiction of an object on a two-dimensional surface creates the illusion of its projection or extension in space.
• Formalism

  An artistic and critical approach which stresses form (line, colour and shape) over content. In early twentieth-century Britain, leading Formalist critics were Clive Bell and Roger Fry, and in the United States the critic Clement Greenberg.
• Fresco


   Water-based painting applied onto wet lime or gypsum plaster.
• Gesso


  Italian meaning ‘gypsum’. A smooth white surface (ground) on which to paint, achieved by applying a mixture of ground gypsum (a natural mineral used to make plaster), chalk and some

  kind of glue.
• Giornate


  Italian for ‘a day’s work’; sections of new plaster that a painter can complete in a day.
• Glaze


  A thin and transparent layer of paint applied over the top of an opaque layer.
• Gold leaf

  Real gold which has been beaten into a very thin layer, like foil, before it is applied decoratively.
• Gothic

  A style of art and architecture which prevailed from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.
• Graffito

  Drawing on the surface of walls; plural ‘graffiti’.
• Hatching

  A technique which uses closely spaced parallel lines to achieve tonal modelling and suggest depth.