ABSTRACT | Art where the depiction of real objects in nature has been subordinated or discarded in favour of a formal pattern of shapes, lines, color and texture. This is also called non-representational art. |
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM | Painting style of the late 1940s and 1950s in which abstract or nonobjective forms were used to convey emotional content. Emphasised spontaneity and often employed bold colors and/or strong value contrasts. |
ACCENT | Emphasis given to elements in a painting which makes them attract more attention. Details that define an object or piece of art. |
ACRYLIC | A rapid drying paint which is easy to remove with mineral spirits; a plastic substance commonly used as a binder for paints. |
ACTION PAINTING | Any painting style calling for vigorous physical activity; specifically, Abstract Expressionism. |
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE | Capturing the earth’s atmosphere by using painting techniques which make distant objects appear to have less color, texture, and distinction. |
AESTHETIC | Pertaining to the beautiful, as opposed to the useful, scientific, or emotional. An aesthetic response is an appreciation of such beauty. |
ANALOGOUS COLOURS | Colours that are closely related, or near each other on the colour spectrum. Especially those in which we can see common hues. |
AQUATINT | An intaglio printmaking method in which areas of tone are created by dusting resin particles on a plate and then allowing acid to bite around the particles. Also, a print made by this method. |
ARMATURE | A rigid framework, often of wood or steel, used to support a sculpture or other large work while it is being made. |
ART DECO | An art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials (steel, chrome, glass). A style characterised by repetitive, geometric patterns of curves and lines. |
ART NOUVEAU | An art style of the late 1800's featuring curving, often swirling shapes based on organic forms. |
ASSEMBLAGE | The technique of creating a sculpture by joining together individual pieces or segments, sometimes “found” objects that originally served another purpose. |
ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE | A device for suggesting three - dimensional depth on a two-dimensional surface. Forms meant to be perceived as distant from the viewer are blurred, indistinct, misty and more blue. |
AVANT-GARDE | Art which departs from the existing norm in an original, experimental or unexpected manner. Ahead of its time. |
BAROQUE | A theatrical style usually associated with European accentuate subject matter. |
BAS RELIEF | Sculpture in which figures project only slightly from a background, as on a coin. This is also known as low relief sculpture. |
BAUHAUS | A school of design in Germany from 1919 to 1933, best known for its attempts to adapt design principles of machine technology. |
BINDER | A substance in paints that causes particles of pigment to adhere to one another and to a support such as oil or acrylic. |
BURNISHING | The act of rubbing leather with any smooth tool to polish it, and tighten the surface. |
CALLIGRAPHY | In printing and drawing a free and rhythmic use of line to accentuate design. It is seen at its best in Japanese wood-block prints and Chinese scrolls. Also, fine, stylized handwriting using quils, brushes or pens with ink. |
CARTOON | Either a simple drawing with humorous or satirical content or a preliminary drawing for any large work such as a mural or tapestry. |
CASTING | The process of making a sculpture or other object by pouring liquid material such as clay, metal or plastic into a mold and allowing it to harden, thereby taking on the shape of the confining mold. |
CERAMICS | Hard glasslike material made from fired (“baked”) clay. The art (and craft) of modelling an object in clay and firing in a kiln. This process produces earthenware and porcelains. |
CHIAROSCURO | In two dimensional art, the use of different values to create modelling and to simulate the effects of light and shadow in nature. |
CLASSICAL STYLE | In Greek art, the style of the 5th century B.C. Loosely, the term “classical” is often applied to all the art of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as to any art based on logical, rational principles and deliberate composition. |
COILING | A method of forming pottery or sculpture from rolls of clay that are smoothed together to form the sides of a jar or pot. |
COLLAGE | A work of art made by pasting various materials such as bits of paper, cloth, etc. onto a piece of paper, board or canvas. |
COLOUR FIELD PAINTING | A style of painting prominent from the 1950s through the 1970s, featuring large “fields” or areas of color, meant to evoke an aesthetic or emotional response through the color alone. |
COLOUR WHEEL | A circular grid that represents the colours based on colour theory. This grid clearly shows the relationships colours have with each other (complimentary, opposite, etc.). |
COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS | Hues directly opposite one another on the colour wheel and therefore assumed to be as different from one another as possible. When placed side by side, complementary colours are intensified; when mixed together, they produce a neutral (or grey) colour. |
COMPOSITION | The organisation, design or placement of the individual elements in a work of art. The aim is to achieve balance and proportionality. Usually applied to two-dimensional art. |
CONCEPTUAL ART | An art form in which the underlying idea or concept and the process by which it is achieved are more important than any tangible product. |
CONSTRUCTION | An art work that is actually assembled or built on the premises where it is to be shown. Many constructions are meant to be temporary and are disassembled after the exhibition is over. |
CONTOUR | A line which creates a boundary separating an area of space or object from the space around it. |
CONTRAPPOSTO | Literally, “counterpoise.” A method of portraying the human figure, especially in sculpture, so that it is apparently relaxed and mobile. The result is often a graceful S-curve. |
COOL COLOURS | Those that suggest a sense of coolness. Blue , Green , Violet |
CROSS-HATCHING | An area of closely spaced lines intersecting one another, used to create a sense of three-dimensionality on a flat surface, especially in drawing and printmaking. See also hatching, stippling. |
CUBISM | A style of art pioneered in the early 20th century by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In the most developed form of Cubism, forms are fragmented into planes or geometric facets, like the facets in a diamond; these planes are rearranged to foster a picto |
CURVILINEAR | Stressing the use of curved lines as opposed to rectilinear which stresses straight lines. |
DADA | A movement that emerged during World War I in Europe that purported to be anti-everything, even anti-art. Dada poked fun at all the established traditions and tastes in art with works that were deliberately shocking, vulgar, and nonsensical. |
DESIGN | The planned organisation of lines, shapes, masses, colors, textures, and space in a work of art. In two-dimensional art, often called composition. |
DOMINANCE | The principle of visual organisation which suggests that certain elements should assume more importance than others in the same composition. It contributes to the organic unity by emphasising the fact that there is one main feature and that other elements |
DRYPOINT | An intaglio printmaking technique, similar to engraving, in which a sharp needle is used to draw on a metal plate, raising a thin ridge of metal that creates a soft line when the plate is printed. Also, the resultant print. |
EARTHENWARE | Ceramic ware, usually coarse and reddish in color, fired in the lowest temperature ranges. Used for domestic ware, glazed or unglazed. |
EDITION | In print making, the number of images made from a single plate and authorised by the artist. |
ENGRAVING | Printmaking method in which a sharp tool (burin) is used to scratch lines into a hard surface such as metal or wood. |
ENVIRONMENTAL ART | Either art that is large enough for viewers to enter and move about in or art designed for display in the outdoor environment.or art that actually transforms the natural landscape. |
ETCHING | Printmaking method in which lines and image areas are created by first coating a plate with an acid-resistant substance, then scratching through the substance with a sharp needle, and finally immersing the plate in acid, which “bites” depressions into the |
EXPRESSIONISM | Any art that stresses the artist’s emotional and psychological reaction to subject matter, often with bold colors and distortions of form. Specifically, an art style of the early 20th century followed principally by certain German artists. |
FAUVISM | A short lived painting style in early 20th century France, which featured bold, clashing, arbitrary colors - colors unrelated to the appearance of forms in the natural world. Henri Matisse was its best-known practitioner. The word fauve means “wild beast. |
FIGURE - GROUND | In two-dimensional art, the relationship between the principal forms and the background. Figure-ground ambiguity suggests equal importance for the two. |
FILET | Filet is a narrow molding that is used with matting to highlight the artwork. The filet usually matches or complements the larger, outer molding |
FINE ART | An art form created primarily as an aesthetic expression to be enjoyed for its own sake. The viewer must be prepared to search for the intent of the artist as the all-important first step toward communication and active participation. |
FIRING | Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to bring the clay to maturity. The temperature needed to mature the clay varies with the type of body used. Also, heating glazed ware to the necessary point to cause the glaze to mature. |
FOLK ART | Primitive art, by an untrained artist who paints in the common tradition of his community and reflects the life style of the people. |
FORESHORTENING | A method of portraying forms on a two-dimensional surface so that they appear to project or recede from the picture plane. |
FORGING | Shaping metal with hammers while it is hot; the method for making wrought iron. |
FRAME | The final piece of any picture. Cut from lengths of wood or aluminium, this is what holds all the bits and pieces together. |
FUTURISM | Art movement founded in Italy in 1909 and lasting only a few years. Futurism concentrated on the dynamic quality of modern technological life, emphasising speed and movement. |
GENRE | Art that depicts the casual moments of everyday life and its surroundings. |
GLASS | A clear breakable sheet that goes in front of the artwork for protection. |
GOTHIC | A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Gothic architecture features pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and often large areas of stained glass. |
GREENWARE | Unfired pottery or sculpture. |
GROUND | EitheraA substance applied to a painting or drawing support in preparation for the pigmented material or the preparatory substance used as a coating for a printmaking plate or the background in a work of two-dimemsional art. |
HARD-EDGE PAINTING | A recent innovation which originated in New York and was adopted by some contemporary painters. Forms are depicted with precise, geometric lines and edges. |
ICONOGRAPHY | Loosely, the “story” depicted in a work of art; people, places, events, and other images in a work, as well as the symbolism and conventions attached to those images by a particular religion or culture. |
ILLUMINATION | Hand-drawn decoration or illustration in a manuscript, especially prevalent in medieval art. |
IMPASTO | A thick application of paint to canvas or other support; emphasises texture, as distinguished from a smooth flat surface. |
IMPRESSIONISM | An art style of the late 19th century, principally in France, in which artists tried to capture in paint the fleeting effects - or impressions - of light, shade, and colour on natural forms. |
INLAY | In woodworking, a technique in which small pieces of wood, often with varying grains and colours, are glued together to make a pattern. |
INTENSITY | The degree of purity or brilliance of a colour. Also known as chroma or saturation. |
KILN | A furnace or oven built of heat-resistant materials for firing pottery or sculpture. |
KINETIC ART | Kinetic art is art that incorporates movement as part of its expression - either mechanically, by hand, or by natural forces. |
LANDSCAPE | A generalisation for any artist’s depiction of natural scenery. Figures and other objects should be of secondary importance to the composition and incidental to the content. |
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE | A method of depicting three-dimensional depth on a flat or two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective has two main precepts:
1. forms that are meant to be perceived as far away from the viewer are made smaller than those meant to be seen as close
2. pa |
LITHOGRAPHY - LITHOGRAPH | A printing process in which a surface, as stone or sheet aluminium, is treated so that the ink adheres only to the portions that are to be printed. The resulting image is a lithograph or a lithographic print |
MAGIC REALISM | A style of painting which renders a perfect representation of the subject with great attention to details but with unreal connotation. |
MANNERISM | A term sometimes applied to art of late 16th early 17th century Europe, characterised by a dramatic use of space and light and a tendency toward elongated figures. |
MATS | This is the North American term used for mounts, used to enhance the size and visual effects of the piece. |
MEDIEVAL ART | The art of the middle ages ca. 500 A.D. to the 14th century. The art produced immediately before the Renaissance. |
MEDIUM | Either the material used to create a work of art or the binder for a paint, such as oil or an expressive art form, such as painting, drawing, or sculpture. |
MINIMALISM | A style of painting and sculpture in the mid 20th century in which the art elements are rendered with a minimum of lines, shapes, and sometimes color. The works may look and feel sparse, spare, restricted or empty. |
MIXED MEDIA | Descriptive of art that employs more than one medium - for example, a work that combines paint, natural materials (wood, pebbles, bones), and man made items (glass, plastic, metals) into a single image or piece of art. |
MODELLING | In sculpture, shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax, or plaster.
In drawing, painting, or printmaking, the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface created by simulating effects of light and shadow. |
MOLDING | The molding that surrounds your art does not have to match the furniture in your room. For example, just because your furniture is cherry wood does not require you to choose cherry wood molding. For a more formal look choose wood finish or gold leaf moldi |
MONOCHROMATIC | Having only one color. Descriptive of work in which one hue - perhaps with variations of value and intensity - predominates. |
MONTAGE | A picture composed of other existing illustrations, pictures, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. that are arranged so that the combine to create a new or original image. A collage. |
MOSAIC | An art form in which small pieces of tile, glass, or stone are fitted together and embedded into a background to make a pattern or image. Often used for floor and wall decorations. |
MOUNT (or mat if you are in North America) | A piece of board which comes in lots of different colours and is cut to fit around the image you have chosen. |
MURAL | Any large-scale wall decoration done in painting, fresco, mosaic, or other medium. |
NARRATIVE PAINTING | A painting where a story serves as the dominant feature. |
NATURALISTIC | Descriptive of a work of art that closely resembles forms in the natural world. Synonymous with representational. |
NEGATIVE SPACE | The space in a painting around the objects depicted. |
NEO-EXPRESSIONISM | “New” expressionism - a term originally applied to works done primarily by German and Italian, who came to maturity in the post-WWII era; and later expanded (in the 1980’s) to include certain American artists. Neo- Expressionist works depict intense emoti |
NEOCLASSICISM | “New” classicism - a style in 19th century Western art that referred back to the classical styles of Greece and Rome. Neoclassical painting have sharp outlines, reserved emotions, deliberate (often mathmatical) composition, and cool colours. |
NEUTRAL | Having no hue - black, white, or grey; sometimes a tannish color achieved by mixing two complementary colours. |
NON-OBJECTIVE | Completely non-representational; pure design; fully abstract. |
NON-REFLECTIVE GLASS | Same as above, but treated to stop most glare from any light sources. More expensive than ordinary glass. |
NON-REFLECTIVE PERSPEX | Same as Perspex, but with qualities of non-reflective glass. |
OP ART | Short for Optical Art, a style popular in the 1960s that was based on optical principles and optical illusion. Op Art deals in complex color interactions, to the point where colors and lines seem to vibrate before the eyes |
OPTICAL COLOUR MIXTURE | The tendency of the eyes to blend patches of individual colours placed near one another so as to perceive a different, combined colour. Also, any art style that exploits this tendency, especially the pointillism of Georges Seurat. |
ORGANIC | An image that shows a relationship to nature as opposed to man-made images. Any shape that resembles a naturally occuring form or that suggests a natural growing or expanding process. |
ORGANIC ART | An art form which emphasises an object alive in its own right and not contrived. |
PAINTERLY | Descriptive of paintings in which forms are defined principally by colour areas, not by lines or edges. Where the artist's brushstrokes are noticeable. Any image that looks as though it may have been created with the style or techniques used by a painter. |
PERFORMANCE ART | Art in which there is no concrete object, but rather a series of events performed by the artist in front of an audience, possibly including music, sight gags, recitation, audio-visual presentations, or other elements. |
PERSPEX | Similar to glass but plastic and pretty difficult to break, hence used on larger pictures. |
PHOTO REALISM | A painting and drawing style of the mid 20th century in which people, objects, and scenes are depicted with such naturalism that the paintings resemble photographs - an almost exact visual duplication of the subject. |
PICTORIAL SPACE | The illusory space in a painting or other work of two-dimensional art that seems to recede backward into depth from the picture plane, giving the illusion of distance. |
PICTURE PLANE | An imaginary flat surface that is assumed to be identical to the surface of a painting. Forms in a painting meant to be perceived in deep three-dimensional space are said to be “behind” the picture plane. The picture plane is commonly associated with the |
PIGMENT | A colouring substance made from plants, earth, or minerals and other or synthetic pigments. When mixed with binders it becomes paint, ink or crayon, etc. |
POINTILLISM | An art style of the late 19th century, in which small patches, dots or “points” of color are placed close together to build form, tone, light and shadow. |
POLYCHROMATIC | Having many colours, as opposed to monochromatic which means only one hue or color. |
POP ART | An art style of the 1960s deriving its imagery from the popular, mass-produced culture. Deliberately mundane, Pop Art focused on overly familiar objects of daily life to give them new meanings as visual emblems. |
PORCELAIN | A ceramic ware, fired in the highest temperature ranges and often used for fine dinnerware, vases, and sculpture. |
POSITIVE SPACE | The space in a painting occupied by the object depicted ( not the spaces in-between objects) |
POST IMPRESSIONISM | A term applied to the work of several artists - French or living in France - from about 1885 to 1900. Although they all painted in highly personal styles, the Post-Impressionists were united in rejecting the relative absence of form characteristic of Impr |
PRE-COLUMBIAN | Art created in the America's by native people that pre-dates the discovery of the new world |
PREHISTORIC ART | Art forms predating recorded history, such as Old, Middle, and New Stone Ages. |
PRIMARY COLOURS | Any hue that, in theory, cannot be created by a mixture of any other hues. Varying combinations of the primary hues can be used to create all the other hues of the spectrum. In pigment the primaries are red , yellow , and blue . |
PRIMITIVE ART | Either paintings and drawings of and by peoples and races outside the influence of accepted western styles or religious portrayals predating scientific studies of perspective and anatomy or intuitive artists with a "naive" style often due to little, if an |
PRINT | An image created from a master wood block, stone, plate, or screen, usually on paper. Prints are referred to as multiples, because as a rule many identical or similar impressions are made from the same printing surface, the number of impressions being cal |
REALISM | Any art in which the goal is to portray forms in the natural world in a highly representational manner. Specifically, an art style of the mid 19th century, which fostered the idea that everyday people and events are worthy subjects for important art. |
RELIEF | Either a Sculpture in which figures or other images are attached to a flat background but project out from it to some degree (bas-relief, haut-relief). or a printmaking technique in which portions of a block meant to be printed are raised above the surfac |
RENAISSANCE | Literally, “rebirth”. The period in Europe from the 14th to the 16th century, characterised by a renewed interest in Classical art, architecture, literature, and philosophy. The Renaissance began in Italy and gradually spread to the rest of Europe. In art |
REPRESENTATIONAL | Works of art that closely resemble forms in the natural world. Synonymous with naturalistic |
ROCOCO | A style of art popular in Europe in the first three quarters of the 18th century. Rococo architecture and furnishings emphasised ornate but small-scale decoration, curvilinear forms, and pastel colors. Rococo painting has a playful, light-hearted romantic |
ROMANESQUE | A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 9th to the 12th century. Romanesque architecture, based on ancient Roman precedents, emphasises the round arch and barrel vault. |
ROMANTICISM | A movement in Western art of the 19th century, generally assumed to be in opposition to Neoclassicism. Romantic works are marked by intense colors, turbulent emotions, complex composition, soft outlines, and sometimes heroic subject matter. |
SALON | Either a fashionable gathering of artists, writers, and intellectuals held in a private home or In France, a state-sponsored exhibition of art, held in Paris, controlled by the Academy of Fine Arts. |
SCULPTURE | A three-dimensional form modelled, carved, or assembled. |
SECONDARY COLOURS | A hue created by combining two primary colours, as yellow and blue mixed together yield green. In pigment the secondary colors are orange , green , and violet . |
SFUMATO | From the Italian work for “smoke,” a technique of painting in thin glazes to achieve a hazy, cloudy atmosphere, often to represent objects or landscape meant to be perceived as distant from the picture plane. |
SILHOUETTE | The outter shape of an object. An outline filled in with colour. |
SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST | The tendency of complementary colours to seem brighter and more intense when placed side by side. |
SPACE | In painting, space may by defined as the distances between shapes on a flat surface and the illusion of three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. Also refers to a physical site where art is displayed for viewing. |
STILL LIFE | A painting or other two-dimensional work in which the subject matter is an arrangement of objects - fruit, flowers, tableware, pottery, and so forth - brought together for their pleasing contrasts of shape, colour, and texture, Also the arrangement of the |
STIPPLING | A pattern of closely spaced dots or small marks used to create a sense of three-dimensionally on a flat surface, especially in drawing and printmaking. See also hatching, cross-hatching. |
STYLE | A characteristic, or a number of characteristics that we can identify as constant, recurring, or coherent. In art, the sum of such characteristics associated with a particular artist, group, or culture, or with an artist’s work at a specific time. |
STYLIZED | Descriptive of works based on forms in the natural world, but simplified or distorted for design purposes. |
SUPPORT | The surface on which a work of two-dimensional art is made ie: canvas, paper, cardboard, or wood. |
SURREALISM | A painting style of the early 20th century that emphasized imagery and visions from dreams and fantasies, as well as an intuitive, spontaneous method of recording such imagery, often combining unrelated or unexpected objects in compositions . |
SYMBOL | An image or sign that represents something else, because of convention, association, or resemblance. |
SYMMETRICAL | Descriptive of a design in which the two halves of a composition on either side of an imaginary central vertical axis correspond to one another in size, shape, and placement. |
TAPESTRY | A type of weaving in which the crosswise yarns are manipulated freely to create patterned or pictorial effects. |
TEMPERA | A painting medium in which the binder is egg yolk. |
TERTIARY COLOURS | Six colours positioned between the primary and secondary colours on the colour wheel. |
TEXTURE | The actual feel (roughness or smoothness) of a surface. In art, texture may refer to the illusion of roughness or smoothness often achieved with contrasting patterns. |
TONALITY | The overall colour effect in terms of hue and value. Often one dominating hue is employed in various shades and values. |
TRIPTYCH | A three-part work of art; especially a painting, meant for placement on an altar, with three panels that fold together. |
TROMPE-L’OEIL | French for “fool-the-eye.” A painting or other work of two-dimensional art rendered in such an extremely naturalistic manner that the viewer is “tricked” into thinking it is a three-dimensional reality. |
VALUE | The relative lightness or darkness of a hue, or of a neutral varying from white to black. |
VANISHING POINT | In linear perspective, the point on the horizon line where parallel lines appear to converge. |
VOLUME | Similar to mass, a three-dimensional form implying bulk, density, and weight; but also a void or empty, enclosed space. |
WARM COLORS | Those which suggest a sense of warmth ie:. red , yellow and orange . |
WATERCOLOR | A painting medium in which the binder is gum arabic. Water is used to thinning, lightening or mixing |
