ARH100 - Lesson 5

Pigment

"powdered color" (Getlein 159)

Mariposa

Beatriz Milhazes "Milhazes first paints each motif separately on a sheet of clear plastic. When the paint has dried, she glues the motif face-down onto the canvas and peels away the plastic backing, revealing the motif's smooth underside. Motif by motif, element by element, Milhazes builds up her painting as though she were making a collage. The technique demands that the artist plan ahead, for each motif must be painted in reverse, both in the way its colors are layered (since it is the underside that will show) and in its orientation (since attaching it face-down will reverse right and left)." (Getlein 172)

Acrylic (polymer)

"The vehicle consists of acrylic resin, polymerized (its simple molecules linked into long chains) through emulsion in water. As [it] dries, the resin particles coalesce to form a tough, flexible, and waterproof film. Depending on how they are used,... can mimic the effects of oil paint, watercolor, gouache, and even tempera. They can be used on prepared or raw canvas, and also on paper and fabric. They can be layered into a heavy impasto like oils, or diluted with water and spread in translucent washes like watercolor. Like tempera, they dry quickly and permanently." (Getlein 171)

Tempera

"a aqueous medium like watercolor that dries to a tough, insoluble film. Its colors retain their brilliance and clarity for centuries. Technically, tempera is paint in which the vehicle is an emulsion, which is a stable mixture of an aqueous liquid with an oil, fat, wax, or resin." (Getlein 163)

Cartoon

"a full-size drawing of the entire project" used to guide the painter "connect the dots" (Getlein 160)

Medium (vehicle)

"a liquid that holds the particles of pigment together without dissolving them" (Getlein 159)

Ground (primer)

"a preliminary coating" that prepares the support to receive the paint (Getlein 160)

Binder

"an ingredient that ensures that the paint, even when diluted and spread thinly, will adhere to the surface... [without which], pigments would simply powder off as the paint dried" (Getlein 159)

Oil

"consist of pigment compounded with oil" "dries very slowly, allowing artists far more time to manipulate the paint. Colors can be laid down next to each other and blended softly and seamlessly. They can be painted wet-on-wet, with a new color painted into a color that is not yet dry. They can be scraped away partially or altogether for revisions or effects... can be applied in a range of consistencies, from very thick to very thin." (Getlein 166)

Encaustic

"consist of pigment mixed with wax and resin. When the colors are heated, the wax melts and the paint can be brushed easily. When the wax cools, the paint hardens. After the painting is completed, there may be a final "burning in" as a heat source is passed close to the surface of the painting to fuse the colors." (Getlein 160)

Watercolor

"consists of pigment in a vehicle of water and gum arabic, a sticky plant substance that acts as the binder. As with drawing, the most common support is paper." "leading characteristic is transparency. They are applied not thickly, like oil paints, but thinly in translucent washes. ... usually, the white of the paper serves for white, and dark areas are built up through several layers of transparent washes, which take on depth without ever becoming completely opaque." (Getlein 170)

Mosaic

"made of small, closely spaced particles called tesserae (singular tessera) embedded in a binder such as mortar or cement. Tesserae function similarly to the dots in a pointillist painting: each one contributes a small patch of pure color to the construction of an image, which comes into focus at a certain distance." "well suited to decorating architectural surfaces such as walls and ceilings" "sturdy enough to stand up to the elements, and so it can be used for floors and outdoor surfaces as well." (Getlein 176)

Fresco

"pigments are mixed with water and applied to a plaster support, usually a wall or ceiling coated in plaster" "above all a wall-painting technique" (Getlein 160)

Tapestry

"refers to a particular weaving technique, and also to the wall hangings made using it. Weaving involves interlacing two sets of threads at right angles to each other." (Getlein 178)

Georgia O'Keefe

"studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. By 1912, she was teaching in Amarillo, Texas—the beginning of a lifelong infatuation with the terrain of the Southwest." "While she is most widely known for her close-up paintings of flowers, [she] also created landscapes and studies of natural objects found around her New Mexico home, which she called Ghost Ranch." "[her] images feature bright colors, simplified forms, and uncluttered compositions." "[her] style of painting was unique; she did not adhere to any particular "school" or artistic movement." (Getlein 169)

Support

"the canvas, paper, wood panel, wall, or other surface on which the artist works" and to which paint is applied (Getlein 160)

Gouache

"watercolor with inert white pigment added [which] serves to make the colors opaque, which means that when used at full strength, they can completely hide any ground or other color they are painted over." (Getlein 170) "dries quickly and uniformly and is especially well suited to large areas of flat, saturated color" (Getlein 171)

Alla prima

"work directly in opaque colors on the white ground" "implies that the painting was completed all at once, in a single session, although in fact it may only look that way" (Getlein 167)

Jacob Lawrence

An artist who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance and typically uses tempera "studied at the Harlem Art Workshop from 1932 to 1934" (Getlein 164-165)

White Shell with Red

Georgia O'Keefe "The work reveals the intense, saturated color typical of pastel. The rich red hill in the background allows the pearly white shell tinged with yellow and pink to stand out as the focal point. O'Keeffe drew the image with pastel. She then smoothed the drawing strokes with a brush and her fingers so that the colors blended seamlessly. The paler pink in the lower section of the painting may indicate that she used water to thin the pastel for a less intense effect." (Getlein 168)

Artemis, Acrobats, Divas, and Dancers

Nancy Spero "The whole work consists of forty-eight panels of glass mosaic set into the tile walls of a New York City subway station. The station serves Lincoln Center, home to many performing-arts organizations. A small repertoire of figures—ancient Egyptian musicians, arching acrobats, dancers ancient and modern, the ancient Greek goddess Artemis, and a glamorously robed diva (female opera singer)—appear again and again in various combinations across the panels, as though taking part in a theatrical performance or a ritual. (Getlein 177)

The School of Athens

Raphael "depicts the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle at the center of a symmetrical composition" "Everything about Raphael's composition celebrates the Renaissance ideals of perfection, beauty, naturalistic representation, balance, order, and noble principles." (Getlein 161)