Painting Techniques

Painting, as part of art, is the spiritual expression of believes, feelings and emotions, using colors, techniques, concepts, materials, pigments and other physical and emotional elements. However, a definition of painting, no matter how accurate, could never surprise the essence and the emotional cargo embodied in the act. The science attempting to determine and valorize the coordinates of art, succeeding thus in a more appropriate notional explanation rather than a definition for painting, is aesthetics, also known as the "science of beauty".

Aesthetics, although the science of all arts, has been the field of many debates on painting, in particular years long. Beginning with the controversial primacy of a certain art among the rest, philosophers, painters, musicians and literates pleaded for one or the other, using arguments of all sorts. While classical philosophers like Plato and Aristotle proved no consideration for painting, as it was barely a copy of reality, renaissance figures like Leonardo Da Vinci reaffirmed painting as "an intellectual thing". Painters like Caspar David Friedrich and Turner agreed to Kant and used his identification of Beauty with Sublime in their work.

The difficulties met by formulating a definition of painting were acknowledged by the 18 th century philosopher Hegel in one of his aesthetic writings. He sustains that painting should be numbered next to poetry and music among the romantic arts due to its symbolic character and spiritual finality. Nevertheless, the need for a definition was so ardent, that certain painters including Kandinsky and Paul Klee had written painting theory attempts.

Like previously did Goethe, Kandinsky and Klee try to associate colors with feelings or physical signifiers.

Painting has undergone analysis from the iconographic point of view, as well. The symbolism used in painting is divided into separate visual items and followed back into their social, cultural and religious context. Thus, a symbol receives a certain range of universal significations, which make them translatable in more than one art "language". The promoter of this analysis was the creator of iconography, Erwin Panofsky.

Last decades of the 19-th century introduced a new vision in painting, the inwards look. This new view suggested that art should be considered a purpose in itself, and not a means of achieving Beauty or Sublime.

Cubism is one of the ages when painters focused rather on painting techniques and methods than on sending a message of some sort. Maurice Denis, French painter living in Paris, synthesized this concept by pointing out that long before becoming a symbolic story or image, a painting is essentially a surface of any kind covered with colors and signs and respecting a certain order.

Painting techniques - the bottom line:

In contradiction with painting theories treating symbolism and expression techniques, ways of creating and translating significations, there have been, naturally, currents pleading for the non-premeditated character of painting. This is not new or exclusive, as reductionism attempts are experienced by all arts within a regular periodicity. Julian Bell, for example, a 20-th century painter writing a book on painting, stated confidently that painting is never meant to endow the public with a particular meaning, but to serve as a means of relief for the creator.

Painting remains, despite reductionism theories, one of the richest arts in symbols and meanings. The artist's vision is expressed using different techniques, surfaces and paints, depending on their proved effect on the public.

More about painting techniques you can find by reading the following articles:

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