Painting is an artistic expression of ideas and emotions through the use of a two-dimensional visual language. The elements of this language—lines, colours, tones and textures—are used in varying combinations to produce sensations of volume, space, movement and light on a flat surface. These elements can be used to represent real or supernatural phenomena, or to interpret a narrative theme. Alternatively, they can be used to create wholly abstract visual relationships. Paintings can be made on a variety of surfaces, from canvas to paper, cloth or wood, and in various media, including oil paints, water-based paints and other liquid pigments.
The history of paintings dates back to prehistoric cave paintings, the earliest known examples created by nomadic hunters and gatherers more than 42,000 years ago. Throughout the ages, people have been using paints to record events, express ideas and emotions, or simply to decorate their living spaces. Painting has also become an integral part of modern art, which has incorporated many different styles and techniques.
Whether realism, abstract or impressionism, the purpose of a painting is to create a unique visual experience. In a realistic painting, the artist seeks to recreate reality as accurately as possible on a two-dimensional surface. This is accomplished by carefully selecting and mixing colours, applying them with brushes or other tools, and combining them to capture the viewer’s attention.
A more abstract painting, on the other hand, focuses less on recreating specific details and more on creating an overall feeling. To achieve this, the artist may use an unusual colour or create a nontraditional composition. For example, Georgia O’Keeffe often painted flowers and shells that were stripped of their fine detail and enlarged to a large scale, resulting in abstract works that are more like shapes and colours than realistic representations.
For centuries, painters have also sought to capture the essence of their subject matter in their work. Some have attempted to do this through detailed renderings of naturalistic scenes, while others have focused on more symbolic or evocative themes. Some artists, such as Jackson Pollock, have even gone so far as to abandon the idea of a subject altogether, and paint purely from an emotional or experiential perspective.
In his essay The Art of Painting, Hegel argued that painting is one of the three “romantic arts,” along with poetry and music, because it has a powerful ability to convey emotion and ideas through color and line. Hegel also emphasized the importance of painting as a tool for self-expression and the need to develop an individual style that is distinct from other painters.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the prevailing techniques for painting were egg-based tempering and wax-based enamelling, both of which required a high level of skill to master. These were followed by parietal fresco, which was applied to a plaster base and required extensive preparation, especially the grinding of a rare semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli.