This is a brief listing of art terms you may come across while perusing our site .

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Acrylic Paint - A water based "plastic" paint that is thicker and stronger than tempera or watercolor.

Airbrush - A small scale paint sprayer that allows the artist to control a fine mist of paint.

AP - artist proof - One of a small number of prints set aside from an edition for the artists' use.  They are marked with "AP" and signed, not always numbered.  Although identical to the limited edition prints they often draw a higher price.

Aquatint - An intaglio process of printmaking that uses acid to etch an image into a metal plate.  The resulting print is made up of tones of grey, appearing as areas of speckled dots, rather than solid lines and shapes.  These grey tones are what make the aquatint unique among etchings.

Archival - Refers to materials that meet performance and preservation criteria, including lignin free, pH neutral, alkaline buffered, stability in light etc.

B

Batik - A process where paraffin or beeswax is used to resist paint of dye on fabric or paper.  The pigment is absorbed into the exposed, unwaxed areas.

Bevel - The sloped edge of a ruler, wood, or inside edge of a mat board.

Bronze - An alloy of copper and tin that is stronger and more durable than brass.

Brushwork - The characteristic way each artist brushes paint onto a surface.

C

Canvas - Heavily woven fabric of flax or cotton commonly used for acrylic and oil paintings.

Ceramics - This term describes the shaping, finishing and firing of clay.

Cibachrome - A process where a photographic print can be made directly from a color transparency.

Cubism - A movement beginning with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, inspired by African sculpture, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat and the Fauves.  The subject matter is broken up, analyzed and reassembled in an abstract form.

D

Dadaism - 20th century art movement which ridiculed contemporary culture and art forms  It produced art works which were nihilistic or reflected a negative attitude toward social values but were at the same time absurd and playful.

Deckled Edge - The ragged edge found on hand made papers.  Some prints are made on such paper.

Diptych - Two separate paintings that are attached, or hung together, and displayed as a single unit.

Dry point - An intaglio print making process in which lines are scratched directly into a metal plate with a steel needle.

E

Engraving - Print making process where a design is cut into a material.  The print is then made by applying ink to this surface.   This describes aquatint, etching and dry point .

en plein air - French term meaning "in the open" - This term is used to describe paintings that have been done outdoors, directly from the subject, rather than in a studio.  This became a central aspect of Impressionism.

Etching - An etching needle is used to draw into a waxy ground over a metal plate.  The plate is then submerged in an acid bath to remove the metal from the non-protected areas.  The wax ground is then removed and ink is applied.  Ink is wiped from the surface but not from the etched depressions.  The impression on the print is from ink within the acid etched depressions.

Expressionism - Art movement dominant in Germany between 1902 - 1925.  Artists include Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, James Ensor and Edvard Munch.

F

Foxing - Small spots of mildew that can form on old prints and drawings.

G

Gesso - A white ground used to prepare a surface, such as canvas, for painting.

Giclee - French word meaning "sprayed ink" - This is a computer generated print that is produced by the spraying of ink onto a high quality paper or canvas.  It is capable of producing millions of colors.  This allows for a high degree of fine detail, closely matching the original.  The original image is first scanned onto a computer, then print using a high quality giclee printer.

Guilding - The application of a gold finish

Gouache - An opaque watercolor and the technique of painting with colors using white to make tints.

I

Impressionism - A French movement beginning in the 1860's.  Artists painted candid glimpses of their subjects showing the effects of light at different times of the day.  A few well know artists are Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre Renoir.

Intaglio - This is a collective term for several printmaking processes in which prints are made from ink trapped in grooves of an incised metal plate.  This includes etchings, aquatints and mezzotints.

L

Life Drawing - The act of drawing the human figure from a live model.

Limited Edition - A set of prints of a known number, signed and numbered by the artist.

Linseed oil - a medium used to bind oil paints.

Lithography - Method of printing from a prepared flat stone, metal or plastic plate.  A drawing is made with a greasy crayon and rinsed with water.  Ink is applied to the surface sticking to the greasy surface, but not the watery portions.  A separate drawing is needed for each color.

M

Masonite - This is a trademark name for a type of fiber board made primarily as wallboard but also used for acrylic and oil paintings, instead of canvas.

Mat board - A heavy fiber, paper like board used to protect artwork.  It enhances and showcases the subject being framed and should be of archival quality, acid free.

Mezzotint - An engraving that can be thought of as inverse to the other intaglio processes, working from black to white rather than white to black.  A copper or steel plate is worked to raise burs on the entire surface which hold ink and mark dark tones.  Lighter tones are created by burnishing smooth these areas of roughened plate; which hold less ink. 

Monoprint - A series of prints each having differences of color, design, texture etc.  which is applied to an underlying common image.  Often considered synonymous with monotype.

Monotype - One of a kind print made by painting on a smooth plate and then transferring the image to paper.  The original painting is destroyed in order to make the print.

O

Offset Lithography - An industrialized version of the traditional lithograph.  Prints are made faster and in higher volume than hand made lithos.

Oil Paint - The dominant medium of painting for several hundred years.  It is versatile, can be made transparent or left opaque, easy to manipulate and the color does not change when drying.

Open Edition - Prints without a limited number, possibly signed, but not numbered.

P

Pastel - Color in a stick form.

Patina - A film or encrustation that forms on copper and bronze as a result of the oxidation of the copper.  Special chemical treatments will induce different color patinas on new bronzes.

Photo Realism - Accomplished through a thorough study of an image, often photograph, resulting in a reproduction having high detail, resembling a photograph.

Planographic Print - The image is printed from a flat matrix, where the image was created on the surface by use of a grease crayon or with greasy ink.  Lithographs are planographic prints.

Plein air - French term meaning "in the open" - This term is used to describe paintings that have been done outdoors, directly from the subject, rather than in a studio.  This became a central aspect of Impressionism.