Painting is one of the oldest and most important arts.

The paintings that artists

create have great value for humanity. They provide people with both enjoyment
and information and they also teach. They provide information about the customs,
goals and interests of the people of past societies.
Many different factors have influenced the history of painting. These include
geography, national characteristics, religion, historic events, and the development
of new materials.
Since prehistoric times, many artists have painted the subjects that were most
important to their societies . Artists paint the things they see around them - people,
animals, nature, and nonliving objects.
People have always been a favourite subject of painters. Artists have shown
people in their paintings in many different ways. Religious subjects dominated in
painting in some parts of the world for hundred of years. Artists paint scenes
called landscapes and seascapes that try to capture the many moods of nature.
Still lifes are pictures of objects. Artists often refer to history, mythology, and
social expression.
The way that painters arrange colours, forms or lines is called composition.
Colour can help an artist tell a story, express an emotion, or create a
composition. Line is the main means by which most artists build up the forms in
their pictures. Mass allows an artist to express the feeling of weight in a painting.
Texture refers to the appearance of the painting surface. The paint of a picture
may be thick and rough or thin and smooth
The material that artists use as a foundation for their paintings is called the
support. Fabric Paper Metal Plastic supports.
Fresco painting is a technique in which the artist paints on a plastered wall
while the plaster is still damp. Fresco painters included Giotto. Andrea Mantegna,
Masaccio and Michelangelo. Watercolour painting can be done in two major
techniques, (1) transparent water color and (2) gouache. Encaustic is a painting
technique in which the binding agent of paints is wax. Pastels are colored chalk
sticks. They are made of pigment and a small amount of weak adhesive. Tempera
is a technique in which egg yolk is used as the binder. Most egg tempera paintings
are done on wood. Oil paint is made by mixing powdered pigments with a binder
of vegetable oil. Linseed, oil is the most common binder.