Welcome to Painting

Painting Since the Beginning of History

Painting has been part of mankind since the earliest of times. The first painting known to man are the Grotte Chauvet in France that many historians claim are approximately thirty-two thousand years old and are engraved and painted with the help of red ochre and black pigment. These early paintings depict horses, rhinos, lions, buffalos as well as humans taking part in hunts. They show how early man lived and are an important part of mankind's earliest history. Also, many cave paintings have been found in France, China, Australia, Spain and Portugal. Painting seems to have been popular all over the world.

Putting color to a surface that includes paper, canvas, glass and wood is known as painting. There is however, another meaning to painting that may, in an artistic sense, allude to it being used in conjunction with drawing and composition to express a concept as intended by the practitioner.

In any case, it is a way to represent as well as document and express different intents and there could be any subject that the painter may want to represent through his or her craft and these may include still life, landscape or abstract and even symbolism and emotional or political subjects.

Depicting Spiritual and Emotional Needs of the Painter

Many a painting has its origins in the spiritual needs of the painter being expressed and they may depict mythological figures or biblical scenes or depictions of the human body itself. Important features of painting are color as well as tone and color that can have a deeply psychological effect on the beholder, though different cultures may see them in different light. Black may be associated with mourning in one culture while other cultures may not quite perceive it as such.

There are also many modern artists that practice painting as a collage that began with Cubism and may not be considered to be painting in a strict sense.

There are other painters that make use of many different materials including sand, straw, cement or wood for their texture. Nowadays, it is considered to be an art form that is dead for all purposes since it has changed course away from the historic values and moved more into depicting concepts rather than craft and documentation.

Modern and contemporary paintings include works by Die Brucke, Edvard Munch, Ernst Kirchner as well as Egon Schiele. Other painters who are famous from the post second world war era are Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein who have tried to incorporate popular and mass culture into fine art.

More recently, during the 60s and 70s, there was a reaction against painting and many accused it of having sold out to consumerism as well as commodification and artists such as Ad Reinhardt even announced the 'death of painting.' However, today it has an exalted position and it is an open playing field that is more united than ever before.

'Art Goes Green' day spreads eco message through creativity (Orange County Register)

Festival of Arts and Endangered Planet Foundation come together to host special activities this Saturday.

Holy haul of Batstuff (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Like a lot of children in the '60s, Mark Suplee was glued to the TV set and Batman. He and his buddies loved anything to do with the Caped Crusader. In his Somerton neighborhood, the boys played with black-and-blue action figures. They raced toy Batmobiles. They washed their hair with shampoo that came in plastic bottles shaped like the Dynamic Duo.

REGION: Modern libraries, definition of literacy evolving (North County Times)

LAKE ELSINORE ---- How to ... Guillermo "Memo" Hernandez carefully punched the rest of the prompt into YouTube's search box. ... speed-paint Iron Man. Memo, an 8-year-old in a bright green T-shirt and a Human Torch-esque haircut shaped by handfuls of

Antiques TV show trip was priceless but items weren't (The Oklahoman)

NORMAN — I've been a fan of the television show "Antiques Roadshow” for years. I've often wondered what it would feel like to show up with an item I paid nearly nothing for only to find out from the show's appraisers that it was worth millions. Norman resident Kelli Davidson was probably thinking the same thing when she and her daughter, Holli Hagan, were two of 5,000 lucky people chosen to be ...

'Retrospective': Been There, Sold That (The New York Sun)

'Retrospective," a group show at Gagosian's 21st Street gallery, is like a summer concert festival with some very promising, big-name acts. Its organizing principle, the ways a major artist looks back and reassesses his — unfortunately, in this case, only his — career, also strikes a promising note. Too bad, then, that so many of these guys showed up out of shape, like Vegas has-beens listlessly ...