Welcome to the World of Great Painting

The Muse Of Fine Arts welcomes you to the World Of Great Painting.

At the right, world famous 1924 painting by Edward Hopper called Nighthawks, thought to be inspired by a Greenwich Village, New York diner, now exhibited at the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois.

About painting and the Fine Arts

What, exactly, is painting?

To paint is to:

• Coat, cover, or decorate (something) with paint; for example, to paint a fence.
• Describe vividly in words; to depict as if by painting.
• Celebrate boisterously, especially by making a round of stops at bars and nightclubs, as in the expression to paint the town red.

Fence-painting or "word-painting" isn't exactly what The Muse Of Fine Arts has in mind for these pages, although The Muse wouldn't mind painting the town red once in a while.

Sculpture, visual art, and Fine Art

Sculpture is one of the visual arts, one of the Fine Arts, and one of the design arts. This is a way of saying that works of sculpture can be created as pure art, poor art, or as design art. The Muse Of Fine Arts explores sculpture from the point of view or pure art or design art. The Muse is only interested in poor art as a foil to the other kinds of art.

• Explore what The Muse means by pure art and what The Muse means by Design Art at the page called About Beauty, Art, And Fine Art: click here.
• Explore sculpture as a pure art at The Muse's page called Welcome To The World Of Sculpture: click here.
• Explore Design Art at The Muse's page called Welcome To The World Of Design: click here.

about art and panting

Don't let the words victimize you. Just as not all painting is art, not all art is painting. Often in the vernacular, and even among specialists, the words art and painting are used synonymously. But this is the case only in jargon, not at Electricka's web. Here painting is not synonymous with art.

Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, conceived according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. It is the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; it is works of art collectively, such as paintings, sculptures, or drawings. Art is a field, a genre, a category. Dance is an art. Music is an art. Art is the Fine Arts collectively.

In the pages you are now visiting and throughout Electricka's web site, art does mean painting. Painting is one of the Fine Arts, and the page you are not at is the place you come to explore it.

about this feature

The Muse is interested in exploring the following topics as they pertain to the fine art of painting: Paintings. Painters. Movements. Styles. Periods. Techniques and technologies used by painters. Media. Philosophies. Criticism. Effects of pigment and light. Physiology of sight. Physics and chemistry. Conservation (reconstruction and repair).

Availability

Every great or important painting has a unique life and personality of its own. It sprang out of the life of the person who conceived and painted it. It was born somewhere, matured, has a history, and lives on to survive its creator. And in a bizarre convolution, its creator lives on in the painting, as well.

The Muse Of Fine Arts will publish photo galleries of paintings and painters in such a way as to enable visitors to explore the "life" of paintings, to examine, analyze, and compare their features and other characteristics. Organizing principles will include artist's name, name of the work, time period, gallery where displayed, etc.

Other features in these pages will elucidate the history and development of the art of painting; painting movements; techniques, methods and materials; biographies of famous and important painters and assessments of their lives and works.

Look for these and other features on subsequent visits to these pages.

the Fine Arts Glossary

The Muse Of Fine Arts is pleased to offer this automated glossary of fine arts terminology. It's a bounty of basic information about the fine arts which it presents in a simple, direct, and clear manner. It contains over 500 important terms drawn from a variety of the fine arts, with definitions that are packed with interesting and informative content.

• First visit the page called the Fine Arts Glossary, where the glossary is explained. From there, visit the Glossary and look up fine arts words 'til you bust! click here.

technical aspects of the fine arts

In their classical definition, the fields of fine art are primarily visual; they include painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture. Yet today there are more kinds of fine art than every before, many of which mitigate or completely dissolve barriers that in the past restricted the sensory appeal of fine art to the eyes at the expense of the other four senses.

• Learn more! Explore the fine arts from a technical point of view: click here.

ETAF Recommends

...Coming.