MAYA PUBLISHING HOUSE

Painting is an ancient medium, and even with the introduction of photography, film, and digital technology, it has remained a persistent mode of expression. Though many paintings have been preserved over the millennia, only a relatively small percentage can be construed as timeless classics. These works are familiar to the public, and coincidentally, they were produced by some of the most famous artists of all time. It leads us to wonder about the mix of talent, genius, and circumstance that is required for the creation of such masterpieces. Painting is the application of pigments to a support surface that establishes an image, design, or decoration. In art, the term ‘painting’ describes both the act and the result. Most painting is created with pigment in liquid form, applied with a brush. Three of the most recognizable images in Western art history are paintings: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. These three art works are examples of how painting can go beyond a simple mimetic function, that is, to only imitate what is seen. The power of a great painting is that it transcends perceptions to reflect emotional, psychological, and even spiritual levels of the human condition. Painting mediums are extremely versatile because they can be applied to many different surfaces (called supports), including paper, wood, canvas, plaster, clay, lacquer, concrete, and more. During the course of thousands of years, great painters have