#painting

• Abstractionism — An avant-garde art movement that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, characterized by the refusal to faithfully represent visible reality and the elimination of figurative forms. It places the pure language of geometric shapes, lines, textures, and colors at the center of the creative act, viewing them as autonomous vehicles for conveying emotional states or complex metaphysical concepts.
• Abstractism — A doctrinal, artistic, and philosophical movement manifested predominantly in the visual arts of the 20th century, characterized by the deliberate rejection of figurative representation and the three-dimensional illusion of reality. It promotes the idea that geometric shapes, lines, and pure colors can express a spiritual or emotional reality superior to the objective one.
• Academicist (female) — The feminine form of the noun and adjective 'academist'. As a noun, it denotes a female artist (painter, sculptor) or writer whose creations and methods strictly adhere to the formal canons and dogmas imposed by an official academy. As an adjective, it characterizes a work of art, a technique, or an aesthetic vision that emphasizes the perfection of classical craftsmanship and traditional conventions, often used critically to highlight structural conformity over plastic innovation.
• Watercolor — A painting technique based on the use of special paints whose pigments are diluted exclusively in water, applied on porous supports, usually thick paper or cardboard; also, it designates the artwork created through this process or the solid cake of colored pigment. This structural style stands out for its transparency, fluidity, delicate overlapping of shades, and a specific luminosity due to the white of the paper remaining partially visible.
• Airbrush — A small, high-precision spray gun resembling a pen, used in visual arts, photo retouching, decorative painting, or cosmetics; it operates by atomizing liquid paint using a jet of compressed air, allowing the application of extremely fine layers and the creation of perfectly smooth color gradients.
• Airbrushing — An artistic technique of painting or decoration based on using the airbrush, through which images are created by the controlled spraying of paint onto various surfaces (canvas, car bodies, walls, skin). It allows obtaining superior photorealistic effects and extremely smooth transitions between hues.
• Altamira — A famous cave located in northern Spain (near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria), globally renowned for its exceptional prehistoric rock art from the Upper Paleolithic (Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures). This structural archaeological site, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, houses remarkable polychrome paintings depicting bisons, horses, and handprints, considered the 'Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic Art' due to the technical mastery of drawings executed with charcoal and ochre.
• Little Cupid — Hypocoristic diminutive of the noun 'amor'; a figurative representation of the god of love (Cupid or Eros) in the form of a chubby, winged, and cute little child, armed with a bow and arrows. In art history and interior decoration, the term describes anthropomorphic plastic motifs known as putti, frequently used in Baroque and Rococo styles to symbolize innocent love or erotic play.
• Anadyomene — A mythological epithet and iconographic attribute granted to the goddess Aphrodite (Venus), structurally describing her at the moment of her birth as she rises or emerges from the sea foam. This aesthetic and religious concept was immortalized in antiquity by the painter Apelles and masterfully rediscovered during the Renaissance (through masterpieces like Botticelli's The Birth of Venus), representing a universal symbol of pure beauty, regeneration, and ideal plastic perfection.
• Anti-siccative — Slowing down, delaying, or preventing the drying or solidification process of a liquid, paint, varnish, or industrial oil; a drying retarder. In the chemical industry and visual arts (oil painting technique), substances with anti-siccative properties (such as clove oil or certain antioxidant solvents) are added to the composition to keep the material fluid or malleable for a longer period, allowing subsequent touch-ups.
• Flat color — A uniform, flat, and perfectly homogeneous chromatic surface, obtained by applying paint or printing ink without shading, gradients, shadows, or visible brushstrokes. As an adjective, it describes a visual element or artistic composition made entirely of flat patches of color, eliminating the illusion of three-dimensionality to highlight the structural rigor and two-dimensionality of the form.
• Arles — A historic city and commune in southern France, located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, on the Rhône River. Renowned for its exceptional Roman and Romanesque architectural heritage inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list (such as the Roman Amphitheatre), the city holds major structural importance in art history, being the place where painter Vincent van Gogh lived and produced some of his most famous masterpieces.
• Artotheque — An institution, public collection, or specialized section of a museum or library designated for gathering, preserving, cataloging, and lending visual artworks (paintings, graphics, sculptures, photographs) to the public; a public picture library. It functions similarly to a book library, offering users the possibility to temporarily display original works in private or educational spaces.
• Orpiment — A mineral belonging to the sulfide class, composed of arsenic trisulfide, exhibiting a lemon-yellow or golden-yellow color with a pearly or greasy luster, highly toxic, historically used as a paint pigment and in tanning. In archaeology, it is studied as a major yellow pigment in medieval manuscripts and ancient Egyptian art.
• Self-portrait — A portrait of an artist (painter, sculptor, photographer) created by themselves; a self-referential visual representation wherein the creator analyzes their own physical features and inner psychological state through their own aesthetic lens. In literature, the term denotes a detailed and often critical description or psychological analysis that a writer makes of their own person within an autobiographical work.