At Bluestone Gallery we are proud and privileged to hold so many wonderful pieces of original paintings and art prints by artists from all over the UK.
Whilst one often thinks of paintings being created with a brush and pot of paint, artists work with all manner of tools to apply their paint to a canvas, board or paper, including knives, sponges, airbrushes and even their own bodies!
In addition to paint, paintings can also include three dimensional materials, with the addition of precious metals, coloured glass, lacquer, pottery, natural materials such as leaves, wood and straw, as well as man-made materials such as concrete and plaster.
Painting is the most diverse of all art forms, with art ranging from simple drawings, to composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, expressionist or embrace activism to possess a political angle.
Then there are all the different styles of painting, identified by the materials used on the canvas. These include the following:
- Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments, bound together with a drying oil, such as linseed oil.
- Acrylic paint is fast drying paint, containing pigment suspension in an acrylic polymer emulsion for a high class finish.
- Pastel often comes in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder.
- Ink paintings are created with a liquid containing pigments or dyes to colour a surface with a specific design. Ink is used for drawing with a pen, brush, or quill.
- Watercolour is a painting method where the paints are made of pigments and mixed with in water to give an often delicate whimsical finish.
- Fresco is related to mural painting, applied to walls or ceilings.
- Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves heating beeswax to which coloured pigments are added. This paste is then applied to a surface.
- Enamels are made by painting a substrate, typically metal, with powdered glass. After firing at a high temperature, the result is a fused lamination of glass and metal.
- Gouache is a water-based paint consisting of pigment used in an opaque painting method simpler to watercolour. Where Gouache differs from watercolour is that gouache is heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities.
- Aerosol or spray painting is a type of paint that comes in a canister and is released in a fine spray mist, leaving a smooth, evenly coated surface.
- Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of coloured pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium often egg yolk.
- And, finally, Digital painting is a method of creating art on the computer.
As you can see, there’s a lot of different art and art styles available to choose from. Please see our catalogue of artwork below and don’t hesitate to drop us a line if there is something specific that you are interested in.