Smarthistory – Painting: Art terms in action

A video series from The Museum of Modern Art, featuring Corey D'Augustine.

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Sometimes, painters scrub the surface of a canvas to dissolve paint they’ve already applied to it.

Typically used to mix paint, these knives have also been used to apply paint to a canvas—or even to scrape it off.

Any cook knows that olive oil and vinegar mix better with egg. With paint, emulsions work the same way.

These household paints are fluid, flat, and glossy—and just one coat should do the trick.

Stain over stain over stain! Rothko used layer upon layer of these thin washes of paint.

What do you get when you take a color and add white, black, or gray?

Is that paint, or toothpaste? Learn several ways to lower the thickness of oil paint.

Paint is composed of colored pigment mixed with a binder, which holds it all together.

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