This beautiful, original oil painting has some very minor wear to the frame, however the painting itself is in excellent shape! It is an original oil painting by California based artist Joan E. Coleman. It is very difficult to come by her work nowadays, but she was well known for her beautiful paintings of waterfowl in the Northern California / Greater Sacramento valley region. Unlike other Coleman paintings that come to auction (when they rarely do), this one is larger compared to many. The painting is approximately 19X16 The overall painting with frame is approximately 23X27 See pictures for exact details, sold as is and will only ship to the lower 48 states. This was originally sold, many, many years ago for 350 dollars, but the value has and will continue to dramatically increase. With paintings of Waterfowl embodying its own fan base, no wonder this painting stayed within the same smoke free home for many years. Ideal for: hunting, fishing, cabins, home decor, art enthusiasts, nature, outdoors, ducks, geese, Canadian goose, museum, exhibition, shooting, birds, quail, pheasant collections, rustic Americana, farm, ranch, Upland, quail chukar,pheasant, deer,bear,fine art, home improvement, mallard, darkwing duck, impressionism, realism, abstract, mansions, homes, houses, restoration projects, collectors. Non: ABSTRACT Not realistic, though the intention is often based on an actual subject, place, or feeling. Pure abstraction can be interpreted as any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM 1940's New York painting movement based on Abstract Art. This type of painting is often referred to as action painting.
ACCENT Emphasis given to certain elements in a painting which makes them attract more attention. Details that define an object or piece of art.
ACRYLIC A rapid drying paint which is easy to remove with mineral spirits; a plastic substance commonly used as a binder for paints.
ACTION PAINTING Any painting style calling for vigorous physical activity; specifically, Abstract Expressionism. Examples include the New York School art movement and the work of Jackson Pollock.
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE Capturing the earth’s atmosphere by using painting techniques that make distant objects appear to have less color, texture, and distinction.
AESTHETIC Pertaining to the beautiful, as opposed to the useful, scientific, or emotional. An aesthetic response is an appreciation of such beauty.
ALKYD Synthetic resin used in paints and mediums. As a medium works as a binder that encapsulates the pigment and speeds the drying time.
ALLA PRIMA Technique in which the final surface of a painting is completed in one sitting, without under painting. Italian for "at the first".
ANALOGOUS COLORS Colors that are closely related, or near each other on the color spectrum. Especially those in which we can see common hues.
AQUATINT A print produced by the same technique as an etching, except that the areas between the etched lines are covered with a powdered resin that protects the surface from the biting process of the acid bath. The granular appearance that results in the print aims at approximating the effects and gray tonalities of a watercolor drawing.
ARCHIVAL Refers to materials that meet certain criteria for permanence such as lignin-free, pH neutral, alkaline-buffered, stable in light, etc.
ARMATURE A rigid framework, often wood or steel, used to support a sculpture or other large work while it is being made.
ART DECO An art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials (steel, chrome, glass). A style characterized by repetitive, geometric patterns of curves and lines.
ART NOUVEAU An art style of the late 1800's featuring curving, often swirling shapes based on organic forms.
ARTIST'S PROOF An Artist's Proof is one outside the regular edition. By custom, the artist retains the A/Ps for his personal use or sale.
ASSEMBLAGE The technique of creating a sculpture by joining together individual pieces or segments, sometimes “found” objects that originally served another purpose.
ATELIER French term for "artist’s workshop."
ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE A device for suggesting three - dimensional depth on a two-dimensional surface. Forms meant to be perceived as distant from the viewer are blurred, indistinct, misty and often bluer.
AVANT-GARDE A group active in the invention and application of new ideas and techniques in an original or experimental way. A group of practitioners and/or advocates of a new art form may also be called avant-garde. Some avant-garde works are intended to shock those who are accustomed to traditional, established styles.
BAROQUE A theatrical style usually associated with European art and architecture ca. 1550-1750, characterized by much ornamentation and curved rather than straight lines; gaudily ornate.
BAS RELIEF Sculpture in which figures project only slightly from a background, as on a coin. Also known as low relief sculpture.
BAUHAUS A design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Germany. The Bauhaus attempted to achieve reconciliation between the aesthetics of design and the more commercial demands of industrial mass production. Artists include Klee, Kandinsky, and Feininger.
BEAUX-ARTS A school of fine arts located in Paris, which stressed the necessity of academic painting.
BINDER A substance in paints that causes particles of pigment to adhere to one another and to a support such as oil or acrylic. BRONZE An alloy of copper and tin, sometimes containing small proportions of other elements such as zinc or phosphorus. It is stronger, harder, and more durable than brass, and has been used most extensively since antiquity for cast sculpture. Bronze alloys vary in color from a silvery hue to a rich, coppery red. U.S. standard bronze is composed of 90% copper, 7% tin, and 3% zinc.
BRUSHWORK The characteristic way each artist brushes paint onto a support.
BURNISHING The act of rubbing greenware (clay) with any smooth tool to polish it, and tighten the surface.
CALLIGRAPHY In printing and drawing a free and rhythmic use of line to accentuate design. It is seen at its best in Japanese wood-block prints and Chinese scrolls. Also, fine, stylized handwriting using quills, brushes or pens with ink.
CANVAS Closely woven cloth used as a support for paintings.
CARTOON 1. A simple drawing with humorous or satirical content. 2. A preliminary drawing for any large work such as a mural or tapestry.
CASTING The process of making a sculpture or other object by pouring liquid material such as clay, metal or plastic into a mold and allowing it to harden, thereby taking on the shape of the confining mold.
CERAMICS The art of making objects of clay and firing them in a kiln. Wares of earthenware and porcelain, as well as sculpture are made by ceramists. Enamel is also a ceramic technique. Ceramic materials may be decorated with slip, engobe, or glaze, applied by any number of techniques. Sculpture usually made by coil, slab, or other manual technique.
CHIAROSCURO In drawing, painting, and the graphic arts, chiaroscuro (ke-ära-skooro) refers to the rendering of forms through a balanced contrast between light and dark areas. The technique that was introduced during the Renaissance, is effective in creating an illusion of depth and space around the principal figures in a composition. Leonardo Da Vinci and Rembrandt were painters who excelled in the use of this technique.
CLASSICAL STYLE In Greek art, the style of the 5th century B.C. Loosely, the term “classical” is often applied to all the art of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as to any art based on logical, rational principles and deliberate composition.
COILING A method of forming pottery or sculpture from rolls of clay that are smoothed together to form the sides of a jar or pot.
COLLAGE A work of art made by pasting various materials such as bits of paper, cloth, etc. onto a piece of paper, board or canvas.
COLOR FIELD PAINTING A style of painting prominent from the 1950s through the 1970s, featuring large “fields” or areas of color, meant to evoke an aesthetic or emotional response through the color alone.
COLOR WHEEL A circular grid that represents the colors based on color theory. This grid clearly shows the relationships colors have with each other (complimentary, opposite, etc.).
COMPLIMENTARY COLORS Hues directly opposite one another on the color wheel and therefore assumed to be as different from one another as possible. When placed side by side, complementary colors are intensified; when mixed together, they produce a neutral (or gray) color.
COMPOSITION The organization, design or placement of the individual elements in a work of art. The aim is to achieve balance and proportionality. Usually applied to two-dimensional art.
CONCEPTUAL ART An art form in which the underlying idea or concept and the process by which it is achieved are more important than any tangible product.
CONSTRUCTION An art work that is actually assembled or built on the premises where it is to be shown. Many constructions are meant to be temporary and are disassembled after the exhibition is over.
CONTE Initially it was a trade name for a brand of French crayons made from a unique compound of pigments with a chalk binder. Conte crayons are free from grease, making them acceptable for lithographic drawing.
CONTEMPORARY ART Generally defined as art that has been produced since the second half of the twentieth century.
CONTENT The message conveyed by a work of art - its subject matter and whatever the artist hopes to convey by that subject matter.
CONTOUR A line that creates a boundary separating an area of space or object from the space around it.
CONTRAPPOSTO Literally, “counterpoise.” A method of portraying the human figure, especially in sculpture, often achieved by placing the weight on one foot and turning the shoulder so the figure appears relaxed and mobile. The result is often a graceful S-curve.
CONVERGING Lines that go towards the same point.
COOL COLORS Those that suggest a sense of coolness. Blue , Green , Violet
CRAFTSMANSHIP Aptitude, skill, and manual dexterity in the use of tools and materials.
CROSS-HATCHING An area of closely spaced lines intersecting one another, used to create a sense of three-dimensionality on a flat surface, especially in drawing and printmaking. See also hatching, stippling.
CUBISM A style of art pioneered in the early 20th century by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In the most developed form of Cubism, forms are fragmented into planes or geometric facets, like the facets in a diamond; these planes are rearranged to foster a pictorial, but not naturalistic, reality; forms may be viewed simultaneously from several vantage points; figure and background have equal importance; and the colors are deliberately restricted to a range of neutrals.
CURVILINEAR Stressing the use of curved lines as opposed to rectilinear which stresses straight lines.
DADA A movement that emerged during World War I in Europe that purported to be anti-everything, even anti-art. Dada poked fun at all the established traditions and tastes in art with works that were deliberately shocking, vulgar, and nonsensical.
DECOUPAGE The act of cutting out paper designs and applying them to a surface to make an all over collage.
DESIGN The planned organization of lines, shapes, masses, colors, textures, and space in a work of art. In two-dimensional art, often called composition.
DISTORTION Any change made by an artist in the size, position, or general character of forms based on visual perception, when those forms are organized into a pictorial image. Any personal or subjective interpretation of natural forms must necessarily involve a degree of distortion.
DOMINANCE The principle of visual organization which suggests that certain elements should assume more importance than others in the same composition. It contributes to the organic unity by emphasizing the fact that there is one main feature and that other elements are subordinate to it.
DRYPOINT An intaglio printmaking technique, similar to engraving, in which a sharp needle is used to draw on a metal plate, raising a thin ridge of metal that creates a soft line when the plate is printed. Also, the resultant print.
DYNAMIC Giving an effect of movement, vitality, or energy.
EARTHENWARE Ceramic ware, usually coarse and reddish in color, fired in the lowest temperature ranges. Used for domestic ware, glazed or unglazed.
EDITION In bronze sculpture and printmaking, the number of pieces/images made from a single mold/plate and authorized by the artist.
ENCAUSTIC Literally, to burn in. A painting technique in which the pigment is mixed with melted wax and resin and then applied to a surface while hot.
ENGRAVING Printmaking method in which a sharp tool (burin) is used to scratch lines into a hard surface such as metal or wood.
ENVIRONMENTAL ART 1. Art that is large enough for viewers to enter and move about in. 2. Art designed for display in the outdoor environment. 3. Art that actually transforms the natural landscape.
ETCHING The technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax and finally inked and printed on paper. The resulting print is called the etching.
EXPRESSIONISM Any art that stresses the artist’s emotional and psychological reaction to subject matter, often with bold colors and distortions of form. Specifically, an art style of the early 20th century followed principally by certain German artists.
FAUVISM A short lived painting style in early 20th century France, which featured bold, clashing, arbitrary colors - colors unrelated to the appearance of forms in the natural world. Henri Matisse was its best-known practitioner. The word fauve means “wild beast.”
FIGURE - GROUND In two-dimensional art, the relationship between the principal forms and the background. Figure-ground ambiguity suggests equal importance for the two.
FINE ART An art form created primarily as an aesthetic expression to be enjoyed for its own sake. The viewer must be prepared to search for the intent of the artist as the all-important first step toward communication and active participation.
FIRING Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to bring the clay to maturity. The temperature needed to mature the clay varies with the type of body used. Also, heating glazed ware to the necessary point to cause the glaze to mature.
FIXATIVE A solution, usually of shellac and alcohol, sprayed onto drawings, to prevent their smudging or crumbling off the support.
FOLK ART Primitive art, by an untrained artist who paints in the common tradition of his community and reflects the life style of the people. Also called ‘Outsider art’ & ‘Art brut’.
FORESHORTENING A method of portraying forms on a two-dimensional surface so that they appear to project or recede from the picture plane.
FORGING Shaping metal with hammers while it is hot; the method for making wrought iron.
FORM 1. The physical appearance of a work of art - its materials, style, and composition. 2. Any identifiable shape or mass, as a “geometric form.”
FRESCO A painting technique in which the pigments are dispersed in plain water and applied to a damp plaster wall. The wall becomes the binder, as well as the support.
FUTURISM Art movement founded in Italy in 1909 and lasting only a few years. Futurism concentrated on the dynamic quality of modern technological life, emphasizing speed and movement.
GENRE Art that depicts the casual moments of everyday life and its surroundings.
GEOMETRIC SHAPES Shapes created by exact mathematical law.
GESSO A white ground material for preparing rigid supports for painting. made of a mixture of chalk, white pigment, and glue. Same name applied to acrylic bound chalk and pigment used on flexible supports as well as rigid.
GLAZE A very thin, transparent colored paint applied over a previously painted surface to alter the appearance and color of the surface. In ceramics, washes applied to the clay body which, when fired to temperature, vitrify to form a thin, usually colored, glass layer.
GOTHIC A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Gothic architecture features pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and often large areas of stained glass.
GOUACHE Opaque watercolors used for illustrations.
GROUND 1. A substance applied to a painting or drawing support in preparation for the pigmented material. 2. The preparatory substance used as a coating for a printmaking plate. 3. The background in a work of two-dimensional art.
GREENWARE Unfired pottery or sculpture.
HARD-EDGE PAINTING A recent innovation that originated in New York and was adopted by certain contemporary painters. Forms are depicted with precise, geometric lines and edges.
HARMONY The unity of all the visual elements of a composition achieved by repetition of the same characteristics.
HATCHING A technique of modeling, indicating tone and suggesting light and shade in drawing or tempera painting, using closely set parallel lines.
HORS COMMERCE (‘Before commerce’) traditionally were the sculpture/graphics pulled with the regular edition, but were marked by the artist for business use only. These pieces were used for entering exhibitions and competitions, but today, these they generally are allowed into distribution through regular channels.
HUE The perceived color of an object, identified by a common name such as red, orange, blue.
ICONOGRAPHY Loosely, the “story” depicted in a work of art; people, places, events, and other images in a work, as well as the symbolism and conventions attached to those images by a particular religion or culture.
ILLUMINATION Hand-drawn decoration or illustration in a manuscript, especially prevalent in medieval art.
IMPASTO A thick, juicy application of paint to canvas or other support; emphasizes texture, as distinguished from a smooth flat surface.
IMPRESSIONISM A painting technique in which the artist concentrates on the changing effects of light and color. Often this style can be characterized by its use of discontinuous brush strokes and heavy impasto.
INLAY In woodworking, a technique in which small pieces of wood, often with varying grains and colours, are glued together to make a pattern.
INTENSITY The degree of purity or brilliance of a color. Also known as chroma or saturation.
KINETIC ART Kinetic art is art that incorporates movement as part of its expression – either mechanically, by hand, or by natural forces.
KILN A furnace or oven built of heat-resistant materials for firing pottery, glass and sculpture.
LANDSCAPE A generalization for any artist’s depiction of natural scenery. Figures and other objects should be of secondary importance to the composition and incidental to the content.
LINE A mark made by an instrument as it is drawn across a surface.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE A method of depicting three-dimensional depth on a flat or two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective has two main precepts: 1. Forms that are meant to be perceived as far away from the viewer are made smaller than those meant to be seen as close 2. Parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a point on the horizon line known as the vanishing point.
LITHOGRAPHY - LITHOGRAPH A printing process in which a surface, as stone or sheet aluminum, is treated so that the ink adheres only to the portions that are to be printed. The resulting image is a lithograph or a lithographic print
LOST WAX A method of creating a wax mold of a sculpture and then heating the mold to melt out the wax and replacing it with a molten metal or resin. (see our page on Bronze Casting).
MANIFESTO In art, a public declaration or exposition in print of the theories and directions of a movement. The manifestos issued by various individual artists or groups of artists, in the first half of the twentieth century served to reveal their motivations and raisons dâetre and stimulated support for or reactions against them.
MANNERISM A term sometimes applied to art of late 16th early 17th century Europe, characterized by a dramatic use of space and light and a tendency toward elongated figures.
MAQUETTE In sculpture, a small model in wax or clay, made as a preliminary sketch, presented to the client for approval of the proposed work, or for entry in a competition. The Italian equivalent of the term is bozzetto, meaning small sketch.
MASS Three-dimensional form, often implying bulk, density and weight.
MATTE Flat, non-glossy; having a dull surface appearance.
MEDIEVAL ART The art of the Middle Ages ca. 500 A.D. through the 14th century. The art produced immediately prior to the Renaissance.
MEDIUM 1. The material used to create a work of art. 2. The binder for a paint, such as oil. 3. An expressive art form, such as painting, drawing, or sculpture.
MINIMALISM A style of painting and sculpture in the mid 20th century in which the art elements are rendered with a minimum of lines, shapes, and sometimes color. The works may look and feel sparse, spare, restricted or empty.
MIXED MEDIA Descriptive of art that employs more than one medium – e.g., a work that combines paint, natural materials (wood, pebbles, bones), and man made items (glass, plastic, metals) into a single image or piece of art.
MOBILE/STABILE Terms coined to describe work created by Alexander Calder. The mobile is a hanging, movable sculpture and the stabile rests on the ground but also may have moving parts.
MODELLING 1. In sculpture, shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax, or plaster. 2. In drawing, painting, or printmaking, the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface created by simulating effects of light and shadow.
MONOCHROMATIC Having only one color. Descriptive of work in which one hue - perhaps with variations of value and intensity - predominates.
MONOTYPE A one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to the paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.
MONTAGE A picture composed of other existing illustrations, pictures, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. that are arranged so they combine to create a new or original image. A collage.
MOSAIC An art form in which small pieces of tile, glass, or stone are fitted together and embedded into a background to create a pattern or image.
MURAL Any large-scale wall decoration done in painting, fresco, mosaic, or other medium.
MUSEUM A building, place or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical or artistic value. The word Museum is derived from the Latin muses, meaning "a source of inspiration," or "to be absorbed in one's thoughts."
NARRATIVE PAINTING A painting where a story line serves as a dominant feature.
NATURALISTIC Descriptive of an artwork that closely resembles forms in the natural world. Synonymous with representational.
NEGATIVE SPACE The space in a painting around the objects depicted.
NEOCLASSICISM - “New” classicism - a style in 19th century Western art that referred back to the classical styles of Greece and Rome. Neoclassical paintings have sharp outlines, reserved emotions, deliberate (often mathematical) composition, and cool colors.
NEO-EXPRESSIONISM - “New” expressionism - a term originally applied to works done primarily by German and Italian, who came to maturity in the post-WWII era; and later expanded (in the 1980’s) to include certain American artists. Neo- Expressionist works depict intense emotions and symbolism, sometimes using unconventional media and intense colors with turbulent compositions and subject matter.
NEUTRAL Having no hue - black, white, or gray; sometimes a tannish color achieved by mixing two complementary colours.
NON-OBJECTIVE Completely non-representational; pure design; fully abstract.
OP ART Short for Optical Art, a style popular in the 1960s that was based on optical principles and optical illusion. Op Art deals in complex color interactions, to the point where colors and lines seem to vibrate before the eyes
OPTICAL COLOR MIXTURE The tendency of the eyes to blend patches of individual colors placed near one another so as to perceive a different, combined color. Also, any art style that exploits this tendency, especially the pointillism of Georges Seurat.
ORGANIC An image that shows a relationship to nature as opposed to man-made images. Any shape that resembles a naturally occurring form or that suggests a natural growing or expanding process.
ORGANIC ART An art form that emphasizes an object alive in its own right and not contrived.
OVERLAP EFFECT Spatial relationships are achieved by placing one object in front of another. The object closest to the viewer blocks out the view of any part of any other object located behind it (or, where the two objects overlap, the one in back is obscured).
PAINTERLY Descriptive of paintings in which forms are defined principally by color areas, not by lines or edges. Where the artist's brushstrokes are noticeable. Any image that looks as though it may have been created with the style or techniques used by a painter.
PASTEL A colored crayon that consists of pigment mixed with just enough of a aqueous binder to hold it together; a work of art produced by pastel crayons; the technique itself. Pastels vary according to the volume of chalk contained...the deepest in tone are pure pigment. Pastel is the simplest and purest method of painting, since pure color is used without a fluid medium and the crayons are applied directly to the pastel paper.
PATINA A film or an incrustation, often green, that forms on copper and bronze after a certain period of weathering and as a result of the oxidation of the copper. Different chemical treatments will also induce myriad colored patinas on new Bronze works. Bronzes may additionally be painted with acrylic and lacquer.
PENTIMENTO A condition of old paintings where lead-containing pigments have become more transparent over time, revealing earlier layers. |