A Little Color History - Alum

Alum miners at work in miniature. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

Alum is a vitriolic clay composed of sulfuric acid, aluminum,and potassium. It comes in many variants, including rock alum, Yemenite alum, Roman alum, and shale alum. It was used as a mordant for dyeing throughout the ancient world, including India. Until the 15th century, it was processed mainly in Constantinople, Aleppo, and a site near Smyrna (modern Izmir) called Rocca. In the mid-15th century, a Genoese merchant who had travled to the East and spent some time in Rocca founded the first alum factory in Europe on the island of Ischia. (Francois Delamare and Bernard Guineau)

Grain

Direction in which most of the fibers of machine-made paper are lying. The direction is important if paper is to be folded or rolled. It will fold more easily and smoothly along the grain. 2 methods of determining grain are firstly, to bend the paper in half, noting how much it resists bending: and secondly, to tear the paper. Handmade paper may be folded indiscriminately, as it has no grain. Its fibers are lying evenly in all directions. (Rose Folsum)

Movement in Art

Movement - In art, movement may be actual or implied. Generally, it refers to the direction of lines, forms, or relation of colors that leads the eye over the composition. (Ralph L. Wickiser)

Woodcut

Print made by a woodblock in which a picture or design has been cut in relief along the grain of the wood. The woodcut is the oldest method of printing, invented in China in the 5th century AD. In the Middle Ages woodcuts became popular in Europe, illustrating early printed books and broadsides.

The German artist Albrecht Durer was an early exponent of the technique. Multicolored woodblock prints were developed in Japan in the mid-18th century. Wood engraving is an allied but finer technique, the cuts being made across the end-grain of a block. The English artist Thomas Bewick is one of the first exponents of wood engraving. (Brockhampton)

All artwork by Mary Azarian

Ordinaries

Bands or marks on a heraldic shield. (which leads to ...)

Heraldry: Armorial bearings evolved in the 11th. century. At first, the badge of one's group was painted on each shield used in battle. Around the 13th century, the painting of helmets and use of crests (carved figures attached to the helmet) were added. After the 15th century, armorial bearings were no longer used except ceremonially, but the idea lived on. Today, in the English-speaking world, a coat of arms is registered with the College of Arms in London, and may be used in perpetuity by the individual, family, town, guild, etc. who registers it. There are rules by which heraldic insignia are designed and executed that have broadened over the centuries. (Rose Folsum)

Naturalism

Mirabello Cavalori. Wool Factory. 1570-72. Oil on slate. Studiolo, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

Naturalism: An approach to art in which objects are depicted by the artist as they are empirically observed rather than according to stylistic or conceptual preconceptions. Art of the Greek Classical period is sometimes described as the first naturalistic art and that of the Italian Renaissance as a revival of naturalism. (Michael Clarke)

Nick

Nick: Slight notch out of what could otherwise be a continuous curved or straight line. (Rose Folsum)

Aquatint

All Will Fall (Caprichos, pl. 19). Etching, and burnished aquatint.

Aquatint: A tonal method of printmaking that is used in conjunction with linear etching. The technique was invented by Jean Baptiste Le Prince (1734-81). As in etching, the copper plate is bitten by the action of immersion in acid. Granules of acid-resist laid on the plate result in a fine, reticulated patterning when the plate is inked and printed from, thus producing an effect not unlike a wash.

There are 2 distinct methods of aquatint. In the first a dust-box is used to blow particles of resin onto the copper plate. In the 2nd the resin is dissolved in alcohol which is brushed over the plate; as the alcohol evaporates, particles of resin are left on the plate. The artist can vary the tones of different parts of his aquatint by subjecting them to bitings in the acid-bath of differing duration. The parts he wishes to print relatively light in tone can be protected by coating with stopping-out varnish, resistant to acid; those that are to print darker can be rebitten. (Michael Clarke)

Abstract Lyrical

Title unknown, by Honora Lyall

Title unknown by Helen Bartley

Abstract Lyrical: Emotional art that emphasizes rhythmic use of line, color, and form for their abstract charm instead of their values, associated with objects or things. (Ralph L Wickiser)

Repetition

Swirls by Clarence Block


The use of an idea or motif more than once. Variety is achieved by altering the magnitude, guise, and relation of the motif repeated. (Ralph L. Wickiser)

Rhythm

Surface design place mat from Ikea, 2008.

Rhythmic Paper Sculpture by Emily Feth, 1947.

Fluid movement in varied periods or measures. A recurrence of featured elements or objects in the composition which recalls the main idea by repeating it in various ways. (Ralph L. Wickiser)