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Glossary

Still life – a painting, picture or photograph or inanimate objects.

Baroque – characteristic of a dramatic style of art and architecture developed in Europe in the early 17th to mid-18th century.

Surrealism – a 20th century artistic movement that attempted to explore the subconscious through fantastic imagery and incongruous subject matter.

Perspective – technique of representing 3D objects and depth relationships on a 2D surface.

Draftsman – one who plans, designs or draws.

Monochromatic – having or appearing to have only one color.

Bolshevik – a member of the left-wing Russian Workers Party. A Communist.

Photogenics – camera less images created by passing a light source across photographic paper.

Works Progress Administration – (WPA) an agency created by President Franklin Roosevelt to employ people in public works projects and thus lower unemployment levels.

Sgraffito – decoration by cutting away parts of a surface layer (clay or plaster) and exposing a different colored ground.

Monument – a structure or building erected as a memorial.

Commission – hiring an artist to make a specific original work of art.

Portrait bust – likeness of a person displaying the chest, neck and head.

Relief – sculpture in which forms extend out from their background.

Cameo – medallion or carving with a profile cut in raised relief.

Realism – representation of things as they really are.

Idealism – envisioning things in an ideal form.

Finial – sculptured ornament at the top of a structure.

Impressionists – A group of painters of the late 1800s who depicted the natural appearance of objects by means of dabs and strokes of primary, unmixed colors in order to simulate actual reflected light.Plein air – of or related to painting in outdoor light.

Plein-air – (French) a style of painting produced out of doors in natural light.

Medium – an artistic technique.

Patina – the sheen of any surface produced by age or use; a thin greenish layer of copper sulfate that forms on bronze as a result of corrosion.