By MINTED | Last Updated: November 17, 2022
WHAT IS AN ART MEDIUM?
For centuries art has awed, amazed, and continually evolved. It has spoken about social change, told stories of love and war, and captured moments in history that help us preserve the past. A wide variety of art mediums have produced remarkable finished works and continue to drive innovation and creativity to this day. In this guide, we will review popular art looks, techniques, and types of art mediums to help you explore what styling best speaks to you when it comes to selecting artwork for your home or office.
So what exactly is a medium in art? A “medium” can refer to the materials used to make a work of art (such as clay, wood, paint, fabric, charcoal, etc.) and also refer to creation techniques such as sculpture, printmaking, watercolor, or pottery. For the purposes of this guide, however, we will focus purely on different mediums and techniques used to create hanging wall art. We will introduce you to commonly identifiable art mediums like oil painting, fine art photography, graphic art, and watercolor to name a few.
Types of Mediums for Wall Art
1
Oil
Durable, Steadfast, Classic
Oil painting is the process of combining colored powders, pigments, or finely ground up materials with an oil mixture to create a solution that can be used as paint. When mixing the pigments with oil, you will get a slightly different visual result depending on the oil you use –for example, how yellow the painting looks or how long it takes to dry. Oil paintings are known to take longer to dry, which gives artists extra time to play with the look and feel. When oil painting, artists typically use paintbrushes and the occasional rag or palette knife. The most popular surface for oil painting is canvas made from either cotton or linen, stretched over a wooden frame.
Peach Poppy by Jenny Westenhofer
From a historical perspective, it is said that the oldest oil paintings were created on walls in Afghanistan in the 7th century. By the 12th century, oil painting was being used in Europe. And by the time the Renaissance exploded, oil painting was the most popular medium. Today, oil painting is still popular for a lot of different subjects and styles due to its malleability and texture. Famous artists include Vincent van Gogh (Starry Night) and Leonardo da Vinci (Mona Lisa).
Minted’s oil and acrylic collection showcases work by independent artists and celebrates this medium in art. The oil painting medium produces a broad array of work, but generally speaking, there are many landscape depictions and abstract arrangements. To give your artwork an authentic hand-made feel, consider printing your selected design on canvas. Through Minted, you can now also order framed canvas for a completed look.
