Painter - Definition and Overview

For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter.

A painter is a person who paints woodwork, walls, etc. for a trade. See: decorator.

Street painter making portrait in Montmartre

In the fine arts, a painter is a person who creates paintings—two-dimensional artworks—by applying a coloured emulsion called paint to a flat surface. Contrast this with a person whose trade is covering surfaces with paint, also called a painter. The difference is the artistic intent of the former.

Some surrealists (in particular Joan Miró, who called for the "murder of painting") have denounced or attempted to "supersede" painting, and there have also been other anti-painting trends among artistic movements, such as that of conceptual art.

The trend away from painting in the 20th century (of course, there were still people painting all this time) has been countered by various movements, for example Stuckism.

See also

• Corel Painter
• List of painters
• Art history