Guyla - A Glossary of Art Terminology

Gallery: A room, building or institution where paintings and other artworks are exhibited; and often where they are also sold. A place reserved for the display of paintings and other work of art.

Gather: In glass-blowing, the glob of molten glass collected and to be blown on the end of a hollow rod.

Gearing: In kinetic sculpture, a means of transmitting motion from a power source to the moving parts of the sculpture, utilizing either levers or interlocking gear wheels.

Gem and Gemstone: A precious or semiprecious stone of any kind, especially when cut and polished for ornaments.

Geometric: Any shape or form having more mathematic than organic design. Geometric designs are typically made with straight lines or shapes from geometry, including circle, ovals, triangles, rectangles, squares, and other quadrilaterals, along with such polygons as pentagons, hexagons, etc. Examples of geometric forms include spheres, cones, cylinders, tetrahedrons, pyramids, cube and other polyhedron. Art emphasizing these shapes.

Gesso: From the Italian for gypsum or plaster. This is used in the making of grounds for painting. The traditional gesso is made from a combination of hide glue and whiting, sometimes with pigment added. It makes a smooth, hard non-yellowing surface that is very absorbent. This ground is only for rigid supports because it is brittle. It may be applied to the surface of a wood panel or sculpture to become the surface on which an artist paints. There are other gesso grounds made of half chalk and half oil. These can be used on flexible surfaces. The most common use of the term "gesso" today, is in the acrylic gessoes. They are not as absorbent as the traditional ones, but are very strong and flexible. They can be used on any clean surface. In sculpture; a plaster or a fine plaster-like material made of gypsum, which is also called whiting. An especially versatile medium in reliefs, gesso can be either the material cast in a mold or the material of a mold, a material to be modeled, or carved, or attached to something else. When used for molds into which molten metal is poured, it must be hardened with sand as a grog.

Gesture Drawing: A quick drawing that captures the energy and movement of an object rather than how it really looks.

Gewgaw: Showy but valueless. Rapidly trifling.

Gicleé: Gicleé (pronounced "zhee-clay", from the French word "gicleur" meaning jet or nozzle) is a method of printing single or limited edition digitally processed fine art images on paper or canvas using a high-resolution inkjet printer resulting in prints with extremely high detail and brilliant color saturation. The method can produce prints with resolution in excess of 1400 dots per inch, and colors that can be expected to last 25 to 75 years without fading. Gicleé prints are also known as "Iris prints" or "Iris-Gicleé prints", so-called because of the Iris Graphics, Inc. continuous tone printers used to produce what are considered to be the highest quality gicleé fine art prints.

Gilding: Applying gold leaf. Affixing thin metal leaf to a surface to give the effect of solid or inlaid metal. It is a very old technique that goes back to the Egyptians and the Chinese. It reached its highest point at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with Victorian fashion and in the gilding of gold picture frames.

Glair: A varnish for tempera paints. Egg whites beaten until they are frothy, and mixed with a little water, and then let to stand until the froth disappears. This has been used for centuries as the adhesive for gilding and as the binder for paints used in manuscript illumination.

Glass: A brittle, hard and non-crystalline substance. It is made by fusing silica and an alkali such as potash or soda.

Glare: A strong or annoying and unwanted light, such as reflected from glass covering a picture. Also, a garishness or gaudiness; something overly conspicuous or obtrusive.

Glassine: A thin, dense, glossy-surfaced, translucent paper resistant to the passage of air and dirt. Glassine is often used as a wrapping material or for the separation of sheets of paper.

Glaze: Term used in almost all mediums. A thin layer of translucent oil color applied to a painted surface or to parts to modify the tone. The technique of putting one transparent color over another, already dry color and most referred to in oil and acrylics. In ceramics, a glassy coating applied to a piece of ceramic work before firing in the kiln, as a protective seal and as decoration. describe a thin coating of minerals applied to a piece of ceramic work before firing in the kiln which produces a glassy transparent or colored coating on bisque ware. The glaze is fixed by firing the bisqueware in a kiln. This makes the surface smooth, shiny, and waterproof.

Glazier: A person who cuts and fits glass, as in the art of stained glass.

Gloriole or Glory: The circle of radiant light around the heads or figures of God, Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint. When it surrounds the head only, it is called a halo or nimbus. When it surrounds the entire figure with a large oval it is called a mandorla. It indicates divinity or holiness, though originally it was placed around the heads of kings and gods as a mark of distinction.

Glossy: Surfaces which are lustrous, shiny, extra smooth. For example, satin, polished metals, and typical glass surfaces are glossy, whereas rougher surfaces, fabrics, etc., are more matte or dull.

Glue Size: Size crystals or powder mixed with water form a gelatinous solution which forms the binder for gesso. Glue size added to plaster retards the drying process, giving the plaster a longer working time.

Glyptic: That which is carved or engraved, or can be carved or engraved - as in carving on gemstones, and is distinguished from that which is plastic, as is clay or wax.

Glyptics or Glyptography: The craft of carving on stones, especially on precious stones, and includes many cameos, intaglios, and seals.

Gold: A soft, yellow, non-corrosive element, the most malleable, ductile, and incorruptible metal, most often used as an international monetary standard, in jewelry, for decoration, and on various manufactures. Gold can be cast, embossed, inlaid, or worked as wire, foil, or leaf.

Gold Leaf: Gold beaten into very thin sheets or "leaves" and applied to illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings, to sculpture, or to the back of the glass tesserae used in mosaics.

Golden Section: Set of geometrical proportions traditionally used to create an ordered harmonious composition in painting.

Goo: A creamy paste of cement mixed with water. Goo is the first coat applied to a mold in making a hollow cast concrete sculpture, and forms an even surface layer for the finished cast.

Gouache: A watercolor medium which is mixed with finely ground white pigment to provide an opaque paint. Can be mixed with transparent watercolors to make less opaque. These paints are made by adding chalk to the pigments to make them opaque. The usual gouache painting displays a light-reflecting brilliance quite different from the luminosity of transparent watercolors. The use of gouache goes back to medieval manuscript illumination and was used in 16th - 18th century minature painting. Many painters combine gouache, pastel watercolors and India ink in the same painting. With gouache effects very similar to those obtainable in oil painting may be achieved with less trouble, so that a it is a useful means of making studies for a large picture in oils; although it has the effect of drying much lighter in tone than it seems when wet. Gouache is also commonly used for commercial illustration.

Gouge: A beveled chisel with a rounded, troughlike cutting edge, generally for carving wood. There are numerous types of gouges, including a V-tool for engraving the surface of wood. Many gouges are designed to be pushed by hand rather than by the hit of a mallet. To gouge is to make a scooping or digging action, as with such a chisel.

Gradated Wash: A wash that is light or thin in an area where little color has been applied, and gradually becomes darker or heavier into another area, where more color has been applied. A painting technique typically used with watercolors and inks, but possible with any thinned pigments.

Gradation: A gradual, smooth, step-by-step change from dark to light values or from large to small shapes, or rough to smooth textures, or one color to another.

Gradina: Italian for a claw chisel.

Graffiti: A drawing or an inscription made on a wall or other surface, usually so as to be seen by the public. Generally regarded as vandalism, defacing public or private property, and usually illegal; however, it may also be regarded as a form of art.

Graffito: A method in which a line is produced by scratching through one pigmented surface to reveal another. Scratchboard is utilized create graffito drawings.

Grain: Direction of fibers in a sheet of paper. Long grain describes fibers running parallel to the longest side of a sheet. short grain running parallel to the short side.

Granite: A hard, coarse-grained igneous rock largely consisting of mica, and quartz. It is often used for sculpture, monuments, and architecture.

Granulate: A material which is rough and grainy. Or, to make a material rough and grainy. Granulation was an ancient technique used in gold jewelry or ornamentation as a surface enhancement.

Graphic Art: Broad term for techniques of illustration on paper, particularly in black and white drawing, engraving, and lithography. Also refers to visual arts that are linear in character, much of it for commercial purposes.

Graphic Artist or Graphic Designer: A person who creates or designs for commercial purposes.

Graphite: A soft, crystalline form of carbon having an iron-gray color, a metallic luster and a greasy feel that was used at first as either a lump or sharpened point set into a metal holder. Compressed with fine clay, it is used in lead pencils, lubricants, paints, and coatings, among other products. Also called black lead and plumbago.

Granulation: A decorative technique in which tiny metal balls, granules, are fused to a metal surface.

Graver: A tool used in engraving metal, wood, or stone. A knob-like wooden handle which holds a metal shaft having a sharp beveled point with one size of several possible shapes, either flat, round, multiple, or elliptical. It is generally designed to be pushed by the hand, although there is an electrical tool often called a graver, which has a rotating tip. Another name for graver is burin. Graver may also refer to the technique or style of an engraver's work.

Gravure: French for engraving. There are several types of engraving, including copper-plate and wood engraving, rotogravure and photogravure. In English, gravure has been used broadly to cover any or all of these several types. Seeing this term applied to a print should raise suspicion that it is part of a huge edition, and/or for a relatively mass audience.

Greenware: When clay is leather hard, not yet fired, it is called greenware. In this state, the clay can be made wet and turned back into a useable material.

Grind: Crushing, pulverizing, or reducing to powder by friction, especially by rubbing between two hard surfaces. Or, to shape or refine with friction.

Grisaille: Technique of monochrome painting in shades of gray, sometimes used as underpainting. Grisaille paintings were often intended to imitate sculpture.

Gravure: A generic term for any or all intaglio printing processes.

Grog: Clay which has been fired and ground into fine granules, used as an ingredient in a clay body or as a base on which clay is worked or fired which allows the form to contract freely as it dries. It may also be used for molds and cores and for objects cast and modeled. When added to clay it raises its firing temperature and makes it more stable, but it can also alter its appearance. Sometimes sand is used as a substitute.

Grotesque: Something having a fantastically distorted appearance. Also, a style of painting, sculpture, and ornamentation used in antiquity in which natural forms and monstrous figures are intertwined in bizarre or fanciful combinations, consisting of representations of medallions, sphinxes, foliage, and imaginary creatures.

Ground: A surface to which paint is applied, or the material used to create that surface. The surface that has been especially prepared for the purpose of painting. The support on which a painting is made such as canvas or paper. Traditionally, for oil paint on canvas use a ground of oil and white pigment, and on wood surfaces either an oil ground or gesso. Within a picture, ground may refer to a surrounding or background area. Also, in etching, it's an acid-resistent compound through which a design is drawn.

Grout: A paste cement or mortar used for filling and sealing gaps, cracks, crevices and joints, especially between tiles.

Guild: Medieval form of professional association that regulated standards of craftsmanship and commercial activity.

Gum Arabic: The natural secretion, or hardened sap of the acacia tree, gum arabic is used as a general binding agent in many media, in order to improve the bonding properties of the ingredients of inks and watercolor, as well as to help hold pigment particles in suspension.

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