Guyla - A Glossary of Art Terminology

Objective: Knowledge which some believe to be independent of experience and personal feeling.

Objet d'Art: A French term used to designate a work of art that has intrinsic material worth over and above its aesthetic qualities. It is applied to all sorts of decorative and precious articles but ordinarily denotes relatively small objects privately owned rather than displayed in museums.

OEuvre: The OEuvre of an artist is the total of his output, and an OEuvre catalogue is, therefore, an attempt to record every single work of art by a given artist. A catalogue raisonné is slightly different, in that it attempts a complete description of works, with details of provenance, autography quality, condition and similar effects.

Oil Paint: Show drying paint made when pigments are mixed with an oil, linseed oil being most traditional. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas. This represents a class of paints in which drying oils are used for binding together the pigments.

Oleograph: A color lithograph printed on cloth to imitate an oil painting.

Opaque: Quality of a material that does not let any light pass through.

Opaque Projector: A general classification of projectors which project images from any solid or opaque copy such as photos or drawings. Opaque projectors require a darkened or totally dark room for best results.

Optical Color Mixture: The tendency of the eyes to blend patches of individual colors placed near one another so as to perceive a different, combined color.

Organic: An image that shows a relationship to nature as opposed to man-made images. Any shape that resembles a naturally occuring form or that suggests a natural growing or expanding process.

Original: Any work considered to be an authentic example of the works of an artist, rather than a reproduction or imitation. An artist's independent creation.

Orthogonal: lines, edges and planes in a painting or drawing which are perpendicular to the picture plane and appear to recede into the picture.

Outline: Line that shows the outer edges.

Overlap Effect: Spatial relationships are achieved by placing one object in front of another. The object closest to the viewer blocks out the view of any part of any other object located behind it (or, where the two objects overlap, the one in back is obscured).