painting

plural paintings

1. countableAn illustration or artwork done with the use of paint.

   The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings.

   3 more examples

   "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…]."

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   There's something special about tidal estuaries, due to the abundance of wildlife and the ever-changing scenes as the water ebbs or rises. Throw in some moody skies and filtered sunlight, and the views can resemble a painting by Turner - only you don't have to go to the National Gallery to see this, it's brought to your seat on a train.

   2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65

   With five large-scale paintings in his new solo exhibition, “Dusky Rainy Sunny,” the Colombia- born artist Juan Eduardo Gómez examines the relationship between the human form and landscapes.

   2024 January 8, Yinka Elujoba and Jillian Steinhauer, “What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in August”, in The New York Times

2. uncountableThe action of applying paint to a surface.

   The outside of the old house would benefit from some painting.

3. uncountableThe same activity as an art form.

   Some artists, like Michelangelo, excel in both painting and sculpture.

   2 more examples

   The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

   1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, published 9 September 2004, →ISBN, page 71

   At Lungmen in northern Honan, where Buddhist sculpture of the T'ang period is found side by side with the earlier work of the Northern Wei, at Tunhuang in western Kansu, where the explorations of Stein and Pelliot have brought to light a wonderful collection of sculpture and painting dating from the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, and at various other points in the empire the artists of T'ang China have left behind them convincing evidence of noble religious inspiration coupled with a high degree of technical proficiency.

   1944, G. Nye Steiger, A History of the Far East, Ginn and Company, →OCLC, page 115

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of paint

   Synonyms: third art