Art Around Us

Art Around Us

Introduction Art is all around us, in many different forms. Different types of artists make different art. Some use paint, paper, glass, or clay. Others use stone, computers, or even plants. An artist can make almost anything into art.

Painters The most familiar kind of artist is a painter. Some painters paint objects or famous people. Most painters use a brush. Some painters splash, spray, or drip paint. Others paint with odd liquids, such as mud.

Painters paint on every type of surface. Some paint on dishes, windows, or furniture. Many painters create murals. Murals are large paintings painted onto a wall or the side of a building.

Sculptors Some sculptors use sharp tools to carve shapes into wood, stone, ice, or wax. Others make soft sculptures. They weave fabrics, yarns, or strips of leather. Some sculptors cast shapes and statues in metal.

To cast a metal sculpture, first sculptors carve a clay model of the shape. Then they cover the clay shape with wet plaster, which dries and hardens--like the cast on a broken arm-into a mold. Then they pour hot, liquid metal into the hard plaster mold. The liquid metal cools and hardens. Then sculptors remove the plaster mold from the sculpture. They can now polish their artwork.