Painting as a study discipline

Painting as traditional art form has existed among us since centuries. When man was a cave animal there were paintings of Lascaux and now when man lives in multistoried buildings paintings of Da Vinci makes their presence in dining hall, auditoriums and art galleries. In fact painting is the earliest known art form. In the ancient past there were born painters who learnt the art of painting on their own, now with the development in human societies painting schools are formed to teach budding painters. Schools and colleges also provide classes in painting. Education in painting is available on both full time and part time basis. Mural painting and fresco find place in classical societies.
Painting is classified into various forms like historical, allegorical, religious, portraiture, landscape and still life etc. Meanwhile these are accepted artistic themes for artistic paintings. We cannot make a crystal clear distinction between two painting forms.  

Historians claim that the earliest known paintings are 32000 years old at the Grotte Chauvet in France.  These paintings are engraved and painted using red ochre, and black pigments depicting hunting man, horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo etc. Meanwhile the earliest evidence of painting has been found in Australia in two rock shelters in Arnhem Land. At these sites in the lower most layers of material found used pieces Ochre about 60000 years old. In the Kimberley area of northwestern Australia, archeologists have found rock painting preserved in lime stone rock shelter about 40000 years old. Examples of cave paintings found all over the world viz; France, Spain, Portugal, China, Australia, India etc. In west watercolor painting and oil painting are most popular. In east including India ink and color ink are most popular mediums of painting. Though in modern times as due to influence from west artist have shown great interest in water color and oil paint in eastern part of the world as well.  Different types of paintings usually classified on the basis of the material that has taken in use for paint which decided on the functionality of paint like viscosity, miscibility, solubility, drying time, etc.  Following are given some forms of painting-

    * Acrylic
    * Dry pastel
    * Enamel paint
    * Encaustic (wax)
    * Fresco
    * Gouache
    * Ink
    * Light
    * Oil
    * Oil pastel
    * Spray paint (Graffiti)
    * Tempera
•    Water miscible oil paints
•    Watercolor

On the basis of styles Indian paintings can be classified into following categories-

    * Mysore
    * Tanjore
    * Madhubani
    * Rajput
    * Mughal
    * Bengal school
    * Samikshavad


India associates rich painting tradition with it. As a proof to this following are mentioned some well known names of Indian painters from pre modern era and modern era.


Pre Modern

    * Sansar Chand (1900–1995)
    * Jamini Roy (1887–1972)
    * Amrita Shergil (1913–1941)
    * Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906)
    * Gopal Rao (1880–1945)

Modern
    * Nek Chand
    * Anil Kumar Dutta
    * Satish Gujral
    * M.F. Husain
    * Jahar Dasgupta
    * Mohammad Shakil
    * S. Jithesh
    * Ram Kumar
    * Paresh Maity
    * Tyeb Mehta
    * Badri Narayan
    * Gogi Saroj Pal
    * B. Prabha
    * S.H. Raza
    * Arpita Singh
    * K.G. Subramanyan
    * Ram Chandra Shukla
    * Anuragk Gupta

In academic settings painting is taught right from schools. Universities offer graduate and postgraduate programs in painting. The services of a painter are needed at various government and private agencies like advertising set ups, archeological institutions and academia.