IMPASTO is an application of thick paint where the brushstrokes remain standing above the painting surface. It’s textural qualities are favored to add an expressive element.

Opaque color is applied spontaneously to the surface of the painted areas. Several applications of paint upon wet paint are commonly used to create a variety of effects.

Brushwork that is impasted accentuates and heightens areas that may need to be emphasized. As an expressive means of applying paint, it is generally applied with a brush - although direct tube and painting knives are often used. In the painting above, the impasted areas of Titanium White have been applied with both a brush and a palette knife.

DIRECT PAINTING involves the use of opaque body color applied to the surface without the necessity of layers. Its spontaneous approach aims to achieve completion within the initial session.

The painter must successfully be able to mix and place colors directly onto areas that will need no further modifications. Rigorously applied brushwork often concentrates on the tonal and color effects - giving a more abstracted quality to the work. Pictured above, the rapid application of sweeping black brushstrokes well exemplifies the direct approach.

As the modern alla prima method can be seen in the paintings of the Impressionists, the direct method is represented in the works of the Expressionists and in the later Action painters.

ICON PAINTING derived from the early portrait painting of pre-Christian Rome. Primarily begun as a devotional practice, the early Christian icons would depict saints and sages more as archetypal images of worship.

The creation of the icon traditionally required the artist to undergo several meditation and purification rituals beforehand to become attuned to the consciousness of the archetype. Thus, the materials themselves would become imbued with sacred power.

Painting on wood panels and the use of gold leafing were most commonly preferred as they were believed to possess the higher vibratory levels necessary to act as spiritual conduits.