Himalayan Art Resources

Painting Main Page: Painting & Composition (Flat Art)

Art History Main Page

Four General Subject Divisions:

[1] Painting (Scroll Work)

[2] Murals

[3] Drawings & Illuminations

[4] Textiles

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Overview Description
- Types
- Reading a Painting
- Shapes
- Colours
- Regions
- Periods
- Subjects
- Styles & Traditions
- Art Topics
- Art Evaluation Criteria
- Pictographs & Petroglyphs
- Masterworks
- Confusions
- Others...

Flat art is two dimensional art. The primary types and mediums are painting, drawing and textile works. Painting has a number of different types such as scroll works, murals, drawings and book illuminations. Scroll works have two main types which are painted scroll works and textile scroll works. Murals are generally understood and defined by site location, period and artistic style.

The size of paintings can vary depending on the surface size and medium. Painted scroll works tend to be not more than a few meters in length while textile scroll works known as a giant applique can be dozens of meters in length. Drawings and illuminations overlap with the topic of miniature paintings. Textiles are not limited by size and have three main types which are related to the technique of creation: applique, embroidery and weaving.

Jeff Watt 6-2010 [updated 11-2016, 5-2017, 4-2020]

(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).