Still life art is a universal genre that most visual artists have worked in. Commonplace inanimate objects purposefully arranged to emphasize texture, color, and composition have made still life art the perfect teaching tool for beginning artists and a way for professionals to hone their skills.
Features
Still life art is a pictorial work of art depicting an arrangement of inanimate subjects--often domestic, such as plants, food, dishes, vases and furniture.
Forms
Still lifes are most often represented in the mediums of oil painting, watercolor, drawing, photography and mosaics. Other mediums, such as sculpture, use materials such as clay, bronze and marble for still lifes.
History
There is evidence of still lifes in classical Roman art, and up to the early 1600s, most still lifes were religiously symbolic. Still life art gained popularity during the 17th century and has become essential in teaching form and composition to beginning painters and photographers.
Significance
Most artists have worked with still life at some point in their career. It is the best way to learn composition, perspective, lighting and the depiction of textures.
Major Still Life Artists
Some of the most famous artists who specialized in still lifes were: Juan Sanchez Cotan (Spainish), Jan van Eyck (Flemish), Jan Brugel (Dutch), Rembrandt van Rjin (Dutch), Peter Paul Rubens (English), Paul Cezanne (French), Georges Braque (French) and Pablo Picasso (Spanish).
