UNIT 1

1.4. Working with Words

Exercise 1. Make sure you can pronounce the following words correctly.

Endeavour, mosaic, genre, portrait, etching, marine, amateur, dilettante, connoisseur, silhouette, hue, technique, chiaroscuro, exhibit, exhibition, renowned, vague, subtle, transparent, opaque, awesome.

 

NOTE: Check your prononciation with the key.

 

Exercise 2. Match the words on the left with their meanings on the right:

1.     technique            a. professional singer, dancer, actor

2.     patchwork           b. artist’s workroom

3.     studio                 c. magic used for evil purposes

4.     artiste                 d. single movement of a brush

5.     chiaroscuro          e. a curved board on which the painter mixes colours

6.     crayon                 f. kind of textile design

7.     stroke                 g. everything concerned with the mechanical part of an

                               artistic performance

8.     artistry                h. qualities of skill or taste possessed by an artist

9.     the black art        i. stick or pencil of soft coloured chalk or charcoal

10.  palette                j. distribution of light and shade in a painting

 

NOTE: Check your answers with the key.

 

Exercise 3. Explain what is:

canvas, illumination, sketch, pastel, print, composition, light and shade, chiaroscuro, texture, studio skylight, genuine, transparent, nude, connoisseur

 

Exercise 4. Give English equivalents of:

светотень, распределение светотени, техника лоскутного шитья, писать на пленэре, на фоне голубого неба, передавать атмосферу тихого летнего вечера, очертания, в верхнем правом углу, слева, налево, художественное творчество, изображать что-либо на полотне, карандашный набросок, офорт, художник-самоучка, керамика (керамическое искусство), писать маслом, достичь теплого золотистого колорита, античное искусство, вышивка, основы искусства.

 

Exercise 5. Match the words on the left with their opposites on the right

1.     distinct                                          a. sharp

2.     transparent                                    b. original

3.     inferior                                          c. unknown

4.     subtle                                           d. vague

5.     authentic                                       e. a copy

6.     trivial                                            f. opaque

7.     renowned                                       g. rough

8.     smooth                                          h. connoisseur

9.     dilettanti                                       i. natural

10.  conventional                                  j. superior

 

NOTE: Check your answers with the key.

 

Exercise 6. Speak on classifications of:

works of art, painting, applied art, genre, graphics, print.

 

Exercise 7. Think of sentences to illustrate the use of the following word-combinations:

A picture of somebody, a picture by somebody, a school of, a trend in, in the foreground, against the background of, in the far distance, in full face, in profile, to paint in oils, to paint from memory/nature, to paint in the open air, to depict, to convey, to render, to treat, to achieve.

 

Exercise 8. Give a summary view of:

- pictorial art;

- the various means by which a painter attains the necessary effect in his pictures;

- painting materials that you know;

- trends in painting;

- world-famous masters and masterpieces;

- your preferences in painting.