Stains/Washes

Two-dimensional artworks—primarily paintings and drawings—that include stains and washes. The term “stain” is generally used for paintings featuring oils or acrylics on unprimed canvas, which allows the paint to literally stain the painting surface itself. (Alternatively, and historically, paint would be applied to an impermeable gessoed canvas surface.) The technique of stain painting—where the painting is almost entirely created through stains and washes—is most often associated with the works of American artists Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis.