What does a painter do?

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A painter is an artist who works with different kinds of paint, usually on canvas or paper, to create pictures. A painter might use watercolor (which gives a lighter finish), acrylic (synthetic or manufactured paint) or oil paints (which consist of pigment, or color, suspended in oil.)

Some painters teach classes at art programs or colleges or museums; others might be hired to do illustrations for books or magazines. Others paint portraits of individual people or families. (More portrait painters were probably hired before cameras made it easy to snap a family photograph!)

Sometimes painters are lucky enough to sell their paintings to private collectors, galleries, or museums. If they’re really lucky (and, one assumes, very talented), they’ll get a commission—they’ll be hired to paint a particular picture for a sum of money!

Many famous painters lived in Europe, especially in England, France and Italy, between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some painters whose work you may recognize are Botticelli, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Renoir.