ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the intuitive symbolic meanings and associations that are involved in drawing and painting as activities, identifies a similar range of meanings intrinsic to the planar structure of drawing and painting. It considers the ontology of drawing and painting as gestural activities using physical materials. The chapter identifies a similar range of meanings intrinsic to the planar structure of drawing and painting. The planar support is also important in relation to abstract art. For the basis of meaning in such works is the placing of marks upon a two-dimensional plane to create the optical illusion of them being in front of or behind the plane, or of being animated in relation to it. Tempera as a medium of painting involves pigment that dries relatively quickly, and once laid down, it cannot be altered except by over-painting—with resulting problems for the fixity of the image.
