Impasto is a painting technique that refers to the thick application of paint (usually oil paint). Impasto makes the painting look textured and opaque. Broken colour refers to the effect of blending colours optically rather than on the palette. Diffusion is a technique of impressionism that replaces hard lines in paintings. Paint is applied to the canvas side-by-side and is mixed optically. Wet paint is placed into wet paint without waiting for previous applications to dry. Impressionist painters often worked in the evening. This allowed them to replicate the shadowy effects of twilight.
The Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance. Photography was gaining popularity, and as cameras became more portable, photographs became more candid. Photography inspired Impressionists to represent momentary action, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape, but in the day-to-day lives of people.
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