Our world is full of visual art. Images surround us, communicating ideas through posters, murals, sculpture and painting. Comics, book covers, DVD and games cases; all are modern but all can trace their lineage back to the first men who painted images on the walls of caves.
Throughout the millennia different tools have been used to achieve the desired effect. Dry pigment blown through a pipe, images carved into stonework, brushes used to paint walls, and oils used to paint canvas. Whatever the era, technology has advanced and art has gone with it.
Today the world of visual art is larger than it has ever been. But what are the tools which are used by artists to create their work, some of which have been in use for thousands of years, and others for merely decades?
Palettes vary considerably, from the plastic or ceramic ones used by watercolour artists to the wet palette of an acrylic artist. But the most recognisable must be the large, thin, curved wooden board held in the hand and resting on the arm of an oil painter