Finish

DEFINITION

The surface texture---glossy, rough, matte---of a work of art, the word "patina" also means finish when referencing sculpture. Source: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"<br><br>(1) Surface characteristics of paper. (2) General term for trimming, folding, binding and all other post press operations.<br><br>Something that concludes, completes, or perfects, especially the last coating or treatment of a surface, or the surface texture resulting from such a coating or treatment. A finish in this sense might be described as matt, semi-gloss, or glossy, lustrous, luminous.Also, a material used in finishing or surfacing.And, the point at which an artist decides to stop working on an artwork. A finished work could also be called completed or done, or ready to be displayed.Quote: "With everything that we do, we desire more or less the end; we are impatient to be done with it and glad when it is finished. It is only the end in general, the end of all ends, that we wish, as a rule, to put off as long as possible." Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher. "Psychological Remarks," Parerga and Paralipomena, 1851. "Conversation in real life is full of half-finished sentences and overlapping talk. Why shouldn&#39;t painting be too?" Edgar Degas (1834-1917), French Impressionist. "I am always at work, but not in order to arrive at that finish which arouses the admiration of idiots." Paul C?zanne (1839-1906), French Post-Impressionist painter. Letter to his mother in 1874. "To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow. . . the coup de gr?ce for the painter as well as for the picture." Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist. Quoted in: Jaime Sabart?s, Picasso: portraits et souvenirs, chapter 7 (1946). "A painting is never finished. It simply stops in interesting places." Paul Gardner While he was working on the editing of a film, Jerry Lewis was talking to Stanley Kubrick about how difficult it is to make something of quality out of bad material: "I was in my cutting room around 1 in the morning, and he strolls in smoking a cigarette and says, &#39;Can I watch?&#39; I said: &#39;Yeah you can watch. You wanna see a Jew go down? Stand there.&#39; That was the night I coined the expression, &#39;You cannot polish a turd.&#39; And then Kubrick looked at me and said, &#39;You can if you freeze it.&#39;" Jerry Lewis (contemporary), American actor and director. "What They Say About Stanley Kubrick," New York Times Magazine, July 4, 1999. Also see abrasive, encaustic, finial, general to particular, glaze, lacquer, moir?, polish, polyurethane, shellac, varnish, and wood.