Oil Paint
Oil paint is a slow-drying art medium made with pigment and a drying-oil binder that allows extended working time, smooth blending, and layered application.
Painter
Elsie Driggs
Elsie Driggs was an American Precisionist painter known for austere factory scenes, industrial geometry, and later experiments with watercolor and pastel.
Elsie Driggs quick facts
Driggs studied the shapes of Pittsburgh steel mills before painting her best-known Precisionist canvas, then explored watercolor and pastel in later work.
| Born | 1898 · Hartford, Connecticut, United States |
|---|---|
| Died | 1992 · New York City, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Precisionism; later American modernism |
| Paint types | Oil Paint · Watercolor Paint |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper |
| Painting methods | Simplified monumental industrial forms, muted oil color, graphite preparatory studies, and later watercolor collages and oil-pastel combinations |
| Common subjects | Steel mills, factory chimneys, industrial landscapes, plants, flowers, figures, and abstract organic forms |
| Notable works | Pittsburgh · Study for Pittsburgh · Leaves · Woman Tree |
| Other materials | Graphite, pastel, collage, and charcoal used separately or combined with painting |
| Technique recollection | In a Smithsonian oral history, Driggs described layering pastel over an oil underpainting |
Sources: Whitney: Pittsburgh, oil on canvas, Whitney: Study for Pittsburgh, graphite on paper, The Met: Garden on Cedar Road, watercolor on paper, National Gallery of Art: Woman Tree, watercolor, Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Elsie Driggs interview.
Paint types used
Driggs painted Pittsburgh in muted oil color and developed later watercolor works, sometimes adding paper collage or dry pastel.
Watercolor Paint
Watercolor paint is a water-based art medium made with pigment and a water-soluble binder, typically applied in transparent washes on absorbent paper.
Surface types used
Canvas supported Driggs's early Precisionist oil paintings, while paper carried her graphite studies, watercolor works, and pastels.
Canvas
Canvas is a woven fabric support, commonly cotton or linen, used for painting and sold either raw or prepared with a compatible ground layer.
Paper
Paper is an absorbent sheet material made from pressed fibers, with weight, sizing, and surface texture controlling moisture tolerance and paint behavior.
Painters similar to Elsie Driggs
Sheeler and Demuth similarly simplified American industrial architecture into sharp geometric compositions, each with a different palette.
Charles Sheeler
Charles Sheeler was an American Precisionist painter known for sharply defined factories, industrial machinery, interiors, and architectural forms.
Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth was an American Precisionist painter known for precise industrial architecture, bold geometric compositions, and delicate floral watercolors.