Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used.
Augustine Birrell, Obiter Dicta, Emerson. Phrase found also in Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Chapter XII. In Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 576-77.