Artist means someone who paints or draws, and more broadly anyone who does creative work: a sculptor, a photographer, a musician. It covers only some kinds of performers. Singers and bands are called artists, especially when people talk about albums and concerts, but someone who acts in the theatre or in films is an actor, and a general word for circus or variety performers is performer.
artist: will you get the meaning right?
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a local/street/famous + artist; works by + artists; the artist's new album (music); a theatre/film + actor (not artist)
- A local artist painted the colourful mural on the wall of our school.
- The gallery is showing paintings by young artists from all over the country.
- The festival line-up includes more than fifty artists, from folk singers to DJs.
What changed
First versionMy brother is an artist at the city theatre and performs in three plays a week.
RevisionMy brother is an actor at the city theatre and performs in three plays a week.
It is tempting to call anyone who works in a theatre an artist, but an English speaker will first think of a painter, for example someone who paints the scenery. A person who plays roles on stage or in films is an actor.
Painter can also mean an artist, but it has a second meaning, a person whose job is painting walls and houses: We need a painter to paint the kitchen walls. Artist is broader: it covers painters, sculptors and photographers.
Your turn
The main role in the film was played by a young ___ who had never worked in front of a camera before.
Show the answer
actor — A role in a film is played by an actor, so the answer is actor. Artist mainly means someone who paints or creates art, and it is not the word for a person who plays film roles.
Write about an artist, musician or other creative person whose work you like. Say what they do and which of their works you remember best.
I love the work of a street artist from Yekaterinburg who paints huge murals, and I still remember his fox on the wall of an old factory.
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