colorist

[kuhl-er-ist]

noun

1. a person who uses color skillfully.

2. a painter who emphasizes color relationships in a work of art.

3. a person who colors photographs.

4. a hairdresser who is skilled in coloring coloring or tinting hair.

5. a musical performer or composer who is skilled in bringing musical color.

Other Word Forms

• coloristic adjective
• coloristically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of colorist¹

1680–90; color + -ist; compare French coloriste

Example Sentences

The artist Norman Zammitt, a colorist who excelled as a painter, remains less well known than his peers in the Light and Space movement.

From New York Times

So she was having her hair done with her colorist in L.A. and then messaged me and said, “I think it’s gone very dark.”

From Los Angeles Times

Hernández is a brilliant colorist, the vivid hues sometimes functioning in suggestive symbolic mode while always reveling in pure decorative joy.

From Los Angeles Times

And they show off Agar’s brilliance as a colorist — which was unusual for her generation of British artists — and perhaps indebted to Matisse.

From New York Times

The great thing about Rachmaninoff is that he is a colorist in the way he writes for the piano.

From New York Times