8:55 AM: i just added to yesterdays post, and am repeating what i said and illustrated about the term painterly, since it is really core to my process.
this drawing in colored pencil was made during one of our early morning trail walks, on july 10th. one could say it epitomizes my passion for drawing and painting our creek. when i look back at the many hundreds of drawings and paintings in colored pencil, gouache and oil i’ve made, they all have the quality usually referred to in the art world as painterly. this is a description of that quality i found online…
”A painting may be described as being painterly when the illusion of form is created by utilizing colors, strokes, textures and any other techniques unique to the art of painting, rather than a linear method involving skillful drawing.”
i would modify this definition by saying that “skillful drawing” is also part of the painterly. as a matter of fact, i can always tell in an abstract or non-objective painting whether the artist is a skilled draftsman. drawing is not limited to the description of objects, people or places. one way of looking at it is that great drawing usually informed by a deep knowledge of mark-making throughout the history of art, although the drawings children and indigenous people make are exceptions!
BELOW: are 3 examples of the painterly in my recent work, and one detail of a painting by 17th c. dutch painter, franz hals.on the upper left is a detail of one of my gaze paintings. next to it on the right is a detail of a plein air painting of the creek. bottom left: a detail of a painting from my sound of a flute series and bottom right:detail of a hand by franz hals. they illustrate, far better than words could, what is meant by painterly.
