The painterly effect a lesson by Virgil Elliott
4-1 THE PAINTERLY EFFECT
In these lessons I do not hesitate to assert
that art is about illusion and great art is the
total presentation of the greatest illusion.
This brings me to the ‘painterly effect’ or
the process of having your brush strokes or
knife effects appear on the canvas as you
see opposite in the detail from a pink rose I
painted 'wet-in-wet' before the blooms
could wilt. The full painting is shown
below ... JHVirgil writes:
The "painterly" approach was originally an incidental effect most common in sketches and
studies, the sole purpose of which was to help the artist solve some of the problems in the
execution of a more refined painting. Titian and Rembrandt became more "painterly" in their
later years, when deteriorating eyesight may have hidden the irregularities from them (one
hypothesis). Franz Hals painted a number of paintings in the sketch style, probably for his own
amusement and/or to cover his bar tab or whatever. He was capable of more refined painting,
as is evident in most of his more important commissioned portraits, but employed the faster
"alla prima" approach for painting more light-hearted subjects; probably his friends or
interesting subjects encountered at the tavern, where no one was likely to pose for very long.
Bouguereau has been falsely characterized as disguising his brushstrokes, but his brushwork is
actually visible from up close. In reproductions the strokes do not show, because the paintings
are generally large, with the main figures life-size, and the brushstrokes are small. He also used
palette knife very expertly for certain effects, especially in the vegetation and other parts of the
background, but generally did not employ impasto.http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/advanced/painterly.htm (1 of 3)1/13/2004 3:37:03 AM