Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Pointillism in the New Millenium

Another Strange Garden
Acrylic on Canvas
8" x 10"

I didn't think I would ever try pointillism. I am a patient person, but the thought of doing an entire painting using little dots of paint has never appealed to me. But Diane Culhane's wonderful online class "Paint Your Garden: The Language of Paint" has showed me a way to use this technique, more as an accent, or a way to add interest and texture. And now that I've tried it out a bit, I really like it!

One thing I've found it is very useful for is balancing color. If I use a color in one part of a painting, I'll make some dots of color elsewhere to help the colors make sense overall. I love it when you can see dots of color under glazing. It also is a way to adjust value by adding more light or dark without changing the base color. And, even though it seems like it would be tedious, I have to admit that it's kind of fun to do.

Have you ever tried pointillism? If so, how did you like it?

Welcome, Paint Party Friday Visitors! Thanks so much for visiting, and commenting.

19 comments:

  1. Love this abstract piece! I've never tried pointillism.

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  2. I love these flowers! Beautiful Abstract!

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  3. Debbie, your garden is so calming. Lovely colors used.
    Yes I've tried painting using dots, and find it very meditative. I'm a kind of person that like fiddling with small details.

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  4. I have never used this technique but I agree that is sounds really enjoyable the way you describe it, the colors are so rich yet soft, its beautiful, I enlarged it to see it better, I love this,

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  5. oohhh I really like your strange and wonderful gardens. I am with you pointillism just seems very time consuming. LOL
    Have a great day
    Nicole/Beadwright

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  6. beautiful painting! I love how you touched on pointillism. Happy PPF!

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  7. Love the painting, you are invited to share this with Feline Art Friday:
    http://kittypartay.blogspot.com/2014/07/feline-art-friday-5.html

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  8. I love your philosophy, I agree! I'd also love to follow your site. I stopped using FB to follow because people get lost in feeds. Perhaps you can add feedburner to the page for a straight email follow? Then I don't have to have a useless gmail account!

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know what feedburner is, but I will investigate how to do that.

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  9. This is beautiful! I love the texture...seems like I'm looking at it through rippling water..a wonderful interesting piece!! Great style!...No, I've never tried it either...

    Hugs Giggles

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  10. Congratulations on doing this type of painting successfully. It's beautiful and a style that looks so hard to do well. Yours has great color balance.

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  11. There's something so attractive, so earthy about this painting. Beautiful.

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  12. Wonderful work. I love the colours. The workshop looks very good. I have never tried pointillism but I may give a go now :)

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  13. This is really great! I love the textured look youve achieved! Great color too!

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  14. I love the texture, and those colours are beautiful. Never tried pointillism, but I did make some dotpaintings: dip a wooden stick into paint, make a few dots, take more paint etc .... Very long process, but kind of meditative at the same time. And the results you can achieve with those little dots of colours are amazing.

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  15. i really like this too, and what a great alternative to doing the WHOLE thing in pointillism! (it does take a lot of patience!) Love your colours here. xx

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