painterly

adjective

paint·​er·​ly ˈpān-tər-lē 

1

: of, relating to, or typical of a painter : artistic

painterly attention to detail

2

: suggestive or characteristic of a painting or of the art of painting

painterly photography

especially : marked by an openness of form which is not linear and in which sharp outlines are lacking

painterly brushwork

painterliness noun

Example Sentences

He has a painterly eye.

a painterly picture of the sea

Recent Examples on the Web

Floodlights accentuate the painterly aspects of their sound with an auxiliary keyboard player, an addition that adds a slightly cinematic bent to their earthly vistas. —Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 16 Mar. 2023

The outside world becomes interior in Herron’s impassioned neo-Cubist paintings, which fill Black men’s faces with signs, patterns and painterly gestures. —Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2023

This painterly tablecloth that comes in pink and blue. —Town & Country, 26 Feb. 2023

Given that Bachik has recently gone viral for his various manifestations of lip gloss nails and nude manicures, this degree of color and art-school-level painterly vibes immediately caught our eye on his feed. —Fiona Embleton, Glamour, 17 Feb. 2023

Like his images of Lake Lemuria, the painterly photos reveal hidden symmetries, patterns and shapes. —Oscar Holland, CNN, 12 Dec. 2022

This new twist on an old painterly tension between the picture plane and the illusion on its surface includes a perpendicular perspectival shift. —Cate Mcquaid, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Jan. 2023

These painterly decisions highlight how Avery began to change his art by adopting an alphabet of calligraphic patterns and guileless shapes. —Dallas News, 3 Jan. 2022

The picture sticks in your brain, while your body responds to the painterly scene. —Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 8 Dec. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

circa 1586, in the meaning defined at sense 1