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

Examples of painterly in a Sentence

He has a painterly eye.

a painterly picture of the sea

Recent Examples on the Web

Mary McCartney, meanwhile, brings a quieter intimacy with portraits that blend celebrity with a painterly softness, while Julia Fullerton-Batten stuns with a visceral, theatrical tableau of Victorian women boxing—an image that punches through the noise with feminist force and visual drama. —Lee Sharrock, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025

The harshness of this world, conjured by Laxe with his signature painterly vision, feels a lot like our own. —Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2025

In one key scene, when Roz jumps from a ship while the forest is alight with magenta fire, shows off how the painterly style matches the soundscape. —Ryan Fleming, Deadline, 8 Feb. 2025

The trailer showed the smallest of glimpses of Amaterasu running through a field, with painterly style intact. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 13 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1586, in the meaning defined at sense 1