matt harvey art
Portrait paintings, art demonstrations, figurative painting, landscapes
Pointillist portrait
I’m struggling to get a good image of this painting, but these should give a general idea. The one of the painting on the wall is closer to the actual colours and also gives a sense of the painting in the round. Its 30cmx30cm. I dismissed painting a portrait in this style for ages and didn’t think it would be worth trying. I have only seen very few pointillist portraits that I felt were successful. Seurat did make some of the most beautiful drawings ever made, but I wasn’t sure about the painted portraits. I’m still not completely sure about this, but after painting some landscapes using a ‘pointillist’ method I thought why not attempt it? Even with the landscapes it’s only recently that I realised it was a way of working that I could stick to. We shall see about the portraits. I wanted to paint a picture that was pure decoration of a surface. I like the way dots animate the surface as they interact with each other. But I find i have to be careful as they can become visually jarring.. I say dots but they are really small brushstrokes, moving in different directions. If they are too uniform they look mechanical, boring, repetitive. Best results are achieved by having no method. Just keep working, one brushstroke after another. Thanks for reading, I hope you’re having a good day!
matt harvey art 