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Website Changes & New Focus Part 2

Beach Romance, 16x20 Pointillist Painting


















This is the second part of a short 2 part post.
As noted in my last post, I explained what Romantic Realism was and why I was moving forward as a Romantic Realist painter. I thought I should also explain why I no longer planned on painting as a Pointillist painter. As a result, my Pointillist art will no longer be a focus on my website at, https://edmccarthyart.com.
 
For many years, prior to painting as a Romantic Realist, I painted using a post-impressionist style called, Pointillism. I still have many Pointillist works available, and so I felt readers would appreciate a short brief concerning this style I worked with for so long.
Pointillism, was the first style to come about after Impressionist. It is a technique whereby paint is applied closely together using tiny dots, daubs and/or dashes. Mixing dots of specific colors can create a new color. These new colors are not produced physically on the canvas or paper by blending them with a brush or palette knife, but are created visually by your eyes, when observed from a distance. This is referred to as optical mixing.
I started painting with this style back in 1979 (over 35 years), and developed a lot of specific techniques for figuring out how to produce a wide range of colors, in as efficient manner as possible. I also learned through a lot of trial and error, what works and what doesn't work well (and no, blue dots and yellow dots DON'T create a green field of grass. Trust me on this)!
Over the years, I figured out that my pointillist works can be sub-divided into three distinct types of paintings, Realistic Pointillism, Impressionistic Pointillism and Stylized Pointillism.
Realistic Pointillism, generally speaking is work that I produced working from photographs. Design wise, the work is pretty close to what you see in the photograph.
Impressionistic Pointillism is much looser, more quickly completed, somewhat expressionistic, and often done en plein air, or from life. Because it's so loose in appearance, most of the time this work would just fall under Impressionism. It's also the style I use to created studies and field work, and the one approach I plan on continuing to use.
Stylized Pointillism. In appearance, this work is very curvy, geometric, streamlined and modernist looking. This is the pointillist approach that I produced the most work with, and is the one that I would most likely referred to as my signature Pointillist painting style.
After painting 100's and 100's of pointillist paintings, I have decided to retire this style. While I enjoyed working and exploring with this style of painting, it was time to move in new directions, and try new projects. Basically, I'm burned-out on dots. In addition, I feel I've pretty much explored all the avenues this painting technique had to offer.

Thanks for reading.


Eddie Mac


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