On Painting Techniques: How Paint Drippings Impact Pollock’s Expressionist Paintings

Throughout time brushstrokes and methods of painting used by different artists have evolved and progressed with the use of innovative ideas and techniques that have been combined into something entirely different. An appropriate example of this would be during the early 1300s wherein the number of brushstrokes available to the artists were limited, this is due to the number of painting mediums that were popularized.

Artists used to specialize in either fresco or egg tempera, this posed many challenges to the artists not solely because of the number of their possibilities however it was due to the nature of the paint used because it has a particularly fast drying time of about 5 seconds. The variety of artworks during this era all more or less had the same look/design which was due to the number of limitations the mediums present held. If you were to look at the Byzantine and gothic art during the middle ages their similarities were evident. The techniques that artists used at the time were the following, glaze, hatching/cross-hatching, and direct painting. Oil painting was already present during this era, but it wasn’t popularized, unlike the other water-medium paints. According to Jill Foyered on her lecture video on brush-strokes, the paintings found in this era of transitioning showed similarities to past works created from egg-tempera since oil wasn’t a popularized medium. In addition to this, she states that sometimes experts nowadays struggle classifying art that was created before the transition or art during the era of transition. The perfection and evolution of different art techniques can be seen through the works of Leonardo Da Vinci who perfected sfumato all the way towards the emotion and realism that Turner was able to incorporate in his works.

Jackson Pollock’s painting technique gives us a new take/definition of what we call a “painting”. Breaking rules and norms with how art is being played and expressed, Jackson Pollock has been opened by these set of possibilities as he spent 5 years exploring them. A combination of different types of paint, resulting in different textures and patterns of color that creates a beautiful overall impact on the appearance of his works. Seeing the different colors and paint makes you wonder how much physical activity is being done to make this painting, and that’s the beauty of Pollock’s Expressionist Paintings or even paintings in general. They make you wonder or think of these thoughts in our heads that we initially get from these paintings. This makes us realize that the beauty of paintings aren’t just from what we see, but it also comes from how it makes us feel, and how it makes us wonder deep into our own very thoughts.

Compared to the traditional paintings, Pollock’s Expressionist Paintings literally threw paint into the canvas, in a very beautiful way. Pollock as an artist has a very rare way of creating a masterpiece. Using unique “brush” tools to create different brush-strokes all over the canvas was one of his characteristics as an artist. He even uses a very fluid type of paint to show his artworks and as he draws the paint into the air, it makes unique patterns as it drizzles down into the canvas. Unlike other artists, Pollock chooses to be different in having ways to create such a unique and eye-catching masterpiece into a piece of art.

References and Further Reading

• Varnedoe, Kirk; Karmel, Pepe (1998). Jackson Pollock: Essays, Chronology, and Bibliography. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. pp. 315–329. ISBN 978–0–87070–069–9.
• Jump up to:a b Horsley, Carter B., Mud Pies, Jackson Pollock, Museum of Modern Art, November 1, 1998 to February 2, 1999, The Tate Gallery, London, March 11 to June 6, 1999