How to Use impasto in a Sentence

impasto

noun
  • The thick impasto of the hydrangeas above the figures matches the lushness of the blossom itself.
    — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022
  • Her color palette and impasto technique make for deep texture, in some cases with paint an inch thick coming off the canvas.
    — NOLA.com, 8 July 2017
  • Some of his creations have the depth of relief sculptures while others look like plasticy impasto paintings.
    — Joseph Flaherty, WIRED, 10 Oct. 2013
  • Todd Bienvenu paints both oil and acrylic in a faux-naïf style of broad approximate strokes, bright high-contrast colors and heavy impasto.
    — New York Times, 13 Apr. 2017
  • The impasto of time and experiences with the firstborn change how parents behave with subsequent children.
    — Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
  • In each frame, the team of artists mimicked the thick layers of oil paint that Vincent mixed on his canvases with his palette knife and hands through a technique called impasto.
    — Jackie Mansky, Smithsonian, 20 Feb. 2018
  • The result, painted in heavy impasto, was tiny (just 9 by 6 inches) and predictably controversial.
    — Nick Glass, CNN, 10 Sep. 2022
  • Each artist’s work employs the impasto technique, in which paint straight from the tube, by paint stick, or by finger is applied, slathered, or encrusted in a technique that makes the application process part of the art.
    — Nancy Shohet West, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • The scientists discovered the presence of a mineral called plumbonacrite in the impasto layer—an uncommon element in paints from that period.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 2 Dec. 2020
  • In addition to heavy impasto, Aguirre further thickened the surface of the painting by applying scrapings of paint from his palette that curl like flower petals or snippets of ribbons.
    — Steven Litt, cleveland, 18 Apr. 2021
  • What Hicks’s images convey is the impasto layering of changing generational taste that makes this house, like so many other storied British homes, a place of such endless delight and discovery.
    — Noor Brara, Vogue, 4 Oct. 2018
  • Norman has worked with impasto flowers for more than 25 years—implementing a technique that centers around thickly applying paint to a surface to create an almost sculptural quality.
    — Alexis Benveniste, Architectural Digest, 21 Nov. 2025
  • Jaeger-LeCoultre’s master painter faithfully reproduced the artist’s strong sense of perspective, signature brush stroke and heavy impasto, a technique that uses thick layers of paint that raise above the canvas.
    — Carol Besler, Robb Report, 25 Oct. 2021
  • This material obliged a 1920s avant-garde aesthetic — angular, abstract forms, a simple palette, no fancy flashes like impasto, and simple subject matter.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 14 Dec. 2019
  • Art brut was a source of inspiration for the painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet’s own work, which ranged from primitive-looking drawings scratched into impasto to a totemic figure composed only of two unmodified grapevine roots and a block of slag.
    — Nicole Rudick, The New York Review of Books, 7 Nov. 2018
  • The greatness of Kossoff’s work is revealed in how his images emerge from the impasto – the accumulations of thick layers of paint — forcing the viewer to negotiate and cycle back and forth between the image depicted and the paint itself.
    — Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'impasto.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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