How to Use painterly in a Sentence

painterly

adjective
  • He has a painterly eye.
  • Inez loved the sky, clouds and trees and saw the world through a painterly eye.
    — courant.com, 9 May 2018
  • The picture sticks in your brain, while your body responds to the painterly scene.
    — Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Here, the ending of each day brings a different painterly scene.
    — Angelina Villa-Clarke, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
  • Huge windows frame painterly views of the mountain landscape.
    — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 10 Apr. 2026
  • And there's all of this kind of abstract painterly references to her husband.
    — Erica Huang, Scientific American, 14 Dec. 2023
  • The five-year-old looked adorable in a colorful long-sleeve dress with an abstract painterly and floral print.
    — Rosa Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 4 May 2023
  • Bella went for a painterly eye moment, creating a modern work of art on each lid.
    — Emily Gaynor, Teen Vogue, 14 Aug. 2017
  • Below, the experts break down this season’s most painterly makeup looks.
    — Loren Savini, Allure, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Depending on sunlight and weather, at times the ground seems to glow in a vivid painterly fashion.
    — Laura Manske, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • The stage took on a painterly richness that was most arresting when the dancers, pretty much nude, slid down a ramp one by one.
    — Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 30 Oct. 2017
  • This tote combines both, with a painterly plaid in golden-hour hues and asymmetrical frills.
    — Ariel Wodarcyk, InStyle, 31 May 2026
  • There are textured, painterly backgrounds; the sky subtly changes color.
    — Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2020
  • At the same time, his painterly life could be rich with color, never more so than when suffused with the natural world.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 21 June 2023
  • At other times the figures are nearly obscured by black painterly washes.
    — Mike Giuliano, Howard County Times, 13 July 2018
  • Three-dimensional calla lilies add a painterly touch to dark purple French tips.
    — Ariel Wodarcyk, InStyle, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Adding to the mystique is a painterly palette of primary colors.
    — Daron James, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2025
  • Whether worn as a painterly wash all-over or dusted along the lower lashline, eye shadow tints are having a moment.
    — Karina Hoshikawa, Allure, 25 Sep. 2018
  • 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
  • Tsutsumi and Kondo are known for the painterly quality of their work.
    — Terry Flores, Variety, 20 Oct. 2022
  • There’s a painterly aspect to each of his films, where quiet transcendence aligns with larger-than-life chutzpah.
    — Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Tibi is beloved for the painterly prints and patterns that are splashed across their cult-status midi skirts and crop tops, but the brand's love for art goes much further.
    — Tara Lamont-Djite, Harper's BAZAAR, 11 June 2014
  • With satisfying rhythm, the piece sets up the painterly illusion of deep space with an actual space a child could crawl through.
    — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Aug. 2019
  • Hearst and Pendleton reimagined the bag as an art object and a site for painterly intervention.
    — Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Harrison still evokes painterly fugues of light and pungent smells, but they’re offset by a growing bleakness, and there’s less humor.
    — Literary Hub, 11 June 2026
  • Greenaway is what’s called a painterly filmmaker, and all his movies are full of bizarre, anachronistic sets drenched with gorgeous color.
    — Annalee Newitz, WIRED, 22 Jan. 2007
  • 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
  • As the stunning Murina opens, a blue expanse of water fills the frame like a painterly abstraction.
    — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2022
  • For all his best work’s bold painterly freedoms, drawing — and the human figure — remained fundamental to the end.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 31 July 2019
  • The trailer showed the smallest of glimpses of Amaterasu running through a field, with painterly style intact.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 13 Dec. 2024

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

Last Updated: