The myriad different styles of brushstrokes that artists render is part of what makes painting such an endlessly fascinating medium. In his series of large-scale works, Donald Martiny celebrates the evocative power of the brushstroke. Each painting captures a small action, as few as two strokes of the brush, and blows them up to a macro scale. It’s analogous to diagramming atoms or other building blocks of our world—Martiny’s work breaks the art of painting down to its barest elements. “I make my own brushes and I make my own paint,” he tells The Creators Project of his process. “Sometimes I employ brooms or mops to make my gestures.” Though these works—which are named after languages— are made with unorthodox tools, they always emerge looking like the product of a casual yet purposeful paintbrush. Explore some of Martiny’s paintings below.

Kwadi

Ifo

Kiwi

Beothuk

Machiquenga 

Zhang-Zhung (Lonely journey)

To learn more about Donald Martiny’s work, click here. 

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