Solarized Film Frame from “Snake Handlers” 2001
New Robotic Technology Enables Digital Oil Paintings
We’re on the cusp of a new era in fine-art painting. Recently developed robotic devices enable Photoshop software to be used as a painting tool.
William A. Brown 2023
My Digital Pre-Paintings will be sold as NFTs (non-fungible tokens)—unique, inimatable cryptographic images—with the option of obtaining an archival oil painting produced by this new technology.
Many of the works on this site are highly detailed and are most advantageously viewed on a 40 inch or wider screen. You can also zoom into the images so they fill the frame.
Video with latest virtual and actual paintings. Music generously provided by Bruce Hampton.
Public Domain Art Deconstructed & Reconstructed:
Digital revision and reconfiguration of iconic paintings in the public domain, including single paintings and multi-panel works—diptychs, triptychs, etc.
Detail Tych 39
Details Tych 39
New Strategies for The Era of Painting Robots:
Neon Metal 09 2024
The Aleatory Digital Painting Series:
Selections from over 500,000 Computer Generated Random Image Mixes.
Video Works 1979-2019
Still Photography 1979-2019
Contact Information and C.V.
Comparison of Digital Files with Oil on Board Robotically Created Paintings:
About My Art Practice
I’ve had a quietly successful career as a video and photography artist but I’ve always kept an interest in the work of great painters, particularly European painters since the Renaissance. Being honest, I’ve always wanted to paint but felt challenged by the haptic skills required to be a painter. In fact, I’ve longed for a technology that would allow me to create paintings directly from Photoshop files. That day has arrived. Art Matr, a start up in Tuxedo, New York, has developed a device capable of creating archival oil paintings based on the three color process used in inkjet printing. Now anyone who can use Photoshop can generate oil paintings.
I use multiple strategies to compose my digital pre-paintings. One approach involves creating montage pre-paintings in Photoshop by combining elements taken from public domain paintings by European artists. I have also created true aleatory works by combining 544,000 of my photographs as well as public domain images into film editing software. I programmed the computer to randomly mix these images and selected the most promising outcomes. My current work involves applying Photoshop filters, particularly the neon effect, to montages I create from elements gleaned from public domain art.
This brave new world of machine fine art painting signals a new singularity between photography, digital image manipulation, and painting. Distinctions between these seemingly unique media will collapse I believe. I'm well aware that creating images that challenge the massive commercial enterprise that painting has become is possibly a fool’s errand. There is a charging at windmills aspect to this work, but I believe in the imperative of a more efficient painting methodology based on the new robotics.
William A. Brown
November 17, 2023
Details from Public Domain “Tych” Images 2024
