I thought I'd put together a site with some information about decorative painting. I found a great explanation of what Decorative Painting is. This is an excerpt from the Tole Net Page (please see the link below to view the rest of the site):
"What is tole painting? What is decorative painting? There is a lot of confusion about the term "tole painting" vs. "decorative painting". Tole, from the old French taule, refers to iron or steel in thin sheets laminated or welded under pressure. (I found this definition in a 1910 French dictionary.) From a traditional point of view, "Tole Painting", is painting on items made from this thin metal. Language, however is not static. A friend of mine that is a linguist regards language to be a living and breathing friend. She is happy to regale you with tales of words that have meanings today which are vastly different from their original historical meaning. Words also develop to have more than one, similar, meaning. For example, the word Kleenex is recognizable as a brand name, but also as a generic term for all facial tissue. While it is reasonably easy to trace the definition of the word "tole" from a dictionary, it is less easy to define what the term means today. Adding to this difficulty is that this style of "decorative painting" flourishes in different "niches" around the world. (For example, Russian Folk Art, such as Zhostova, continues to be produced in it's birthplace, and Russian artists are influencing American decorative painters.) This art form has many influences from the past, from numerous countries, and is constantly evolving. As a result, it is difficult to pin it down a definition. Decorative painting in North America has been driven by it's immigrant roots. Certain areas of the US are more heavily influenced by German or Norwegian folk art, for example. It has only been since the introduction of painting books, largely since 1970, that folk art tole and decorative painting has become more generic in the US. Prior to the 1970's, if you could find someone to teach this art form at all, you would have learned Rosemaling or Bauernmalerei or one of the Colonial based painting techniques based upon historic patterns (etc.), but rarely would you find a teacher that could teach generic decorative painting (drawing from a variety of techniques, products, surfaces and styles) as most painters learn it today. Adding to the confusion over the term "tole" is that "toleware" is a very specific kind of decorative painted, highly varnished product -- usually made from metal. I think that we can say that "tole painting" is a form of folk art painting based upon a teachable method of specific strokes and techniques. Those same skills are also used in other forms of folk art (decorative) painting, including specific regional techniques such as Rosemaling or Zhostova (etc.), and more recently evolved "melting pot" techniques. Tole and Decorative painting is generally done on walls, furniture or useful objects. The term "tole painting" has evolved become interchangeable with "decorative painting" in common usage, rather than solely a reference to it's historical usage as painting on metal. (Like Kleenex, "tole painting" may refer to true tole, but it may refer to a decorative painted piece on any surface.) While you would be correct to refer to a piece of 'toleware' as tole painting, you would not be incorrect to refer to painting on wood using that term."