Art Glossary – Painting & Art Terms Explained Simply
- Abstract Faces
- Abstract Painting
- Abstract Commissioned Art
- Action Painting
- Acrylic Painting
- Airbrush
- Commissioned Painting
- Pencil Drawings
- Floral Painting in an Abstract Style
- Flowers – Realism
- Dry Brush Technique
- Expressionism
- Figuration / Figurative
- Photorealism
- Futurism
- Graffiti Style
- Geometric Abstraction
- Hyperrealism
- Impressionism
- Cubism
- Artworks with Texture
- Landscape in an Abstract Style
- Landscape – Realistic
- Pastel Painting
- Portrait Painting / Portrait Art
- Maritime Paintings
- Mixed Media
- Minimal Art
- Modern Art / Artworks
- Naïve Painting
- Neo-Expressionism
- Oil Painting
- Pop Art
- Realism
- Relief Art
- Palette-Knife Technique
- Street Art
- Still Life
- Animal Paintings
- Typography Style
- Urban Art
- XXL Painting
- Drawings
Colorful abstract faces painted with a touch of Pop Art and graffiti style. The face or hair isn’t rendered only in skin tones—it's bold and vibrant. Painted with brushes or markers, and often with spray paint in the mix.
More information: Abstract Faces
Artwork: Abstract No. 1517 · Artwork: Abstract No. 1463
Blog post: To the blog
Abstract painting dispenses with figurative depiction and works with form, color, structures, and textures to make feelings, impressions, or concepts visible.
More information: Abstract Painting
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Abstract Commissioned Art
Custom abstract works to your brief: color spectrum, format, materials, and style are aligned—ideal for room, interior, and mood.
More information: Abstract Commissioned Art
How flowing paint becomes an artwork: dripping, scraping, palette-knife work, splattering, and flicking. Action painting is a major movement within modern abstract art.
Well-known methods include drip painting (pouring/throwing paint from a bottle onto the canvas) as well as dropping/splattering with brushes.
Artwork: Abstract No. 1429
Acrylic Painting
Acrylics dry quickly, can be used from translucent to impasto, and are great for saturated hues, layering, and mixed media.
More information: Acrylic Paintings – Overview
Airbrush
Airbrush art is a technique where paint is atomized into fine droplets by air from a compressor and sprayed through a pistol onto a surface. It enables smooth gradients, sleek surfaces, detailed work, and very even thin coats—often used for photorealistic images or to create shadows and highlights.
Individual works made to order: pet/people portraits (e.g., weddings) from realistic (oil, pastel) to hyperrealistic; also abstract commissions (markers, spray paint, acrylic).
More information: Commissioned Painting · Abstract · Have a Portrait Painted · Pet Portrait from Photo
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Graphite in various hardnesses—from crisp lines to soft shading. Ideal for studies and detailed drawings.
Floral Painting in an Abstract Style
Abstract floral motifs—color-intense and energetic. Not classic blossoms and stems, but a color experience with floral overtones. In saturated tones, applied with lively palette-knife strokes or layered, these abstract flowers feel like a dance of color and form. A vibrant mix of nature vibes and contemporary abstraction—strong, lively, never pushy.
More information: Related category · Blog post: To the blog
Artwork: Abstract No. 1425
Realistic floral painting in oil/pastel with botanical precision, fine nuances, and balanced light.
More information: Landscapes · Flowers · Still Life
Artwork: Snowdrops with Dew
The dry-brush technique with oil uses very little oil paint on a dry brush, most of it wiped off, to create a hair-thin, dusty layer that is then brushed over the surface. Ideal for detailed textures like fur, hair, or eyelashes and for giving the work a realistic, drawing-like look through light and shadow effects.
Expressionist painting uses intense, subjective colors and simplified, distorted forms to convey emotions and moods. Typical are expressive, gestural brushstrokes suggesting energy and movement, as well as strong contrasts to amplify the emotional impact. It aims to transfer inner feelings directly onto the canvas rather than depict reality objectively.
Artwork: Abstract No. 1406
Abstract figurative art blends recognizable forms from reality with strong stylization and distortion. Motifs remain a reference to the real while colors and shapes are altered so they capture an essence rather than reproducing the original exactly.
More information: Figurative Painting
Photorealism is a technique and style in which artists recreate a photographic reference as objectively and precisely as possible in another medium such as painting or drawing—creating the illusion of reality by rendering all details, light/shadow contrasts, and textures with high precision while minimizing subjective interpretation.
Futurist painting uses abstract, fragmented forms, dynamic lines, and luminous contrasts to depict the movement, speed, and energy of the modern, technological world. Machines, cars, and industry appear in interpenetrating forms and repeated contours to visualize dynamism.
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Graffiti style on canvas combines the aesthetics and techniques of graffiti with the portability of canvas. Artists create detailed lettering, images, and compositions using spray paint, stencils, brushes, and other tools—often with vivid colors and personal styles ranging from photorealism to Pop Art.
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An abstract style focusing on clearly defined geometric forms—squares, circles, triangles, and lines—to create non-figurative compositions.
Hyperrealism builds on photographic references to achieve a near-identical, often even more detailed rendering of reality—every texture, reflection, and shade captured with “super-sharp” precision so viewers may confuse the painting with a photo.
Impressionism
A technique characterized by fleeting impressions, light and color effects, and short, visible brushstrokes placed closely together. Bright colors, minimal contours, and plein-air painting capture natural light and atmosphere in landscapes or figures.
Cubism
Objects are depicted from multiple viewpoints at once, broken into geometric shapes like cubes or pyramids—abandoning classical perspective for a fragmented, abstract representation, often with a restrained palette to foreground structure and form.
Artwork:
Maskenball · Artwork:
Maskerade
More information: Figurative Painting (related)
Abstract textured artworks using acrylic paint, sand, marble dust, and modeling paste—built up and then overpainted—create tactile, three-dimensional effects. Once dry, acrylics emphasize the relief to give depth and presence.
More information: Textured Paintings
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Landscape in an Abstract Style
Abstract landscapes do not depict nature realistically; instead, color, form, texture, and structure create an emotional or conceptual sense of place—inviting personal interpretation.
More information: Abstract Landscapes · Blog post: To the blog
Artwork: 
· Artwork: 
A realistic landscape on canvas renders natural or man-made scenes with accuracy and detail, closely matching real colors, light, forms, and atmospheric conditions—like a photograph.
Artwork: 
A technique using pigmented sticks or pencils on special supports (paper/card). Often blended for soft gradients, but also capable of fine lines and detail—ideal for human and animal portraits. The tooth of the paper holds many layers for realistic results.
Portrait Painting / Portrait Art
Portrait painting focuses on an individual—capturing appearance and, ideally, essence and personality. One of the oldest art forms, with roots back to antiquity.
More information: Have a Portrait Painted · Pet Portrait from Photo
Marine painting centers on nautical subjects—ships, seascapes, the sea, and events at sea—often including vessels, people, and landscapes in maritime contexts.
More information: Maritime Motifs
Artwork:
Artwork: 
Abstract mixed media combines different materials and techniques—paint (acrylic, markers), drawing, collage, fabrics, papers, found objects—to create layered, often non-figurative works focusing on color, form, and texture for emotional/conceptual impact.
More information: Mixed Media
Artwork: 
· Artwork: Fashion
An abstract style defined by radical reduction: simple geometric forms, limited palette, often industrial materials—aiming for objectivity and impersonal effect.
Contemporary visual languages—abstract, figurative, mixed media; experimental and open to materials.
More information: Modern Paintings
Artwork: Abstract 1401 · Artwork: Abstract No. 1143
Abstract naïve painting merges the simplified, intuitive, rule-free approach of naïve art with abstraction’s focus on color, line, and form—expressive, subjective, often playfully imaginative.
Artwork: Abstract No. 1136
The abstract side of neo-expressionism (since the 1960s) returned to emotional, often figurative expression with powerful color and brushwork—combining abstraction with raw, evocative depiction.
Oil painting uses pigments bound in drying oils (e.g., linseed). It offers durability, brilliance, and flexible handling from thick impasto to thin glazes. The slow drying time allows extended working and layered color.
More information: Oil Paintings
Pop Art uses bright, contrasting colors, clean lines, and often repeated faces or motifs from popular culture (stars, musicians, comics), inspired by mass media and advertising.
Motifs can feature celebrities, actors, and musicians similar to ad imagery; palettes are bold and high-contrast; irony often comments on consumer culture; faces are flattened with thick black contours reminiscent of comics.
More information: Pop Art
Artwork: Have Fun with Mickey · Artwork: I am the King (Chimpanzee)
Realism defined itself against romantic idealization by depicting reality as precisely and unadorned as possible—everyday life, ordinary people, social issues—with a sober, often critical stance.
A relief creates three-dimensional forms on a flat surface—figures or shapes project from the background. It’s a hybrid of painting and sculpture, fixed to its base. Low, half, and high relief differ by how far the forms protrude.
Paint is applied with a knife or scraper to build thick layers, textures, and structures. In abstraction, this creates expressive depth and dynamics beyond realistic depiction.
More information: Palette-Knife Technique
Artwork: Abstract No. 2013 · Artwork: Abstract No. 2005
Street art on canvas adapts and develops urban art for interiors—bringing techniques and motifs from public space onto canvas for galleries, workplaces, and homes.
A traditional genre depicting inanimate objects—flowers, fruit, bottles, everyday items—arranged aesthetically and often symbolically. From the Dutch “still leven,” also linked to vanitas themes (transience).
Abstract animal art portrays animals non-realistically, emphasizing color, shape, line, and structure to express energy or essence rather than literal likeness. Artists like Franz Marc used luminous, non-natural colors in this spirit.
More information: Animals
Artwork: Giraffe · Artwork: Cockatoo
Abstract typography treats letters not primarily as readable text but as visual elements—forms, colors, lines—to achieve aesthetic or emotional effect like abstract art.
Artwork: Abstract No. 1363 · Artwork: Abstract No. 1364
Urban-style artworks designed like graffiti/street art but transferred to canvas—combining the dynamism of public-space art with the durability and displayability of traditional canvases.
Abstract XXL works focus on color, form, and texture at large scale—no literal motifs, but strong, enduring materials and presence that invite individual interpretation.
More information: XXL Painting
Artwork: Abstract No. 1441 · Artwork: Abstract 1518
Drawing with graphite pencils uses techniques such as hatching, shading (smudging), and shaping light and shadow to create volume and tonal range. Choice of hardness (soft for darks, hard for lights) and how you use the tip (pointed vs. flat side) is key to the result.
