Styles of Painting

Expressionistic painting was most prominent between 1905 and 1920. The style had its origins in Germany and Austria. Artists tried to get an emotional reaction from the audience. Paintings often show distortion, exaggeration, dreamlike qualities, violence and colours that show the artist’s mood, emotions or ideas.

Expressionism had its roots in the chaotic lead up to WW1 and was both a reaction to and gained inspiration from impressionism in Germany around 1905. Impressionism’s focus on style over emotion resulted in artists such as Die Brücke wanting to get more reactions and a stir of feelings.

Some paintings and painters were motivated by Vincent Van Gogh or Edvard Munch who were both seen as an inspiration for the movement. Painters would use artificial colour palettes, quick brushstrokes and exaggeration of shapes and lines. Figures are often distorted, and the colours not standard.

The way that we see things is challenged in paintings of this style. It is subjective and focuses on the inner world of the painter as well as the emotion of what is being felt. It was not the aim of the painter to create a pleasing feeling for the viewer.

The legacy of expressionism is a long one that went beyond its fading in 1920 and influenced Abstract Expressionism. Painters even looked at the style in the 1970s with the creation of Neo-Expressionism. Expressionism also influenced contemporary art, futurism, cubism and surrealism. Some artists can see expressionism in some Baroque paintings with both showing shock and emotions with a different level of intensity.

The importance of expressionism was the incredible reactions and emotions that challenged the viewer. The style made for emotional expression from the painter onto the canvas and continued to influence painting for generations.

Digital art has become increasingly popular with the creation of computers, laptops and modern programmes which can manipulate and add to all kinds of images. Digital art is mostly used on websites, games and various social media. 3D animation is also a part of the digital art phenomenon.

Digital art is made entirely using computer programmes or by manipulating existing artworks and hand-drawn pictures that are scanned and then completed using programmes such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.

The phrase ‘digital art‘ was first coined in the 1980s. However, early digital art was being created even in the 1960s. Kenneth Knowlton and Leon Harmon created some of the first digital art images by taking a photograph of a nude woman. It was changed with computer pixels and transformed into a picture made up of many small computer pixels to make up a larger image.

With the development of technology, art has also undergone several changes and modifications. As such, digital art, or computer art, is a kind of modern art that is mostly used in creating websites, video games, clip art, and templates. Digital art includes 3D animation for films, television, commercials, and web advertising.

Impressionism is considered the first significant movement in painting and was mostly adopted by French painters. Impressionism broke the standard convention of exhibiting work at state salons and academies. They created paintings that showed colour, tone and light more following the artist’s ideas than the subject itself. Painters wanted to hold independent exhibitions beginning in 1860s Paris. The style then spread all over Europe and the U.S.

Some Common Characteristics of Impressionism

Impressionism was a style that told a story using realistic scenes. Changes to the way that light was shown and the use of the brush was different from previous styles The painter typically used small thin brushstrokes with lots of movement, atmosphere and changes in light that were experimented with often. In contrast, paint is usually laid on a surface thickly enough so that painting and knife strokes can be seen.

Rather than painting scenes which depicted history or mythology, the artists wanted to show more modern and contemporary views of the bourgeois enjoying life both in nature and in urban areas. Colour and tone were more exact, and the perceptions of the artist’s subject matter were more important than the subject itself. Painters wanted pure colour and paint on the surface became more important to change perspective.

The blue sky is seen reflecting onto surfaces to demonstrate more freshness. Colour is sometimes mixed on the surface and often placed into wet paint to make softer edges and more intermingling.

Earlier traditions of painting started with darker layers of paint and then lighter layers which dried before a smooth finish. It could take weeks or months for a picture to be finished. However, impressionists used a single layer that was unglazed, and a mistake would be taken down to an empty canvas. This can be painted over again. Patches of colour were used instead of lighter or darker shades to show the closeness to the light.

Painters often did their work in the evening to show the shadows at this time. Objects and people usually had no outline and appear to be shapes when viewed close up with this style. There are different points of view, posing and movement on the canvas, making the painting seem as though it was a snapshot of something bigger captured in that moment.

Impressionistic Artists

Some famous impressionists include 19th-century artists such as Claude Monet. “Impression Sunrise” was created in 1872 showing a harbour and the port of Le Havre. A ship sails at sunset with different colour contrasts. “Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Pierre Auguste Renoir was painted between 1880 and 1881. It shows several people dining, eating and socialising on a boat and captures the movement and light in a true impressionistic style.

When people first see an impressionistic painting, they are captured not only by the colour and light but also the realistic scenes. The style shifts away from showing more serious subject to bourgeois scenes and uses the canvas, layering and brush strokes differently from the past.

Cubism was a style of art that wanted to change how the eye could look at a piece of art by changing the perspective of painting.

Cubism is an abstract style that came about because of sudden changes in society at the beginning of the 20th century. Artists believed that the traditions of art were bland, and perspective was changed as a result. Cubists made the observer see things from different angles and heights, which explains the abstract look of the art. From different angles, the technique makes sense to the viewer.

Unprecedented growth in the late 1800s and early 1900s changed all kinds of areas of life. Still, it was challenging to show modernity with old traditions of art. Picasso and Braque created Cubism around 1907 in Paris. They were inspired by Paul Cézanne’s work.

A picture with a fixed position was not enough for cubists who wanted to experiment with the geometry of perspective. ‘Relativity’ made the artist and observer select images to interpret a subject on display. People could change their viewpoint and look at objects differently. This could add extra layers of emotion or memory to an image.

Cubism was revolutionary and attempted to ground art in a more realistic way of interpreting images with the eye for the modern world.

The Baroque Period, from 1600 to 1750, came about after the Renaissance. It started in Italy, in Rome, and was both a continuation and reaction against the Renaissance period. Paintings, as well as the artist, reflected the difficult times that people were living in during this period. For example, the Thirty Years’ War, the plague and many other tumultuous events continued to haunt the figures in the paintings and also the artist.

Characteristics of the Baroque Period

The Baroque style became the apex of realism. It often showed the human body in all its glory with raw emotion which was supported by the use of light and dark, as well as more emphasis on backgrounds and items in paintings. Paintings had a grand style which was supported by the catholic church or monarchs to display their wealth and status.

The style rejects Renaissance restraint and very still looking paintings, with little emotion shown by the figures in such artwork. Baroque took some of the classical themes of religion, history and mythology. Again, it showed the motion of figures in the paintings as well as the full range of emotions. Drama and tension are shown more in Baroque paintings. More action and impact is resulting from pictures that appeal to the senses.

The surroundings shown on paintings became more realistic and showed how light reacts to the environment, including surfaces and materials. The background also became emphasised using landscapes, and many self-portraits were popular during this period.

Open ceiling frescos were prominent in early Baroque paintings. It showed a background away from the central figures in such places as the ceiling fresco of Sant’Ignazio by Andrea dal Pozzo.

Painters and the Baroque Style

Caravaggio was one of the most famous painters of the Baroque Period. His paintings were still religious, just as the Renaissance painters. They also showed the emotional qualities of religious figures. Some of his paintings include “The Crowning with Thorns”, “St Jerome” and many other pictures. These paintings show much more dramatic images, including blood, to show more intensity.

The female artist Artemisia Gentileschi: was a famous Baroque painter. She was raped by her tutor and was tortured during his subsequent trial to show the genuineness of her claims. She exhibited paintings which showed revenge and the female emotions associated with rape.

The Baroque style showed the passion of the artist and the subjects experience, which appealed to the viewer’s senses. The painter achieved this through new techniques and greater emphasis on other parts of the painting as well as the central figures in the artwork.