Abstract art is a vague term referring to any painting or sculpture which does not portray recognisable objects or scenes, which emerged at the cusp of the 20th century. It is an art style that breaks away from drawing art as it is represented in real life. Abstractionists use a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Post-Impressionism
Post-impression uses vivid colours, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter. The art style is more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort form for expressive effect, and use unnatural or arbitrary colour. Fancy creating your own rendition of world famous work, "The Scream (1893)" by Edward Munch or creating your very own "Starry Starry Night (1889)" by Vincent Van Gogh?
Pointillism
Created by Georges Seurat, pointillism is an art technique using dots applied in patterns to create an image. Pointillism art is best appreciated up close when you can see the details involved and the colour combinations applied. Yayoi Kusama is one of the notable artists to combine this style with Pop Art, which creates captivating visuals. If rendering a full landscape painting proves to be too difficult, why not give pointillism a go? Make strong brush strokes in engaging colours and your artwork is sure to pop!
Cubism
If you have seen Pablo Picasso’s works before, you should roughly know about what Cubism means. As the name implies, cubism is an art style where cubes or geometric shapes are used in an overlapping manner to paint an object. The shapes used in the painting would overlap to form a single image but in a somewhat indirect way. Why not challenge yourself to recreate an abstract version of your favourite cartoon characters?
Surrealism
Surrealist artists typically strip ordinary objects of their normal functions, aiming to expose psychological truth in terms of abstract images to evoke empathy. Taking for example “The Persistence of Memory (1931)” by Salvador Dali, which melting clocks symbolises that time is meaningless. If you're feeling artistic, why not paint your recent dream? Who knows, you could even be sleeping on the clouds, the sky's your limit!
