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Realism Art.

Are you a hyperrealist or a surrealist? Investigate your own
painting style.

Realism Art. Sounds a little strange, but it’s obviously something you wanted to know about, so let’s cover this area of painting styles first.

Realism art can encompass lots of different painting styles. We can go from the hyper-realist painting style, right through to work that appears abstract from close up, but when viewed from a distance appears incredibly real.

Then you add surrealism into the mix. As you can see, this is a massive spectrum, and one which we’ll go into in more detail later on. For now we’ll briefly touch on the extremes of each of these ideas.


Mark Waller's surrealism art painting Creation


When you’re starting out (and even when you’ve been painting for a while), it’s not a bad idea to dig out some brushes, and have a larrup at different painting styles.

You may well crash and burn, leaving you with the sense that the painting style you previously employed is one you love dearly, and you’ll go back to it with gusto! Or you may learn something.

I saw a wonderful painting several years ago that appeared almost completely abstract, but that had faces and hands rendered perfectly in it. Sensational.

There are a few new art realism painting styles which have sprung up over the last decade.

A quick search on Wikipedia reveals hyperrealism, superrealism and photorealism as painting styles which have emerged over the last 10-20 years as “art intended to portray reality as accurately as possible”, and “a very realistic style in art in which a painting or drawing is virtually indistinguishable from a photograph".

Wonderful, looks amazing. I just don’t have the patience, personally. My painting style leans more towards realism with an impressionistic/painterly bent.

Impressionism is defined as a movement in art characterized by visible brush strokes, ordinary subject matters, and an emphasis on light and its changing qualitites.


Mark Waller's painting Hills Aplenty done in an impressionism painting style


It’s a style that is quite immediate where ideas are represented fairly quickly. For those of us with a short attention span, this is great.

A “painterly” painting style is a style of realistic art that is close to realism but celebrates the use of paint, in that it doesn't try to hide what was used to create the painting.  All the marks and texture are left for added impact.

Have some fun, explore your own painting style through modifying and or combining these styles, and throw in some expressionism, neo-classisicm, and cubism as well, just for the hell of it.



Impressionism art. Vibrant, luscious, immediate.

Explore your impressionism art style. Discover four tips to help you grab the essence of your moment - spontaneity, light and colour that impressionism art does so well.

Surrealism Art. Intriguing and Surprising. Vive le Imagination!

Explore the essence of surrealism art, and three tips to get you thinking about how you can create your own.

Modern Abstract Art.  A Gateway To Your Unlimited Imagination.

Leave behind the "rules" of modern abstract art.  Consider some simple techniques and inspirations to create your own.

Expressionism Art.  Celebrate Your Misery?   Throw Some Paint Around!

Lovely big emotions.  Represent them with abandon and create some expressionism art in the process.



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