Emotion in Paintings - What Does That Mean?
view examples of paintings with "visible feelings" and journey with the artist to discover and create art with emotion
How do we know if a painting holds emotion?
In my view, it is not by analysing how a painting was made—the colours, the forms, or the brushwork. Emotion is revealed when a painting connects with the viewer. If it holds attention for reasons beyond technique, then it carries emotion. The viewer is not concerned with the transparency of a watercolour or the accuracy of perspective; they are absorbed because the work has stirred something personal and felt.
From realism to abstraction, all art can move us
We are familiar with paintings of recognisable subjects—boats, buildings, trees, animals, and of course people. These representational works can hold emotion that a viewer connects with—or they may not. Realism can be art with feeling rather than simple description, but only when the artist seeks to move the viewer. For many painters, technical precision is the main goal. Their art may be admired for skill, but if emotion is absent, the work does not reach deeper connection.
Abstract paintings follow the same principle. If the artist focuses only on form or technique, any emotional impact is accidental. True emotion in abstract art arises when the artist makes it the overriding goal, subordinating every other concern. Abstraction, however, offers a unique advantage: it leaves more space for the imagination, inviting deeper personal reactions. These may differ from the artist’s own intentions, yet they remain valid and lasting. In art, there are no correct interpretations—only personal ones.
My own approach
These are the views I have developed over my artistic life. My aim is simple yet demanding: to create visible feelings—to express what cannot be put into words. The paintings below are examples of my attempts to do just that.
Take a look at some examples...
This original abstract painting
called Old Orange was inspired by imagining flying over the Arizona Desert. I have never done that but I love flying and that desert - imagination made it happen. I wanted to create an emotional painting with a feeling of calm separation.
Each of these three attempts at emotion in art are abstract figure paintings.
Each one makes a different statement to the other two. One might have a sense of aloofness, arrogance even, another has movement and intimacy (or is it something spiritual?), and the other one is unmistakeable - the shapes and greys close to despair surely? All are paintings with feeling
Your interpretation
This example of a painting with emotion is entirely for you to make up your own minds about. Do you connect? Everyone is different. For me the artist, I used surrealism to create that certain feeling.
How does this painting make you feel? Do you sense dread and a feeling of inevitability? Or something entirely different. And maybe nothing - no emotion in this art for me. Exhibited at the American Watercolor Society
Colour we know creates different emotions in different people and most of us seem to love gazing into our space from time to time. That is what I want to enable the viewer to do in this original abstract painting. I wonder if the blue on the bottom right is a distraction. it is a beautiful blue perhaps too beautiful?
Again we are gazing into space and letting our thoughts emerge. I may be wrong but I think you have to find something in a painting. One has something on the edges the other within the painting... is the emotional reaction different for each one?
Paintings can make us think new thoughts, calm or excite us and take us to places we have never been before. I try to help make that happen.
I hope you enjoyed this post, you can see others by clicking the link below.
Anything About Art
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Would you like to buy one of my paintings?
Take a look at my original abstract paintings, or at some surrealism, geometric art, and minimalism. All are for sale. I will ship it to you free of charge with a guarantee of authenticity and cost free returns.
Alan Brain Art
My artistic goal is to create paintings with that certain feeling.