• Be inspired to paint abstract art.abstract art background image by Jaroslav Machacek from Fotolia.com
  
  Many beginning and experienced artists enjoy creating abstract art. This kind of art conveys feelings and sensations with colors and shapes rather than defined pictures and objects. While some of this kind of art uses only blacks, grays and browns, much more of it uses very bright colors to enhance the presence of the work. Inspiration for abstract art can come from just about anywhere. An artist may have an idea in her head or be inspired by nature, a person or an event.
  
  

Musical Inspiration

• Music is perhaps just as abstract as some art, making it a good medium to inspire any abstract artist. To create a piece from a song or genre of music, the artist should sit and listen to the chosen piece or pieces once or twice while focusing on what images come to mind. On the second or third hearing, the artist should pick several bright colors for the piece, neon blue for intense sadness, fuchsia for passion, bright yellow for joy. The artist should then sketch while listening to the music, putting together shapes and whorls of color that best convey his feelings. The last step is to paint while listening to the music, putting together premeditated images. If any new things come to mind, the artist should not hesitate to add them. Small sections of words or lyrics may even be appropriate.
  
  

Abstract Impressionism

• The Impressionists like Monet did their best to play with light and color to express emotions rather than an exact replication of a scene, though part of Impressionism was to create recognizable shapes and figures. An abstract artist could learn from this kind of art by first studying it and then trying his hand at doing something similar. The artist should walk through his town, the woods, a city or watch a sunset and sketch. The sketch should break everything down into its most basic shapes and components, giving it only the roughest outlines. The artist may even turn the scene on edge or upside-down to help him focus on shapes, shades and values rather than realism. The next step is to give everything a color. Graffiti could take center stage and overshadow everything else, or a sunset could flood and bleed into the rest of the scene. Birdsong could take shape and color, as could the shouts of people or blaring car horns and music.
  
  

Instinctual Painting

• Painting by instinct and letting impulses guide the art is one way to break through an artistic block or help a new artist understand forms and colors and how they blend. The best way to do this is for the artist to squeeze out about eight to a dozen bright colors onto her palette and simply start painting. She may start with bright purple and paint a spiral and then flick green over it followed by stripes of red dripped onto the canvas from above. Instinctual painting allows the artist to apply paint to canvas any way she likes. The artist may use a painting knife to smear thick swaths of color across the painting or dip her fingers into colors and create fingerprints, handprints or long smeared stripes.