This video features contemporary art drawings by Richard Grassi.

To see more of Grassi's art, visit Recommended Gallery.

Relevance of Contemporary Art Paintings Today

Contemporary art paintings may seem passé today’s with the advent of modern technology such as digital photography. Why go through lengths to paint a picture when you can just take a photograph that is much closer to reality. Are contemporary art paintings still relevant in our society today?

While a moment can be captured through a photograph, a moment or picture drawn in canvass has just so much more meaning to it. The fluid movement of the paint brush as it trails over the canvas elicits a more visceral reaction from the viewer. A painting is the artist’s interpretation of a person, event, scene or image that he translates and brings to life on a canvass. If the artist is successful, then he will be able to elicit some form of reaction from viewers, whether positive or negative.

Unlike paintings from the Renaissance or Baroque era, contemporary art paintings are much more accessible to the majority of people. Maybe it’s because we can relate more to contemporary art themes. Contemporary art paintings often tackle global issues that touch on social consciousness and awareness such as feminism, multiculturalism and globalization to name a few. Most contemporary art paintings have the power to move and even disturb our consciousness.

In fact, many households have contemporary art paintings hanging in their rooms. This is proof of how much people have learned to appreciate contemporary art. Many paintings are readily available (to view or purchase) at online or brick and mortar art galleries. Their accessibility and availability make them easier to appreciate by the majority of art enthusiasts.

Some people consider art works a bit snobbish and elitist and leave them to the art critics -- who they think can best appreciate them. But art is art. You either like it or you don’t, depending on the emotion that it evokes. And this is what contemporary art paintings have done; they have bridged the gap between the elite and the masses.

Do not be afraid to explore contemporary art paintings. Just because you don’t have much knowledge about form, shape, fluidity, color, texture and other elements of a painting doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to appreciate it. What may be art to one may be total garbage to the another. This is the beauty of contemporary art paintings. They elicit different responses from each of us. As long as people continue to appreciate art, contemporary art paintings will be here to stay.

With the rise of the Internet, we are now able to access many online galleries that display surrealistic art. Of course, with so much artwork out there, there is a wide variance of quality. Some of it is quite nice, but most is not… Occasionally however, we can find something that is really remarkable. (Hallelujah for the Internet!) Here’s one that interests us: Paintings, Drawings & Prints