easy painting ideas for beginners: You want to start painting art?

Art brings color to our lives! Start painting with these easy painting ideas for beginners.

Step into color, expression and vibrancy. The beauty of painting is expressing ourselves and the world around us. Every painting is as unique as the artist who paints it.

Let the artist in you flow free. Start with enjoyable painting ideas, from landscapes to everyday objects.

Experience the joy and freedom of painting!

Easy Painting Ideas for Beginners

Whether it's capturing the beauty of nature or a vibrant still life, each painting theme has its own charm. The possibilities for painting are virtually endless.

Five classic painting ideas for the beginning artist are:

landscapes / animals / still life paintings / portraits / abstract art

landscapes are great for beginners

Landscapes are probably the most popular painting subject.

nature's colors are awesome

Landscapes with spacious skies, distant mountains or peaceful lakes are a brilliant painting idea for beginners.

They get us thinking about perspective, color harmony, the foreground, middle ground, and background parts of a painting.

The soft colors of a sunrise.

The brilliant colors of a sunset.

Nature has a universal appeal that guarantees our painting’s appeal, whether it is our first painting or one of many.

Paint the beauty.

How to paint this easy landscape with oils.

landscapes may include man-made things

Landscapes are a great way to start out painting.

Paint your favorite lake.

Artists can record history.

Artist Tip: Nature has an infinite range of colors. We may want to change the colors for a different time of day. The colors are up to the artist.

Just imagine what we could do with either of the landscapes above. We could change the time of day to a sunrise or warm sunset colors.

We could dress up the barn with spring green leaves on the trees or paint the grassy field full of wild flowers.

plants and flowers

Trees are often the main feature of a landscape painting.

One tree can make a painting.

Or paint a whole row of trees.

An easy painting could be one stem or one flower.

Try a stem of Pussy Willow.

Focus on painting one detail instead of the entire plant.

One flower can fill the painting.

A single flower could spark up the room's decor with a modern touch.

animals are fun to paint

Animals are our constant companions, be it our domestic animals or the birds singing to us when we walk down the street.

Birds with their lively activities are easy painting ideas for beginners.

What's more precious than baby birds.

Paint a graceful swan.

It's heart-warming to share our paintings.

We may want to paint some birds on our greeting cards. Or paint our neighbor's cat.

A card with Redbirds and berries

Paintings are a joy to share!

The neighbor's cat got stuck up in my front yard tree. They had to get a ladder to help her down.

Guess what my neighbor got for Christmas? A painting of her cat in the tree. The cat still comes to my yard, but no ladder is needed.

There are all sorts of animals to paint. Both domestic and wild animals are amazing.

Paint a portrait of your kitty.

Paint the wolf as a silhouette.

imagination has no limits

It's fun to let our imagination run free like the dolphin painting below.

That's the joy of painting!

Dolphins "Flying Free"

explore still life painting

Still life paintings are a classic favorite that holds many easy painting ideas for beginners. Everyday things like fruit and flowers can turn into exciting subjects through the artist's brush.

Still lifes help us understand perspective, form, color relationships, light and shadows.

We can learn a lot by painting a still life.

Everyday things are easy to paint.

The secret is to record the ordinary with our paint brush.

Paint your treasures from the sea shore.

Still lifes teach us drawing skills.

portraits can be challenging

Portraits can be used for expressing emotions or telling a story.

We let our inner self flow through our brushes. That's the secret of painting.

The friends below enjoying their time together is precious. It's an easy idea for beginners because it has limited colors and there are no faces to paint.

Painting ideas come from the heart.

Silhouettes make stunning portraits.

abstract paintings

Abstract art is all about colors and shapes. We let our ideas and feelings flow through the brush.

Painting doesn't have to be serious!

We can create whimsical or dramatic pieces with bold colors and strokes. Abstract paintings can be both fun and stress relieving.

Beginning artists can have fun playing with paint and colors and be learning at the same time.

This painting is not exactly an abstract, but it was fun. I put on a bunch of colors on the board.

Then I used a damp brush to pull out the old building and the pelicans sitting on the roof.

That's the beauty of painting watercolor on Aquabord.

more Easy Painting Ideas for Beginners

Painting begins with understanding the fundamentals of painting. The three basics of painting art that all artists use are values, color and composition.

values

Shape the dunes with values.

Values are the light and darkness of each part of the painting.

They are one of the most important things for a beginning artist to learn.

Sand dunes are a good subject for the beginners to practice painting values.

Use Burnt Sienna and white for the dunes and a tiny touch of blue and white for the sky.

Leave out the dark spots for simplicity. Just enjoy the feeling of the brush and the paint.

color

Let the sunrise on your art journey.

Colors can be light or dark values.

Choose a limited number of colors for your paintings.

Artists use warm colors that include yellow and cool colors that include a touch of blue to shape objects.

Color is the joy of paintings. That's one reason I started painting because color is so much fun.

We can express our feelings and intentions with different colors.  Colors have meanings.

composition

Sail into painting with an easy subject.

Composition is the way the elements of the painting are arranged.

A good composition draws people to look at our paintings.

Most paintings do not have the main subject in the center.

The sailboat below is off toward the right of the photograph. The painting is balanced by the extra space on the left.

This photo uses an easy rule of composition.

A Guide to Painting

The best advice for beginning artists is to practice.

All the stunning artwork we admire is a result of the artists' practice and patience.

Begin with these easy painting ideas for beginners. Each painting is a step toward mastering the wonderful art of painting.

How to begin painting on a budget.

Express yourself: begin painting!