Top selection of paintings for walls – Explore the types of paintings, choose the Best paintings for home walls as per style, technique, and genre.
Paintings for walls is a fantastic and affordable way to bring colour to your home decor style. They can enhance the beauty and bring a “wow factor”, to your place. And, frankly, without the subtle sophistication of art, your home is missing an excellent opportunity to become luxurious.
So, do you wish to live in a 5-star space? Let’s get ready to upgrade your home with some lavish-looking paintings for walls. To bring this finesse of art to your home, you and I must look at all our options. You see, paintings for home walls come in many various types and styles. And, surely, there is a style for you to love. All we need to do is find it. Now, before we begin to jazz up your interiors with wall art, can we explore the types? Checking out all the available types of painting canvas can help you find your favourite style, without missing out on any. After all, no one, including you, want to select and decorate a painting on the wall and later find out that you don’t like it as much. Moreover, it’s fun to look at the beautiful wall paintings.
Paintings for walls
Painting, as we all are aware of, is the beautiful art of applying paint, or colour to a solid surface with the use of brush or hands or other painting tools. Primarily, there are two kinds of Painting for walls:
a. Canvas paintings – Artwork that is made on a canvas and then propped up on the wall
b. Mural paintings – Painted artwork that is made directly on walls rather than using a canvas. These are wall Painting art made on specific focus points of the walls.
You can find more information about both paintings right below.
Painting for a wall can be understood in different ways:
a. Painting techniques like oil, acrylic, digital
b. Painting Genre of Landscapes, Portrait, Still life
c. Painting Styles such as Eastern and Western
New technology and change of tastes have given rise to more diversity in the kind of paintings available. Today, Painting for walls are further divided in various exciting ways as detailed below.
The style of a painting on a wall is very important. It sets a theme to the entire interiors look and decor. Now, each room of a home, whether it is the living room, kitchen, bedroom, or study room, has its décor format, and hence each room should be decorated with specific and suitable paintings only. Here is a list of the popular styles of wall paintings:
I. Eastern-style of paintings for the wall, including Indian paintings
II. Western-style of paintings for the wall like the examples given in the table below
Take a look at the how and what of each style below.
Kinds of Paintings for home walls
From the vast number of Painting available, each type has its beauty and uniqueness, and hence you can choose your favourite from the collection below:
- Canvas Paintings, or painting for the wall
- Mural Paintings, or painting on the wall
| Canvas Paintings | Mural Paintings |
|---|---|
| Watercolour | Gouache |
| Pastel | Enamel paintings |
| Ink wash or Literati | Tempera |
| Chinese Black ink | Sand |
| Hot wax painting or Encaustic | |
| Spray Painting | |
| Fresco secco paintings |
Canvas Paintings as per the technique
Watercolour Painting
Aquarelle is a painting made using water-soluble colours on paper. The techniques followed to make them are: wet on dry; wet on wet; dry brush; glaze.
Pastel painting
Pastels are made of powdered pigments and are available in full colours. Their blending ability makes the best masterpiece on a canvas base.
Ink wash Painting or Literati painting
This falls somewhere between drawing and Painting. Black colour ink is used, and the medium is wet when it is applied, and hence named “ink wash”.
Chinese black ink
Professionally named “guohua”, this Painting is done on paper or silk using a brush dipped in black ink or coloured ones.
Hot wax painting or Encaustic painting
In this art, colour pigments mixed with heated beeswax are pasted on a base, usually wood or canvas.
Wall murals
Fresco secco paintings
In this technique, the artist applies pigments mixed with lime onto dry plaster.
Sita mural, from illustratescience 
Sistine Chapel, from National Geographic
Spray Painting
Here, a device sprays the colour as a coating on a surface.
Wall Paintings technique
Gouache
It is an opaque watercolour medium that brings opacity. It dries very fast and also can become transparent and can be used for glazing.
Enamel paintings
Enamel is a high-gloss oil-based paint used to give a glossy look.
Tempera paintings
It is a very long-lasting, fast-drying painting medium. The tempera style shows a dull shine on the canvas, it flows smoothly onto paper and hence provides better coverage.
Sand Painting
This is the art of pouring coloured sands onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed painting. This manner brings a dreamy whimsical vibe to the canvas and to your decor.
Types of Painting for walls
Different types of paintings can be seen from three viewpoints:
- Painting technique
- The Genre of a painting
- A painting style
Painting techniques
Painting techniques differ from ages, and needs and hence artists have brought about numerous ways to express the emotions on canvas by using different methods.
Oil paintings
Do you know Leonardo’s Monalisa is an oil painting? Yes, since the early day’s artists used oil paints to create their masterpiece. The thick texture makes oil paints to be the first and foremost choice for the artists. The drawbacks of oil paints being long drying time, which took the artists more time to finish up their works.
Acrylic paintings
The wide array of acrylic paints available in the market has made acrylic paints to be the ultimate choice for many artists. This paint allows the artists to bring out the best texture on the base much quickly as compared to oil paints. Also, qualities like quick dry, non-toxic, and cost-effective, making it one of the best choices.
Digital paintings
This is a new and emerging art form of the 21st century. Here, instead of a brush, and paint colours on a pallet, Digital Paintings use tools such as a computer, a graphics tablet and stylus. A departure from the traditional painting techniques such as watercolour, oils, impasto bring out a unique style in itself.
Genre of Painting
Landscapes paintings
These artworks are the depiction of landscapes, mainly mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests.
Portrait
As the name suggests, this genre captures the figure of a person, especially a face with all the characteristics. Artists practised this genre, and their art piece mainly involves mythological figures and pictures of people.
From indiamart 
From mymodernmet
Still life
As the name suggests, this art focuses on still objects and is a form of Ancient Greco-Roman art.
Paintings as per Visual Style
Painting styles differ based on techniques and methods, and artists use them to bring out the art. Now, there are tremendous numbers of styles for canvas paintings on walls. Broadly speaking, the world of wall paintings are categorised as two heads:
- Eastern style including, Indian paintings, Japanese, Korean and Chinese
- Western-style with origins in Europe and America
| Style | Name | Character |
| Eastern | Indian | Tanjore, Mughal, Rajasthani and Pattachitra |
| Japanese | Landscapes in traditional form, and modern Manga style | |
| Korean | Free expression of Korean traditional folk | |
| Chinese | Black ink on silk | |
| Western | Modernism | Use of new shapes and forms |
| Cubism | Use of geometric forms | |
| Surrealism | Unreal shapes and scenes | |
| Expressionism | Depicts a narrative | |
| Abstract style | Painting effects with shapes and colours | |
| Impressionism | Detail brush strokes | |
| Figurative Art | Use of real objects | |
| Art Deco | Visual art, architecture and design | |
| Art Nouveau | Inspired by nature |
Eastern Style of paintings
Indian paintings
India has a vast collection and varieties of Painting, some of which are mentioned below:
Tanjore
The specificity of Tanjore painting is that they have embossed on it. Real Gold Foil (22-carat gold) is used to stick on the embossed areas.
Madhubani
Done using fingers, nib-pens, twigs, brushes, and matchsticks and painted using natural dyes. Intricate geometrical patterns are used in this art.
Madhubani from amazon.in 
Mughal fom Pinterest
Mughal
South Asian style of Painting emerged from Persian miniature painting and developed mostly during the Mughal Empire.
Rajasthani
Rajasthan paintings are miniature paintings and also known as Rajput paintings. A most popular painting type of Rajasthan are: Mewar paintings; Kota paintings; Jaipur painting; etc
Pattachitra
It is a cloth-based scroll painting, which inscribes the folktales and mythological narratives. It is a traditional painting of Odisha inspired by Jagannath and Vaishnava sect.
Japanese paintings
Ancient pottery, ink painting, sculpture, ukiyo-e paintings, ceramics, origami, and much more are included in Japanese arts.
Korean Painting
Minhwa refers to Korean folk art which includes paintings made in Korea on all surfaces.
Chinese paintings
Guohua is the traditional Chinese Painting, made using black coloured ink on a piece of paper or silk.
Western Style Painting
Modernism
A break with the past and searching for new forms is what modernism is all about.
Cubism
A new approach to representing reality, using geometrical figures and hence it has gained the name as cubism, due to usage of cubes and other geometrical figures.
Surrealism
Imaginative dreams and visions are poured out on a piece of canvas in this art style.
Expressionism
Here, the artists depict not the objective reality, but rather expresses the subjective emotions within him/her.
Impressionism
In this art form, you can see relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, which are wonderfully depicted by the artists.
Abstract style
Here, the artists make use of shapes, colours, and gestural marks to bring out the effects.
Figurative Art
This artwork comes from real object sources and hence the name “figurative art”.
Art Deco
Visual art, vibrant colours, bold geometry, and decadent detail work are the features of this art.
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is the art inspired by nature, and here artists bring out natural beauty on canvas.
From invaluable.com 
From Artsy.net 
From Wikipedia