Try to identify why you want to paint this painting. Is it because:

the scene or subject in front of you makes you feel a certain emotion?

something beautiful and aesthetic caught your eye?

there is something interesting about the scene that you want to describe to your viewer?

Types of concept

There are many types of concept, and different types have been used in art throughout the centuries:

•emotional
•aesthetic
•descriptive
•narrative
•complex idea
•message

A concept may be a particular emotion or feeling you have when observing a place or subject. For example: calm and serenity, energy and excitement, grace, friendship, isolation, grandeur, etc.

Your concept may derive from your aesthetic sensibility the beauty you find in a subject that others may not have noticed.

The concept may be purely descriptive in nature that highlights some characteristic of an object or subject that is not purely emotional or aesthetic.

A narrative concept is a story.

There are more complex ideas that the “conceptual art” movement attempts to express.
The concept of your painting may be to communicate a
social, political, or religious message.

What subjects should an artist paint? A good guideline is that it should be a subject that the artist feels some
emotion about. If the artist has no feeling about the subject then you can be sure the painting will also have no feeling.