Texture. It’s a tactile experience deeply embedded in human consciousness. As Babies, we initially recognize our mothers by touch and feel, not by sight. In this way, the sensitive nerve endings in our skin serve as our initial introduction to the outside world. Texture is everywhere we look and touch, especially in home décor and art (when you’re allowed to touch it, that is).

Texture plays a crucial role in home décor. World-renowned interior designer Kelly Wearstler creates “vibe trays.” These samples of fabrics and materials range from plaster to velvet, and Wearstler uses them as points of inspiration for creating inviting interiors. Making “vibe trays” is a great way to open up your creativity. Play with rough, smooth, slick, furry, warm, and cold surfaces, and decide which vibe or feeling you want for the space. Texture in your décor will elevate the look of your home, add depth, and provide an intimate peek into your personality.

Texture is an especially powerful tool when designing a room with a neutral or monochromatic palette. Environments with one shade or several tones might look sterile if all of the surfaces are flat. Examples of the use of texture in these spaces include dense, shaggy, flokati rugs over shiny, smooth tiles, the grainy feel of a rustic stucco finish or exposed painted brick on an accent wall, a chunky-knit afghan tossed on the couch, or a cool beaded curtain in an entryway. All of these items add sophistication, depth, and interest in spite of the lack of bright colors.

In addition to your furnishings, of course, canvas art for your walls is the most dynamic way to make use of texture as an element in your décor. Generations of great artists used the impasto technique when painting in oils, where the artist uses a palette knife or other tool to lay down thick layers of paint. The artist may also employ visible brushstrokes to add further dimension to the image. Modern master Anselm Kiefer layers his canvases with sand, broken glass, ash, straw, diamonds, ceramic shards, and dried sunflowers in works that address the bitter legacy of post-WWII Germany. Artists like Monet, Vermeer, and Klimt used texture through brushwork techniques and the use of mixed media to give their landscapes and portraits exciting depth and energy.

Since our art is printed, they are two-dimensional. It’s amazing to realize that although the artist created a tactile surface in the original work, our reproduction is just as convincing. We further enhance the realism of the effect by reproducing the image on high quality canvas woven with a raised “tooth” which adds immediate dynamic visual depth to the art.  Our photographic technology captures every layer, every brushstroke, and all of the dynamic peaks and valleys created by the artist’s hand. You won’t be able to resist running your hand over the canvas to see for yourself! In a sense, it’s an optical illusion; visual or illusionary textures elevates your canvas print and will create a conversation piece for your guests.

We’ve selected some of our favorite images with visual texture for this blog, and you can explore our newly curated Textures collection on Fine Art Canvas.

No artist packs as much passion onto a canvas as Vincent van Gogh. Our state-of-the-art giclée reproduction of his masterpiece, “Starry Night,” perfectly capture's the artist's original vision. His dramatic brushwork in the creation of a turbulent, swirling, cosmos seems to pulsate with coded astral messages from another dimension. This well-known artwork has become iconic and makes a stellar focal point for a fall bedroom. Plus, you can swap it for van Gogh’s equally famous “Sunflowers” in the spring -- it’s so easy with Fine Art Canvas!

In Ekaterina Ermilkina’s “Midnight City,” a sophisticated mixed-media collage of paint and sequin-like paper elements evokes the glamorous shimmer of soaring high-rises in a nocturnal world lit by neon. Reflective surfaces glint with light against an abstract rain or snowfall. We like this piece for a modern setting, like sleek workspaces, hallways, or elegant dining rooms.

Osnat Tzadok’s “Forgotten Sunrise” employs the broad palette-knife strokes that we associate with Impressionist and Expressionist artists. In this refreshing piece, the artist creates a sense of lightness versus heaviness, translucence versus opacity, smoothness versus roughness, in a shimmering seascape of sun-kissed waves that appear to ripple before our eyes. It’s a sensuous & relaxing work that’s great for a meditation space or family room.

Explore the artwork in our curated Texture Collection to experience what the French call trompe l’oeil -- “to trick the eye” -- with reproduction paintings that seem more like sculptures than two-dimensional canvas prints.