What is generative art?

At its core, generative art is an exploration of code which manifests itself as art in the form of shapes, curves, blocks, lines and of course colour. Generative art is usually made 100% through code, the end product of which is often fine tuned to the artist’s likings and specifications.

In generative art, for instance, some basic coding may generate a structured setup like the one on the left, something we explore in slightly more monochrome format in STUM. 

Whereas, with considerable refinement and lots of changes and tweaks to structure, as well as a lot of recursion and playing with various hues, we can get something like the one on the right – a watercolour-esque texture with infinitely smoother curves and layering.

Further refining and adjustments to the code takes me to what I think is one of my best works yet – a sunset like dream in watercolour. You can check it out in the Experimental Images section, or through the link below.

I am not one to pat myself on the back easily, but truly those hues, those colours and the overall landscape design is worth the effort. And all of it is made through code – not layers, not Photoshop, not Procreate, not AI.

Watercolour Sunsets 197681 Wall Art Print

Is Generative art then simply abstract digital art?

No, generative art is not simply abstract art.

Admittedly, generative art is different from regular art, which sees artists work hard on actual canvas’ with a variety of acrylics, oil paints, or watercolours, amongst other mixed media. It is also different from digital art, which artists create in vector based or raster based formats on a plethora of software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate and the like, and use a variety of brushes, textures, colours to create their end product.

Generative art differs from these two in the sense that it does not start on physical or a digital artboard, nor does it use colour or texture in the traditional format by applying them layer by layer directly on a medium.

Yet, in its own way it is similar to classic art as well as digital art, as it too starts from scratch and is not mass produced. The same art is not replicated millions of times, instead the randomness of the code brings definitive and distinctive differences to the final output, curating individual pieces specifically for one’s tastes.

What differentiates generative art from other forms of art is also it’s massive scalability.

Part code, part art, generative art can iterate itself in thousands and thousands of ways – the limits of which are only restricted to the artist’s imagination and the elimination of outliers and repetitions.

The same code which generated a subtle sunset before, can generate a complex multi-layered sunset like this one within a matter of minutes – of course with different starting points as to colour and randomness, but with no significant difference in the underlying code.

How close can we get to real art, and what is the real objective of AFour.Art?

What I do at AFour.Art is explore how close to real canvases we can bring generative art to. Real canvas art is all about a variety of imperfections, eg. each brush stroke runs the risk of a couple of extra smidges of paint, a stray strand making an extra line, all of which come together to form the final composition. Things like these are diagonally opposite to what code seeks to achieve – which is perfect cuts, hard lines and no mistakes.

Let’s be real. Real art is expensive, and can be borderline unaffordable – as it well should be. Artists spend years and years perfecting their craft, creating unique pieces, which are bought by refined collectors and those than can afford it. Yes, we have often longed for great art in our homes, but in a developing country like ours, our home walls are often bare, painted commercially – and sometimes filled with pop movie art and similar pieces which we collect from a variety of places.

Here is where generative art can make a difference, particularly the kind we explore here at AFour.Art. High quality, scalable canvas like art with a lot of variations possible in colours, randomness and textures.

Good generative art tries to be as close to real art as possible, and is scalable, printable and does not usually overlap with the same market that high end artists and artwork commands. Which probably makes it an astute and powerful consideration for those willing to use it for home decor.

We do print side exploration as well. For instance, certain prints will look more natural if on matte paper, or even card stock paper, rather than the usual lustre or semi gloss paper that we use for our more vibrant prints. Allowing the ink to bleed more, using paper which are more absorbent might give us the look we are trying to achieve, while maybe doing light compromises on vibrancy, reflects closer to real art.

I see massive usage potential of Generative Art in :

• wall art and home decor (for a premium feel with the comfort that it is curated specifically for you)
• calendars, daily planners, bookmarks, coasters and the like.
• hotels and real estate which requires uniform artwork following a theme, but being non-repetitive a the same time – thereby saving costs on multiple commissions of artwork.
• and many, many more.

Affordable, Scalable Art with many variants, perfect for home decor. That’s our objective at AFour.Art.

Generative, but not generic.

With that, I leave you with my latest work.

Tailfeathers – Released as prints, postcards (beautiful avians on different pastel backgrounds for your quick greetings and notes), and possibly a 2026 calendar (comprising of 12 images).

100% generative.

A few variants of Tailfeathers is out now like the one below!

Often, I write my thoughts behind a few of the pieces at AFour.Art or on generative art in general. Once I can figure out a newsletter format, I will ensure every new post lands in your inbox, if you would want to know more. – Anagh, AFour.Art