If you've ever walked into an art gallery and wished you had better tools to describe what you were looking for, the following is for you. Speaking the same "language" can enhance the shopping and buying experience and learning new things is of course great fun! Master these terms and you'll sound like a pro.

"Figurative" Art describes artwork representing the human form, an animal or a thing.

"Representational" Art are works that closely resemble forms in the natural world; describing art that stands for, depicts or portrays subjects a viewer may recognize. It is the opposite of abstraction and can be a human form, animal or object.

"Realism" is art in which the goal is to portray forms in the natural world in a highly representational manner. The opposite of idealization, this definition of realism is sometimes considered synonymous with naturalism. It is also a specific art style of the mid-19th century, which fostered the idea that everyday people and events were worthy subjects for important art. The Realist school, denotes a mid-nineteenth century art movement and style in which artists discarded the formulas of Neoclassicism and the theatrical drama of Romanticism to paint familiar scenes and events as they actually looked. Typically it involved some sort of sociopolitical or moral message, in the depiction of ugly or commonplace subjects.

"Expressionism" - (with an upper-case E — the more specific sense) is an art movement of the early 20th century in which traditional adherence to realism and proportion was replaced by the artist's emotional connection to the subject. These paintings are often abstract, the subject matter distorted in color and form to emphasize and express the intense emotion of the artist.

"expressionism" - (with a small e — the more general sense) refers to the emotions of the artist (expressive qualities) communicated through emphasis and distortion which can be found in works of art in any period.

"Photo-Realism" is a painting and drawing style of the mid-20th century in which people, objects, and scenes are depicted with such detail and naturalism that the paintings resemble photographs – an almost exact visual duplication of the subject. Although its center was in the United States, the Photo-Realism movement was also strong in Europe from the late 1960s into the 1970s, where his type of art is principally known as super-realism.

"Narrative" Art is art in which the story line is the dominant feature of the work. If you can't find someone who wants to talk about art, just stop by the gallery. Next month we'll continue this with definitions of abstract art, abstract expressionism, impressionism and more. Adrienne Lewis is the owner of Trowbridge Lewis Gallery in Middleburg.