It is possible to create beautiful abstract images using nothing more than colour, shape and texture. Areas of colour or texture can be used to define shapes and forms, and contrasting colours may create interesting boundary lines - whether real or implied. Images of this type may leave the viewer completely unaware of the real nature of the subject. This obliges the brain to examine the image more closely in an effort to reveal clues to the real identity of the subject. Most viewers find a subject devoid of real-world identity difficult to absorb in a practical or logical sense, and are consequently encouraged to react in a more emotional manner. Since they cannot relate to the subject through their everyday experience of the world, they respond by deciding how it makes them feel.

Truly abstract images evoke all sorts of reactions. Some people may dismiss them as having no meaning, or lose interest because they do not understand what they are seeing. However, others will allow their minds to wander over the possibilities and options and find their own perception of beauty or mystery within an image. An image has beauty if a viewer derives pleasure or joy from it. It may not matter whether the image is seen in landscape or portrait orientation, or even rotated through 180 degrees. If the resulting display gives viewers pleasure, it may be argued that it is inherently beautiful - at least to some viewers.