The Secret Messages Hidden in My Paintings: Intuitive Art That Speaks to the Soul
- Chloe Elliott Schmid
- Jun 14
- 3 min read
Sometimes when I finish a painting, I stand back and ask the painting "Well then… what are you trying to say?"
Because truthfully? I don’t always know.
That’s the curious beauty of intuitive art—it doesn’t come from me in the usual way. It comes through me. I get the desire to paint with a specific colour, add in symbol (like a tiger!) A strange shape emerges where I hadn’t planned one. Before I know it a mood takes over the canvas without warning. And you know what? It's s much fun to go with strikes me as interesting for each next step, each brushstroke and watch what arrives. And that's why my paintings often arrive like riddles, with messages I don’t always grasp the depths of—sometimes I intuit a meaning or reason I wanted to include something, how it made me feel, but I've learnt that I wont always know the bigger meaning behind why I paint, need to paint or why I paint what I paint. That's for your subconscious.
What Are the Secret Messages in Art?
Art has a way of speaking directly to the subconscious. It slips past logic and lands somewhere deeper—somewhere you feel before you know. Symbolic painting in particular has a long history of hiding meaning in plain sight: colours that stir forgotten emotions, shapes that echo a dream, compositions that awaken something ancient and wordless.
“People feel things in my work that I never knew were there—a colour reminds them of a desire… shape that echoes a childhood memory… symbol that sparks a deep knowing they can’t explain.”
When people share their experiences of my work, it often surprises me. I never “put” those meanings there—not consciously. But somehow, they’re there all the same. And this is my favourite thing.
My paintings have stirred viewers to tears (in a good way!!) and others have had the images sitting in their minds for a long time after they saw them. Ah my heart is so happy! That's why I paint.
When a Painting Knows More Than I Do
Some pieces feel like they’re holding secrets. I’ve come to think of them as emotional landscapes, maps of something I’ve felt but couldn’t name. They may be silent on the surface, but they hum with a kind of knowing.
That’s when the real magic happens—when a viewer brings their own meaning to the piece. They’ll see a story I never painted, feel a memory I never lived. And that’s the point.
The art isn’t trying to tell my story. It’s reaching out to help you remember yours.
“—all working together to send a signal. Not to the rational mind, but to the part of you that recognises truth by how it feels.”
Artists as Messengers
This is why I believe artists are messengers—not always with a clear "logical mind" message in hand, but with a willingness to deliver something beyond words. A kind of quiet code gets embedded in the work. Symbolic elements, colour, texture, space—all working together to send a signal. Not to the rational mind, but to the part of you that recognises truth by how it feels. The feeling you get is then why we say the Art resonates with you, or not. Your subconscious knows if and what magic is there for you in a piece of Art and it lets you feel it.
We’re not here to explain it. We’re just here to let it through.
YOU (The Viewer) Are Decoder
Each person brings their own story to the painting—and unlocks something only they can see. That’s where the hidden messages live. Not just in the brushstrokes, but in the interaction between the art and the person standing in front of it. Resonance.
So no, I can’t always tell you what a piece means. But if it speaks to you—if it stirs something, even something you don’t quite understand—then maybe that was the message.
Maybe it was always meant for you.
Want to see the new collection? It’s full of these mysterious creatures—paintings that know things I don’t.
I’d love for you to experience them and see what they whisper to you.
With love and secret symbols, Chloe x
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