Abstract The connections between artistic expression, philosophical perspectives and scientific theories have been evident throughout art history and revealed in painting, literature, sculpture and architecture. Restricting the exploration to painting in all its forms, this article is concerned principally with the interrogation of links between philosophical studies of consciousness and images which may emerge from recent neo-idealist metaphysics which posit the notion that consciousness – not the physical world of matter - is the sole ontological primitive. After examining five principal theories of art - Mimetic or Realism, Expressivism, Formalism, Institutional Theory, and Postmodernism – the article seeks to understand the role of non-representational painting in relation to knowledge and its connection with the world. Following this, recent neo-idealist theories of consciousness – such as those proposed by Bernardo Kastrup and Donald Hoffman – are outlined and connected with forms of artistic expression. Finally, Hoffman’s particular theory of “conscious realism” which posits entities subsisting below spacetime is explored in terms of its realisation in the form of images and patterns. Keywords: philosophical models of consciousness, painting schools, artistic expression, neo-idealism, conscious realism