Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in them. This is accomplished through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.

In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.

This is also typical of the work of Niki Purcell, whose work is inspired by the forces and wonder of nature, they house the elements and magic of the world that she experiences, the works are meant to excite the imagination.