A painting is the general word for any artwork made with paint, on canvas, paper or elsewhere, while a mural is a large painting done directly onto a wall or ceiling. Every mural is a painting, but a painting only counts as a mural once it is on a wall.
The core difference
A painting is any paint-based artwork; a mural is specifically a large painting applied directly to a wall or ceiling.
- painting — a picture or artwork made with paint: the gallery bought a painting by a local artist.
- mural — a large picture painted directly onto a wall or ceiling: the artist spent a month painting a mural on the side of the school.
How to tell them apart
The surface is the deciding factor. A painting that hangs in a gallery, sits on an easel, or leans against a wall in a frame is simply a painting. Once that same kind of artwork is applied straight onto the wall or ceiling itself, rather than on a separate canvas, it becomes a mural. A mural cannot be taken down and moved to another building the way a framed painting can.
Painting also works as a verb and an activity, covering everything from fine art to a practical weekend job, as in painting the whole house. Mural has a secondary use as an adjective describing anything relating to or resembling a wall, such as a mural face on a cliff, which has nothing to do with art at all.
