My watercolor flower collection grew noticeably
Previous year, while it was not good in many health- and business-related aspects, was a very good year for creating art. I added to my watercolor flower collection quite many paintings. I cannot share all in just one post. I also painted quite a few watercolor roses and still life art. Some of these painting have been published in previous posts, and some I will publish when time is right. I have a habit of painting flowers and spring landscapes from January to approximately end of May. Then, I move to still life, and I get to fall paintings in July and August. Painting flowers and spring in winter is a good habit because it shortens cold and chilly winter days during the dark months.
Missing giving art classes
I was missing the live art classes and interaction with my students. While everything is available online, I think live art classes are the most beneficial. Just ask school kids and teachers, -everybody will tell you that serious and decent learning happens only in person. Art is an easy subject to put online, but there are very many things which you need to touch, to see close-up, to check with your own eyes. I don’t want to make large investments in equipment at the moment, but that’s what I would need to teach online. Space is one more issue. It might be so that I like the live classes too much.
Not abstract, not photo-realism
Very many artists paint abstracts nowadays, really many. Therefore, I’m glad I’m doing something different. Sometimes I’ve told, I should make my art more realistic, but I don’t intend to. I’m mostly painting what I can see. What I can see is not what camera captures and one can enlarge until every ant on a grass stem is visible. It’s just my opinion, but I don’t want to go into tiny photographic detail and use computer. My art is done by simply using sketch or real flower, or real still life as reference most often. As you know, I can draw anything and do it fast. I would sometimes add a little bit of extras from imagination, like water drops on pansy. So, it’s my own realism with touch of imagination.
Personalized use of color
White is a good background for flowers, and dark background colors make white flowers pop. I personally do not like black with watercolor, that suits oils or acrylic more, I believe, and makes watercolor too heavy, but that’s just my personal preference. When I was very young and at school, my art teacher told I should never use black watercolor paint. I have followed her advice. I never use black watercolor paint. I took one more advice to never premix watercolor paint, but add color as I go and use it as I see fit. I actually do the same with acrylic: I use paint without previously mixing it, unless it’s for extra-large area or under-painting.
Decided to leave my website as is
I spent about 3 or even more previous weeks trying to figure out how I could change my website. I tried different things, considered new themes and tested them, asked advice from very well-established artists, who have excellent online presence and whom I know personally. They all told their websites were done by web designers or specifically created for their needs. Most of them have also social media and online representation specialists, video editors and filming teams, etc. Therefore, I decided to leave my website as is. I’m the only one for every single task and I’m doing anything that comes my way. However, I cannot spend all time just editing social media posts and website. I want to paint, draw and create also. Therefore, I prioritized creativity over online perfection. That’s just what works for me right now. I hope you like my flower collection and it inspires you to create flower paintings, too.
Stay safe, healthy and thanks for reading!
Beautiful..
Thank you!
painting flowers and spring has been my winter survival therapy for many years! Looks great and helps a lot.
Right…
God bless 🙏🌹🙏
Lovely work. 🙂
Thanks Sharon!
I’m trying to do many things at once at the moment, and it’s not easy.
I would love to improve the display of images and start posting online materials for students who are impatiently waiting, but everything is very time-and effort-consuming.
Lots of work, every single day. I’m slightly envious of artists who have teams of helpers, that is so fantastic. It has become overwhelming dealing with everything.
We are in a total lockdown and have emergency here in Ontario, who knows when we get back to somewhat better situation.
Keep painting. Things will get better. Us artists are the lucky ones. Our art can occupy us for hours on end. I paint by my window and people driving by stare as if they have never seen someone paint by the window. It’s a funny thing, lol.
I’ve worked as a full-time artist and art instructor since 2008 in Canada. Well, I arrived here in 2004 with 1 suitcase, 2 small brushes and watercolor travel set which was tiny. I’m ok with staying at home because that’s what I do in Canada. In Europe I was working very publicly and traveling around, too.
So, certainly I am painting. This pandemic time allowed to slow down. I was supposed to have 2 solo shows last year and none of them took place since we were either in complete lockdown or in the red zone.
This time also gives me chance to finally get started with my books about painting.
As you may know I have another blog and that has some reflections of medical research work I’ve done for about 35 years. I will have to work more on that blog, too. Clinical psychology and human brain exploration, especially things which every person can do, has always been a subject I can write about a lot.
I hope you’re staying safe and healthy! People look at artists at work, they sure do. It can interrupt a bit the flow of thought and similar, but I don’t think it’s a real disturbance. The only time it might be is when one is painting outdoors and everybody stops by.
I love your flowers and you always inspire me, Inese! I also understand how difficult it is to wear so many hats. Sometimes I feel…stressed…because it is hard to do all of the creating and also have to do all of the other things to make it possible to reach people. It is hard to find the right mix…but it is all necessary if we want to have a connection with others.
Have a blessed day! <3
Thanks Lorrie!
I agree it’s a bit much for one person to handle everything.
I am also working on website updates, etc., but I get frequently interrupted. Cooking, cleaning, just the main things, everything takes so much time.
Managing all social contacts on blogs is time-consuming, that’s in addition to what one publishes. I’ve written quite a few articles for the other lifeschool blog, but I didn’t have any time to publish anything.
It might be being older, too. I still want everything right and correct and when we compare to how people deal with things swiftly now, I must admit I’m slow. To paint takes about 2 weeks for each larger size painting, then I take a few hundreds of pictures. They must be cropped and edited, resized and so forth.
I personally do not stress out about blogging, social media and other social things any longer. I am calm and I do get it that nowadays, the content needs to be sensational in order to attract attention.
Mine is good, and I’m fine with that, but it doesn’t take me far enough to be big online success.
That has become practically impossible for 1 person who juggles between health issues, home chores, necessary or unavoidable matters and website and online presence. All who can afford use teams and delegate tasks to other people who specialize in that area. That’s the right thing to do, except, it costs a lot and excludes people who cannot pay huge amounts for these services.
Have a good and great day, too!
I get it. It seems you have accepted where you are and are comfortable doing what you can…when you can. I have to get better at that. And it absolutely has something to do with age. But it also has to do with letting go of perfection. I always listen to my intuitive voice and therefore, that is what gets done. I have so many projects in various stages of completion. It used to bother me…but now I know that it will get done when it gets done 😉
Hope you have a blessed day! <3
There’s no other way about it! At some point I realized that I have taken on too much. I just don’t want to give up anything of what I love, but still. I haven’t done much sewing recently, I make fewer cakes and nice dinners, there is no gardening in winter, but room plants requite attention, as well.
I’m not on Instagram, and I kind of need to be.
There’s perfection and then there’s done best to one’s capacity. We suffer when somebody else doesn’t do their part. I have seen that people who are sloppy with one thing, are usually sloppy with everything. Like doctors frequently: they do not listen, do not hear and do not pay attention. Results are real bad.
I’m not saying that I don’t make any mistakes with anything, but I’m still doing my best.
Energy decreases with age, but mostly it’s not even that. It’s probably realizing what is worth doing and what is just waste of time. I mean, even with the basic things: why to dress up if you’re sitting at home? On the other hand, we have to take good care of ourselves.
Ha, ha, it’s always 2 sides to everything! So I won’t be going on.
Have a great day!
I hear you, and agree with all that you are saying! Two sides…a continuum between opposites. That is the basis upon which we keep order in our world…or create disorder…whatever seems to be working 😉
I have a closet full of clothes that I never wear now!! I don’t know what the new normal will be…but I think it will is probably already here…or maybe it just creeps us on it and we live it before we realize it. Ah! craziness!!!
Anyway, it was nice to catch up with you. I am happy you are doing well <3
The future will show how many variants of virus we get, how long the vaccines are effective and how fast we can decrease the infection numbers to low levels.
It’s kind of guessing right now since too little time has past in order to know where we would be standing after vaccination. I think unknown length of immunity is also a bit of concern. We might need these vaccines all the time or we might forget about the virus at some point. Only time will show how we can proceed.
I also have lots of clothes I haven’t been wearing recently, not even sweaters or warm things. We wil have parties again, it’s just unknown when.
Very nice to talk to you also!