Places where I have spent most part of my life, do not stand out with spectacular landscapes. I don’t usually paint mountains, oceans, seaside or waves. I’ve seen them, but I have hard times recalling such views in detail which is necessary for creation of painting from memory. Many of these paintings were also started a long time ago just as a demo for my live art classes. That means, I’ve spent very limited time painting them during the class. My main focus was what students learned from each process and less an attempt to create a masterpiece.
Therefore, I had to change some parts, add finishing touches, increase strong values, add strong highlights, refine some details and mask out some other parts. These landscapes are views from my memory and imagination, they might or might not exist, but I usually want the subject to be recognizable without long explanations. I suppose, I’ve said it quite a few times that I’m not thrilled about small size, like 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm paintings of complex views and detailed subject. For me personally, the most comfortable size for acrylic is approximately 30 x 24 in or 76 x 61 cm and for watercolor: full sheet which is most often 30 x 22 in or 76 x 56 cm. Such size allows implementing aspects which are very important in painting: decent values, decent size subject, powerful color switches and a few outstanding details.
The current trend of displaying paintings in clusters is a great one. Even when painting is large, it takes a lot of design skill to make it rather become a part of space than dominate it or disappear in it. Clusters of paintings suit any taste and allow using paintings of small and medium size, too. They do change the mood in room, they can take you to any season or make feel happier in your space. I am not allowed to hang much on walls in my rented space. We tried strips and some of bigger paintings fell down. I didn’t even attempt hanging the huge and large watercolor paintings that way.
The history and story behind these paintings is the same, but some are pretty much painted from new. You can do that in acrylic, no problem. In fact, I think acrylic looks better with numerous layers, – the more, the better. Colors become intense and also change in different light settings, the most dramatic parts become textured and that looks really adorable. These paintings have taken weeks to accomplish letting dry between layers. I know how little of that is visible in an online image, but the presence is still there.
Since I spent 46 years in Latvia and it’s not even twenty in Canada yet, the subject of my painted landscapes is associated most often with Latvian countryside, Latvian country roads, gardens and plants, as well as with nature in Latvia. The area around Ajax where I live now is similar, but I would never paint the local box-like boring buildings which really offend one’s esthetic principles. That’s why we have imagination and can travel back in memories to any season, any place and any emotion that provoked.
Other than that, I’m finally working on compiling a book of acrylic painting techniques for landscapes, still life and floral art. It is a slow process, and it probably will take numerous hours for creating more pictures, describing tools and efficient process steps, as well as basic principles of painting in any medium since most of them are the same. Creating art should never be struggle, that’s why I will also keep teaching live art classes when we reopen. That might be in July, or August, or September.
Thanks for reading, enjoy!
My art store is not coming along swiftly as I hoped, so for prints, please, go to Fine Art America:
gorgeous
Thank you!
Amazing paintings, your landscape paintings transport you as if you were there, in that place, in that moment. Magical, I love them, keep painting and sharing.
Thank you! I am aiming for presence and the feel of whatever subject I am painting. It’s nice to know that the viewer can feel that, too. Painting is the only full-time occupation I have at the moment, but compared to even 15 years ago, it’s become very difficult to manage everything.
My personal choice would be to just paint and teach, but, unfortunately, there are so many things which need to be done, time-consuming things. I find that one person cannot really do everything anymore. My personal situation, however, makes that a must and I am joggling between tasks.
I need to post more regularly, but there’ s always something, mostly health-related.
I appreciate you stopped by and left this nice comment!
Your welcome, I stopped by your online store quickly as well (I promise to have a better look later). Too temped to buy everything (if only funds allowed that lol).
No one can do everything at the moment during these weird times we find ourselves in even the smallest of tasks can seem a challenge. Personally I want to spend more time on my photography but motivation is severely lacking at the moment even with things I love doing.
You are right about motivation: we normally need to feel at least somewhat appreciated for what we do. Right now, with the lockdowns and restricted real life communication, it’s very difficult.
Well, I’ve been always good with painting, drawing, sewing, even with writing (I’m not a native English, so that refers rather to my published works in Latvian), but I absolutely dislike the social media and the huge time I have to spend on promotions and similar things. Not posting regularly bites back, too.
It’s not that I’ve ever been good with marketing, promotions and advertising. I come from a very different background which is post-soviet Latvia. I only started to learn something about all this when I was way past 50. I know how people who have grown up in North America learn things like that practically from childhood.
The sales pages are being updated, but I don’t seem to find enough time. All I’m doing is paying Shopify. Days are too short, that’s for sure.
Thanks for your comment!
Amazing!
Thank you Victoria!
Lovely paintings. You have a beautiful style in your art.
Thank you Judith!
These paintings are medium size , I normally prefer large size, but there’s no time right now. I tried to archive all my art and that is a hell of work. I paint in watercolor, acrylic, sometimes do drawings and pastels. However, lots of previous pictures are not any longer good enough for placing them in my store or simply leaving on the internet. Any picture which I took before approximately 2017, especially between 2007 and 2014, looks blurry and totally off.
I am working on watercolor materials and acrylic painting materials for online, and it’s a very slow process, and I must admit, I would love to only create, but there’s this necessity to put things online and it is very very time-consuming.
Lucky people who have only a few paintings, like up to 50 or something. I’d definitely advise them to archive everything properly while they have few paintings. My collections have grown in very many hundreds, and some in thousands, and that means I also have thousands of folders with many hundreds of pictures in them.
That would definitely be quite a task! Good luck with all that you’re doing. Hopefully you’ll find ways to make it as easy and efficient as possible and you’ll be able to spend most of your time creating.
That’s the idea. So far, I’ve spent two months on this, and it’s not even close to done. Like I said, it’s a very time-consuming task.
The other problem is I cannot even recall on which computer or which data transfer device some pictures are. I lost the main computer last year and a lot of pictures and data with it.
I normally back up the important things, but that happened unexpectedly and so there was no way to recover them.
Not my favorite thing to do, but necessary.
Spring is coming and garden work will start and, ha, ha, all good intentions will be out of the window, literally.
Oh, my! Computers are wondrous devices, but they can also cause a lot of headaches. And, yes, spring is coming, it’s time to start the garden, and we’re not ready!
They do cause headache here and there, no avoiding that.
Once we have somewhat warmer temperatures, I will start with cleanup. the rest will follow.
I’m a bit worried because we might have to go in lockdown again. I don’t have all acrylic paints at the moment, but I have lots of watercolor. I bring it over from Europe, or daughter sends me. Canadian prices are over the top, and quality just isn’t there. I use St. Petersburg watercolors made in Russia, St. Petersburg. In my opinion, no other brand compares to them. I’ve tried all brands which are artist grade in North America, and these still beat them all.
So, I will do some watercolors when I have enough daylight. That’s another aspect: I need daylight. When I have painted something at artificial light, I’ve noticed colors are not exactly right, and some values could be different.
Thank you very much for your comments! Stay safe! I will also return to your blog reading these great articles.
Please do stay safe, and enjoy creating beautiful watercolors. I will be visiting your blog, and I hope you’ll drop by Artistcoveries now and then to see what I’m up to. I’ve enjoyed chatting with you. 🙂
The same here.
I will definitely visit your interesting and illustrative blog again. I just cannot say when exactly.
Time flies, it’s hard to keep up with everything.
Thank you very much and wish you all the best with exploring art history and creating your own art!
Thank you so much!
You’re very welcome.
Wow! Gorgeous!!!
Thank you very much!
One is new, and the rest are from previous years. The subject is still much related to what I teach at art classes. However, since I could I added more from me personally to each painting. The problem is my students want to paint not what I would always prefer, so I have to compromise.
From memory to canvas, your paintings are very beautiful, Inese 🎨 Magical landscapes inviting ones imagination into the scenery. Lovely work!
Thanks Phil!
Quite many years ago, I relocated from Latvia, Europe, to Canada. While climate and nature are similar in Ontario where I reside to what I was used to in Latvia, Latvian nature is more attractive because of its small scale. Everything is huge in Canada, and everything is picturesque in Latvia. Therefore, I combine both experiences in some of my paintings.
Have a good day!
You do so with great style ~ wonderful artwork, Inese. Thanks, you too.
Thanks very much, I appreciate the visit and comments!