BUY ART and TAKE ART CLASSES from ARTIST INESE POGA
Author: Inesepaints
Artist, art instructor: fine art, watercolor, acrylic, drawing; medical writer and researcher, specializing in life sciences, brain function, memory and psychology
When days turn grey and light diminishes to almost none, we turn to warmth and strong colors which brighten up not only our walls, but also mood. I’ve always loved strong and clean colors. I want color sometimes to be the main statement. It is infrequently that color is all one will notice, but there’s so much more in a vibrant flower painting.
Poinsettia, favorite winter bloom
Poinsettias are not only my favorite for this dreary and dark period which includes end of November and almost all of December. I grow a few of them, and poinsettias survive quite well even the heat of July. My model plants are still alive. Some years they have more blooms, some – less.
Composition and flow of lines
I try to keep my lines flowing and, thus, recreate the flawless perfection of the natural plant. It is easy to draw poinsettias, not always that easy to capture the balance between the shape of leaves and petals and the vibrant color. Color transitions are soft, yet, difficult to photograph. It always surprises me how impossible it is to take photos of red on painting. In my opinion, red is the most difficult color to capture on a photo.
Recurrent theme
Poinsettias are one of flowers I have painted numerous times. Sometimes, that’s due to art classes since almost everybody would love to have such painting. Sometimes, when the poinsettia plant is around, I simply cannot resist painting it. The most recent painting is done with watercolor on Saunders-Waterford archival grade cotton paper. It isn’t my most favorite paper since it’s greyish and rather too absorbing, but I had started this painting a year ago, and so I just added to it and I assume it’s done.
Time to restart promotions
Or rather, it is too late already. I don’t take anything too close to my heart. Therefore, I get through bad times and through good times unscathed. Better or worse, but somehow. The main motivation for me is the personal challenge. That means, to envision something in my own way and see how I can put it on a blank sheet of paper or white canvas. I hope you noticed not only color, but also everything else which makes art – art. This poinsettia painting will be soon available as an art print also.
I hope the next post won’t take that long. Meanwhile, all the best to you and enjoy!
Sketchbook as collection of inkand pencil drawings
My sketchbook is large 24 x 18 inches or 61 x 46 cm. It actually feels big and heavy. The tiny pocket-size sketchbooks don’t work for me. Why? If I get a good sketch and it has potential to be turned into watercolor or acrylic painting, I just trace the outline onto the respective surface. The initial sketch serves as a fantastic reference with all shadows, perspective lines and mood, as well. Much better reference than photo. As you might know, color is secondary, and values are primary when it comes to painting. Therefore, my huge sketchbook becomes a great collection of potential large size art. Some of this art is practically a finished artwork.
Advantage of ink and pencil drawing
Drawing is relaxing and it doesn’t require proper timing which is absolutely necessary for watercolor or acrylic painting because correct timing directly affects the result. For example, you squeezed out a lot of paint in order to paint for a few hours. Something happens, and the painting session is cut short. Paint dries and cannot be rescued and you will need to paint over a few areas, but sometimes – the entire surface. With ink or pencil drawing in our sketchbook, nothing dries out, nothing needs doing over, so you just pick up where you left it before. I consider this a big advantage.
Best subjects for drawing
I’ve always loved drawing buildings. And still life. Flowers are fine, as well. My huge sketchbook has numerous drawings of these subjects. For me, it’s important that I don’t need a photo. I rather construct the subject and add whatever needs adding as I go. I call that artistic freedom. I have a complete control over what I want to be on my paper. That is why my subjects often involve only things which I see around and have in the garden or house. Simple, easy and very manageable. Buildings, still life items, landscapes, flowers: they all can be made multidimensional on a flat paper.
We can do well without devices
Since technological advance has been immense, people do manual drawing rarely. They don’t have to manually write either, so the ability to re-create our idea, vision, imagination and reality is declining. The correlation between devices and use of camera is very clear when it comes to manual drawing. The more devices somebody uses to create their art, the less of observational drawing ability they have. I suppose, our brain dismisses everything we don’t engage. Why to stress out if you don’t have to?
Maybe try it
I can make these conclusions because I’ve watched how people go about manual drawing for many decades. What are their strengths and failures, how they tackle dimension, values and shapes. Devices have advanced a lot, but humans? Humans not that much. We delegate anything we cannot do well to devices since there’s a wide choice of them. However, manual observational drawing is an extremely rewarding experience. Large drawings in a big sketchbook can become the best artistic experience.
Large size makes all the difference
It’s the most fantastic feeling. We have the blank sheet of paper. I prefer large one for many reasons. We just play around and implement whatever we feel like. Using soft lines, then moving to stronger values and lines. All of a sudden, the image emerges. Just some shades of black and grey and the white of paper. That’s all it takes. Sometimes it becomes a fantastic drawing where one can literary participate in the scene. If you want to learn drawing, trust me – go big. Use the 24 x 18-inch sketchbook. Want to advance faster, draw large images. I also used Micron archival ink pen.
Watercolor has been one of my most favorite painting medium options for more than 5 decades. I still have a few of my first paintings somewhere, deep in my numerous art folders. I was about 10 years old, I was drawing very well, just like I do now, but my watercolors were not sparkling. I come from a family which didn’t have any relationship with art. In the neighboring house, an artist was renting a room. Her watercolor paintings were way larger and way brighter. They had more volume and more contrast. I asked her to see her paints. She showed me the most fantastic box of watercolor paints. Back then, they were Leningrad watercolor paints which later transitioned to St. Petersburg, and then White night paints. The difference was astounding. Clarity and saturation of pigment charmed me on the spot.
Why to invest in good art supplies
Ever since I tried St. Petersburg watercolor paints, I always tried to find them and use. When I relocated to Canada 18 years ago, I had only a tiny paint box with me, but I quickly realized I will need more paints. So, I shopped the brands available in North America. Expensive they were, the artist grade paints, but they didn’t come even close to my favorite brand. Now with all the Russian issues, I’m in trouble again, but I hope to get some replacement paints. The most understated feature when learning to paint with watercolor is the quality. That refers to quality of paints and quality of watercolor paper. With bad paints and using them on a bad paper, all we can get is unsatisfactory color and contrast, plus bad paper simply cannot take layers and corrections and it buckles and warps. It is limiting.
Captures of fall using watercolor washes and fine detail
Importance of good watercolor paper
Good watercolor paper is very expensive in Canada. The 300 lb cotton cold pressed paper comes to almost $30 or more (with taxes) per 1 sheet. Sheet is approximately 29 to 30 inches x 22 to 23 inches depending on brand. The use of bad paper and weak paints might be the main reason many potential watercolor users give up. Well, I am using sometimes non-cotton papers, too, but no other paper compares to the real thing when you need to apply a wash, gradual wash and fine detail. I prefer using the large size and full-sheet paper since there’s no way to paint something meaningful on tiny size paper.
Autumn leaves and sunflower, both are 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm
Fall colors for beginner artists
Fall season is a great time to consider painting in colors because it is very simple to apply warm and cold opposites and create something great. It is easy to use more abstracted style or add definite detail when necessary. Inspiration is everywhere assuming you get a chance to be in an area which has trees and other landscape elements. Even a few leaves can create a good composition and then you can just add fence, brick wall or washes for background. It is definitely more rewarding to use real things as models for painting. Not everybody knows how to use photo, and your style will emerge sooner when you are not affected by pre-set colors and composition. You have more freedom.
Relaxing experience with watercolor paints
I usually do not participate in challenges because days are filled with numerous tasks as it is. I cannot be sure I will have enough time to paint something of decent quality every day. For me, it makes sense working when the time is right and I don’t feel rushed. People who have similar conditions to mine, frequently experience depression. It comes and goes, and can be of different severity grades. I noticed, however, a few days ago when I finished up the Fall tree on lake shore, I felt simply excellent. For me personally, painting with watercolor is an extremely relaxing and calming experience. Creating the bright color transitions makes me feeling way better than usually. I could say, using bright colors cures and soothes upset mood.
Birch path is large, 30 x 22.5 in or 76 x 57 cm
Dark colors without actual black in watercolor
I never use black color in watercolor painting, and I do not like dark watercolor paintings also. The reason is simple: black color indicates areas absent of light. If you are in a totally dark and black space no light waves are coming through. Generally speaking, I don’t like dark spaces, dark clothes and dark living environment. From the practical painting perspective, black color can make other colors muddy in watercolor painting. For extra strong values, we can use raw umber (very dark tone of brown), Payne’s grey (almost black blue), sepia (practically black with brown undertone) and mixes of dark blue, dark violet with other colors of your palette. The safest combinations in my experience are with Payne’s grey.
Art classes for adults in Ajax, Ontario
While there are many art classes, it’s so that lots of them are the paint-night type where there is no actual learning. Good painting takes time and skill. You might want to paint more abstract art, but you still need to know how your paint pigments interact and what your brush, sponge, other tools and materials, as well as paints can do on that particular paper you’re using. Every type of paper acts differently. With globalization, art classes have become part of online domain. However, I’ve never met a student who was able to paint whatever they had intended after watching online instruction videos. In reality, you need to obtain some habits which facilitate painting. My art classes are different. And I provide students with skills which root in my many-decades-long experience.
Lake tree watercolor is 24 x 18 in or 61 x 45 cm
Adult artists in and around Ajax, Ontario! You might find your passion this fall season engaging in creation of colorful watercolor art. Calming, soothing and very uplifting! Especially when the days get shorter. Thanks and have a good fall season!
It’s been a while, and summer just flew by. My art show was delayed for 2 years by pandemic, and now the show is finally coming up, and it will open on September 14. I have submitted the paperwork and still need to add wire on the back of quite a few paintings. I will mostly present large size art at this particular show and I hope it will look as impressive and memorable as the original art which has been created in the span of 5 years. It’s not that all art was created some years ago, but a few paintings are from 2018 and 2020 and so forth. I’m showing in total 25 artworks. I hope the wall space allows for that.
I decided to add a few green paintings, as well. Farewell to summer.
Country barn in summer meadow, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm
Garden fence, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm
Summer flower fields, abstract acrylic painting, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm
Ajax Community Centre, East wing offers better light than the previous exhibition space at Ajax Town Hall. This show is happening in cooperation with PineRidge Arts Council. I am a member of this artist association, it’s one of the few which do a lot for an artist and charge a very moderate membership fee. They have friendly staff, and especially I would like to mention Mary Cook who takes care of the web presentation.
I have taken numerous new pictures. I won’t repeat myself, but iPhone just really destroys my painting images with extreme contrast, with absolutely wrong colors and it’s unable to distinct between shades of white and grey. Grey tends to look black and all white is just white without any shades of it. To be honest, everybody who’s seen my art only on the internet, hasn’t seen it all. That’s the disadvantage of presenting images as opposed to actual artworks. Anyway, it’s the only chance for me to go global and so be it.
As you know, on this website all horizontal artworks look smaller and all vertical ones much larger. Well, I’m adding sizes, but, unfortunately, they don’t mean much if you’re viewing this blog post on your phone. I hope you will check the studio sales pages later in the week because there will be new special offers. All art I’m displaying on my blog is original art, meaning, I am selling just the only true artwork as it’s created.
Birch valley, 32 x 26 in or 81 x 66 cm
…. and Hay bales, autumn fields, 28 x 22 in or 71 x 56 cm
Many of my paintings are created on textured backgrounds. People often ask me about palette knife, and, no, I’m not using it, but I’m creating textures on canvas before I start painting the actual shapes of trees and other elements.
Well, maybe some of you will stop at Ajax, Ontario in the future when traveling to Toronto and, thus, see how my art looks in reality. Meanwhile, buy art from my art studio also because numerous paintings won’t get into the show display. Certainly, attend the live show if you are in the Greater Toronto Area. It is the show time finally!
My summer was somewhat painful and I was off for about 6 weeks. I’m not one of people who snap pictures at emergency rooms and treatment clinics, so I had nothing much I was willing to share until I recently started feeling a bit better. Just in time, I’d say because I have only 1 week to finalize all art which goes into the art show.
It happened so that I gave numerous drawing classes this season. People love pencil drawing and sketches, and they are excited to learn how to create such art or a value drawing for other art, like for a watercolor and acrylic painting. Therefore, I have many drawings now. I always ask my students to also use big size paper for their creations. We most often use 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm paper.
Using reference image or setting up still life
I personally prefer real items in front of classroom for my pencil drawings and sketches. During summer and fall, it’s extremely easy to find something suitable. We used real items for still life, but perspective pencil drawings and sketches are simply composed and constructed from imagination. I haven’t got images yet of other drawings with personal items, shoes, jeans jackets and figures. We gradually increased complexity and went from still life and perspective drawing to pencil drawings and sketches of figures. That took about 30 private art classes. Large size paper makes a lot of sense and allows creating the best compositions and value transitions.
Tutorial won’t do that
Tutorials usually teach something one: style or technique of a particular artist, one subject or one feature of it, and that doesn’t always mean your tutorial will include explanation or clear understanding why to choose exactly this one style, feature or part of subject. Demonstrations are frequently done on small sheets of paper. I’ve mentioned this numerous times before: if you can draw, you can draw anything without any limitations. You won’t need photos, printouts, grids and similar things. If you can draw, you just observe, pay attention and allow pencil to do its job. Which I always do! I hope you love seeing these drawings and sketches! I have to post many at a time because there are way too many.
