Acrylic flower paintings in new settings – art never expires

Large flower paintings, art for sale

Flower paintings in acrylic

As an artist, we always have some favorite paintings. Some of them we don’t sell at all, and some we give as gifts to dear people. Since many of my previous posts were about watercolor, I’d love to post this time a few acrylic flower paintings. This post has quite a few images of painted pink and white flowers. Unfortunately, as we get older, there seems to be less time for anything. That refers to painting, posting, sharing and so on. Somebody told me that we feel this way since we spend more time on any task.

Flower paintings, pink and white paintings

Quality over quantity

I suppose with experience, both life and art, we value quality over quantity. Anybody who’s spent decades creating art, can reflect of the process of discovery. Discovering subject, discovering new color palette, discovering adorable things we didn’t like before, discovering new dimensions of the same old story. I love pure and clean colors, and pink color offers so many shades.

Flower paintings, rose painting

My paintings with past

As the time goes by so swiftly, I sort of regret not painting exactly what I prefer. That’s as opposed to subjects I teach in art classes. I’ve mentioned before that an artwork for juried show, artwork for quick sale, commissioned artwork and paintings which I create as demonstrations – they are all very different by nature. Time has been always a factor, but also my health problems. So, you have to be ok when you cannot do anything at all also. I didn’t paint these flower paintings yesterday, but hopefully got better images of them.

Art is more than copy of reality

My taste doesn’t comply with generally preferred art which we see online. That is sunsets, waves, backlit shapes, too sweet nature scenes, as well as very close copies of photos. I always believed art is more than copy of reality. The latter anybody can manage with enough patience, tools and devices. Not everybody can paint spontaneously or draw without any printouts or edited images.

Flower paintings, pink magnolia

Relation to reality

On the other hand, I love that my paintings display things which are recognizable. People frequently tell me; they know that or this place in my painting. Well, such place doesn’t exist, but apparently the painting relates to somebody’s experience. Sometimes, the viewer can feel fragrance of flower. That’s why I avoid painting completely abstract art, but I still have a lot of abstracted paintings, especially, the extra textured ones. Also, my backgrounds are not definite.

Amaryllis, flower paintings

Everything is art, but I disagree

While all artistic genres – music, singing, acting, writing, poetry – have moved on and aimed for higher goals and more mastery, internet has facilitated degradation of classic art. If you want to see what’s for sale and what’s taught on some skill-sharing sites, just google any term. It can be quite awful and total beginners art. I remember how my students 10 and more years ago were so self-critical. Nowadays, that’s a ready-for-sale art. I agree, it’s easier to hang an abstract on the wall, but it becomes a simple decoration, not always art. How long are you going to look at 2 lines or some big blob of one color?

Colorful, large flower paintings

Enjoy!

I always struggled with photos of my paintings because to my sharp artistic eye, the photos have never the exact colors and I usually have to crop off some crucial parts to make the image straight. Nevertheless, let me know if you like some flower or other painting. I don’t think original paintings have ever been so affordable. It’s been a while, and I wish everything was better, but enjoy! With better, I mean mostly the financial side. The creative side is fine, I never have any problem with that.

Rose painting, pansy painting, flower paintings for sale

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Painting without restrictions, spring landscape

Painting in progress, Highland creek landscape

Being in spring landscape

What to do during the dull and dark February days? Probably, just keep painting. Acrylic painting is a bit more difficult with heating on, but it is also very rewarding. I pick myself up and place in the middle of spring. We used to go for walks along the Highland creek which offers attractive views and many varieties of trees, wild plants, chance to watch animals, jump over rocks and rushing water. Creek is wide in the middle part and water stays quite still in some spots. This is like mental transition in time and to another place. Thus, spring landscape is born.

Central part of Highland creek flood water painting

Imaginated reality

As you know, art has no restrictions. That includes the painting subject, colors we use, parts we paint and parts we don’t. I’m usually not that worried about how realistic something looks when painted. There must be some joy and fun put into every brushstroke. I usually paint as I see something in my head. When I look at empty canvas, I can easily visualize what is going to be there, in this spring landscape for instance. Similar to when we have a piece of fabric and we can imagine how the ready outfit will look. Imagination has no borders, too.

Top part of Highland creek flood water painting

Spring landscape as painting subject

This Highland creek flood water painting was done for the private art classes. I thought spring landscape was very fitting since we can paint much less of it or add much more to any part. We can leave the distant part completely abstract. Well, my student was impatient and here and there jumped over the gradual steps which processing an acrylic painting requires. My demo steps got jumpy, too, but, nevertheless, this painting was brought to completion just a few days ago. What you are seeing, however, is not the painting, but images of it. I straggled getting all parts of it onto pictures.

See painting steps above

Getting correct colors in acrylic painting

What’s most important for me personally, is whether the mood in an artwork can move us, inspire us, make us want to be there, in that place which doesn’t actually exist in the real world. I am trying to also teach my students patience and correct use of acrylic paints. While any wet acrylic painting might look perfectly right, it will definitely dry darker. The weaker the paint we use, the darker our painting might become. I regret noticing how Liquitex heavy body professional grade paints have lost some of their quality over years. That refers to Titanium white and yellow shades.

Close-up of front part

The usual acrylic painting principles

Regardless of our artistic intention, we always work from dark to light in acrylic, always from underneath upwards, always from back to front. With heating on, acrylic paint can dry immediately, therefore, we glaze separate parts and work in small segments. The lore layers acrylic painting has, the better it will look. That especially refers to the moment when somebody sees the actual painting in person. I sometimes go over even the final layers if the paint has become too dull in some spots.

Highland creek flood water, acrylic painting 24 x 18″ or 61 x 46 cm

Place yourself in this spring landscape

I hope you love this spring landscape and its mood. I believe you’d hear birds singing and water rushing over wet rocks and grasses if you are able to forget the surroundings for a moment and be immersed in this painting. It’s in great size, not too huge, not too tiny, 24 x 18″ or 61 x 46 cm. The steep vertical format adds a good quality to this spring landscape and pushes compositionally important elements close to the viewer.

Just like always, thanks if you read my post! I intend to catch up with likes and comments.

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Group art classes

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Show time

Show time Hay bales, large acrylic painting, nature painting

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.

All the best and have a good, colorful September!

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Works and artworks

Artworks, lifting fog

It’s time to feature a few summer-related artworks, something which widens our space and takes us to places which might or might not exist. The power of imagination! I use imagination to a great extent since life has become somewhat subdued in the post-COVID era. Back to summer artworks.

I have to take new pictures of paintings which were created years ago, as well as quite recently. I mentioned in previous posts: an artwork for a show and an artwork for demonstration at art class simply cannot be the same. As art teacher, I try to adjust the subject to the skill level of students. Therefore, such paintings are more abstract. One example from the recent classes: bright summer landscape which is quite abstract, but uses strong colors.

While I was using iPhone 6, all my pictures were dark. With iPhone 8, then iPhone 10 Pro Max, all my pictures had yellow and purple overcast, the colors in paintings were as if yellowed out. With iPhone 13 Pro Max, I have sometimes extreme contrast, but there’s more ability to adjust the distorted perspective and color. However, paintings have extra bright blue-green, too strong blue, or all-over yellow-green and too much purple. Basically, any edits are global. I’ve never gotten my painting images right, practically never.

So, I have to take new pictures replacing all images between 2010 and 2018. They simply have no saturation, no contrast and make no sense either. One might ask: why to bother? Well, although few people ever read entire posts or look at all images, online images are often the only way they will see what I have painted. Since I have spent numerous hours cataloging my artworks, I decided to feature quite a few artworks from different years.

In Ontario where I live, summer is not that long. I rush to do gardening, painting, teaching while I have to catch up on regular chores also. Lots of things are still in boxes and many tasks await their completion. However, summer is for taking a break, too. Therefore, I won’t apologize for not posting very frequently, but I hope you love and purchase some art and love my artworks added to this post.

Have a great, green and blue, enjoyable summer!

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Colors of summer, colors of garden

Farden painting, acrylic painting, garden flowers, garden fence

It happens every spring and summer: my students are very interested in painting something great which involves bright colors of garden or wildflowers. Therefore, I get my canvas and demonstrate patiently once more the attractive colors of garden which we see in spring and summer, and numerous plants which we can imagine.

It’s interesting that I have finally many students in private art classes. That’s quite amazing because usually groups were filling first. Certainly, private class is different from group class, and preparation thereof is quite time-consuming. We spend on one drawing 2 to 3 art classes and on a painting at least 3, but very often – 4 classes. That means I can finalize the art within 4 weeks.

I published good, very large drawings in the previous post, and it looks like they didn’t attract too many viewers and I didn’t hear the gasps which follow when somebody looks at the actual drawing.

While there’s often no other way, presenting art on the internet is boring and it never causes the same reaction as when looking at art in reality. I’d say, closeness and experiencing size of art really matter, and – to a huge extent. I usually do identify sizes of paintings online, but what you see on your screen is the size you experience. On the phone, the size becomes tiny. Needless to add that everything is extra bright on the phone and that might not always suit the painting. I do miss the chance to meet people in person, to share the thoughts behind each drawing or painting and steps of its creation.

I’ve been still working on putting together our house and starting a new garden almost in a forest, quite literally, and to me, this seems a never-ending task, at least for now. Therefore, I’ve posted hardly anything anywhere. You might think: what’s a big deal about giving a class, but for me it is a time-consuming preparation process and major input of energy into the actual teaching. I take teaching very seriously, just like I take seriously everything that matters to me.

Colors of garden, acrylic painting on canvas, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm. The size of this painting is 24 x 18 inches or 61 x 46 cm. I always start a painting on pre-painted or color-primed canvas. It’s easier to paint like that for everybody.

I don’t want to disappear completely from the internet space, so I am posting at least one new, just finished painting. I do adjust myself to requirements of the demo, and this particular subject is strong, bright and very present, and so are the colors of garden. Colors of garden in any case can be breathtaking.

I hope you like the pictures scattered around this post, and I’d love nothing more than to sell something from my art collections. It’s been a long time since I had a live show, but one is coming up this fall. It was cancelled due to pandemic.

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I hope you have a good time at your place and enjoy the recent painting and other artworks!