Beyond restrictions of reality

Beyond restrictions of reality, create

Seasonal reality

Spring season is giving space to summer. We bathe ourselves in light. We walk through spring and summer days very aware of nature’s beauty. This is the most inspiring time of the year, at least for me. It is not only because the nature is so ready to bless us with so much visual abundance, but also because the energy is so vivid and at its highest point: the energy of growth and fulfillment. Every view is framed by grapevines and has flowers scattered over it.

The magic energy

We should capture some of this sparkling energy and preserve it for cool fall and winter nights. I do capture such energy in my art. I love including floral elements in my paintings, whether tiny or large. I believe we suffer from too materialistic life style and we are too obsessed with profits and material gains. That leads to imbalance. Mental side and soul should be loved at least as much as the physical body which gets all attention.

Feeding our soul

Art feeds our soul. You enter an art studio and you will be right away embraced by something uplifting and mysterious. Painting consists of paints, lines, shapes and light rays. How could they possibly take one to another world? They can since we implement ideas, thoughts, concepts and energy along with visible things in a painting. Art crosses the limits of visible and invisible and easily passes the restrictions of reality. I think that makes pursuing art such a worthy experience.

Is painting ever finished?

It is great to look at a finished artwork. I dare to say that the process of creation surpasses the savoring art by the viewer. To be able to create feels like an endless journey to satisfaction. Is a painting ever finished, though? The truth is that sometimes I continue mentally working on some painting even after it has been sold. These ideas will find reflection in my next paintings.

Moving to my new art studio

As I am packing up my studio again, I was just snapping a few pictures of the recent and not that recent paintings. I do sometimes forget how much art I have created and it is nice to refresh my memory here and there. Paintings are sold over time, but what remains is the reality of being able to create beauty.

Enjoy and visit

My new studio will have more space, indoors and outdoors on 2 levels. It will be a great place to create new art and to enjoy the previous paintings. Thankfully, it is a very close move, 7 minutes by foot and 5 minutes by car. Enjoy the images of paintings and visit my new studio! If you are somewhere not that far from Ajax, Ontario, stop by! It is summer, travelling is easy and fun.

Summer art classessign up here

Would you like a private art lesson? Here is the link to apply: private art lessons

Shop at art Studio Shop original art

Art prints and artistic things:

Art collections by Inese Poga

Flowers and paintings

Flowers and paintings, acrylic flower painting

Flowers and paintings enhance each other

Flowers and paintings are a natural fit. Don’t you think? I started to take some pictures, and there were flowers which I had used for watercolor class as a reference material nearby. Colors came out more balanced, and the ambient impact was flawless.

I decided to sell both: flowers and plants as we move ahead. I think it is a great idea because I have numerous plants and numerous paintings. In fact, I have many hundreds of paintings.

Enjoy the recent paintings

This time, you can enjoy my recent flower paintings surrounded by more beauty of live plants and blossoms.

The beautiful contrast between daffodils from the garden and spring magnolia painting, or maybe it is a compliment?

Acrylic paintings of roses with hyacinths, the large one is 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm and the pink rose is 12 x 12 in or 30.5 x 30.5 cm. It is the same subject, but different look

Lovely colors, lovely paintings: bright white calla lilies and the pink rose

Drawing for the 3-hour rose workshop is visible behind the painting. I painted this pink rose as a demo for flower painting workshop. Colors of painting and live daffodils look gorgeous together.

New priorities in art instruction

I also rescheduled and regrouped my priorities in art instruction. When it comes to art instruction and teaching, I enjoy students, who have genuine interest in learning something new and in developing their skills as opposed to those who just hope that painting paints itself. Everything requires work and efforts. The result of flower painting is very pleasing.

Small groups: big attention

My space can accept quite a lot of students, but I decided to have rather individual and private classes or small size groups. That gives me the opportunity to review all important aspects of getting somebody started in drawing, watercolor and acrylic painting. Large groups suit more the art entertainment, like painting in bars and restaurants. They don’t care about quality or skills one develops, but I certainly do.

Experience helps

Also, individual or private art classes require very high level of art instructor’s skills, and not everybody has them. Well, I do. I have huge experience and I have definitely explored practically everything when it comes to creation of a drawing or painting. I am extremely good at drawing, as well as I have worked out my personal watercolor and acrylic painting style. It sure takes many years, not hours.

Preparation of an art class

I  know how people use to think that art class does not require much preparation time. It is straight the opposite. I frequently adjust not only the painting subject, but also level of difficulty, and pay attention to availability of materials and  reference materials. That can take sometimes 4-6 hours. The follow up classes on the same painting subject take less preparation time, but it is never less than a few hours. I have to review what every student has achieved so far, what and why they need to work more at. I switch from one painting subject to another if student or group cannot handle it.

Advantages of private or individual art classes

I believe, private or individual art class is the best solution for people who want to seriously engage in art or feel uncomfortable with other people around them. It will definitely lead to faster achievements and results. More ideas about painting flowers with acrylic: Create beauty

Please, review schedule and let me know if you are  interested in any art classesSign up for classes

I am always happy selling a painting to people, who love art. You are welcome to contact me via Contact page and visit the studio at any time which suits my and your schedule.

Fine art prints: Art collections by Inese Poga

Meditate with color and line and treat yourself with an extremely wonderful experience!

Copyright notice: Copyright of displayed paintings, drawings, images of work in progress and images of finished paintings belong to artist Inese Poga. The use of painting and drawing images is prohibited without a written permission. That includes no pinning on Pinterest.

Spring paintings in acrylic

Country barn, original art

Spring paintings feel like a good choice when nature awakes

When else if not now to engage in creation of spring paintings? One can tell how much I love spring by just having a look at what I have painted recently: spring flowers, spring scenery and spring landscapes. I think I feel seasonal changes on a mental level very strongly. I cannot imagine I would be painting snow right now. Still life in that regard is the most neutral subject, but I felt I needed something more impressive.

My personalized realism

Most people believe I paint reality, but I do not. I use quite frequently real things, like I used real daffodils for the front part this time; however, I always beautify the reality and make any subject my personal reality. That means I give the subject my colors which I love at that moment, enhance the layout, and add extra contrasts or values, just to make everything more of what I experience at that moment.

Nature does not always cooperate

The truth is the spring has been slow again in Ontario. We even had very winter-like weather a week ago. Therefore, to facilitate the feeling of blooming and warmth, I just paint it. I decided to mostly post one image at a time whenever possible. Most people never read posts, so, they only have a glance at the featured image and move on. That is why most paintings, advice and images which are in the article go unnoticed.

Taking pictures

Taking pictures with iphone  is very difficult. The extreme contrast is fine for any regular pictures, but not art. My solution is taking pictures with backgrounds, extra items, paints, brushes and similar. That works for the most part, but the painting area one works on, can be very messy sometimes. I mean, there are paint tubes, dirty paper towels, plates with leftover paint, brushes, sponges, jars with dirty water and all kinds of other things. Therefore, some pictures look messy by accidentally displaying some item which completely doesn’t fit the view.

Just imagine how it looks on my wall

My pictures still display more contrast than they should. Everything is usually well-balanced in my actual painting. I work in layers and for many hours in order to achieve the color balance. As you know, acrylic paints, at least the ones which are available in Canada, become much darker as they dry. One has to calculate that in when applying paint. It can happen so that sometimes white or yellow paint is very weak, and fixing the value imbalance requires extra work.

Available for purchase

Any of paintings are available from my studio. Paintings which are displayed in this post are 16 x 20 inches or 41 cm x 51 cm. I have to mention that because pictures look all the same on the internet. Anyway, enjoy the Daffodil barn and spring paintings! Daffodil barn got lots of great comments on Facebook and Fine Art America site this time, in particular, in acrylic artists’ groups. Please, see links to other posts and FAA sales site.

Register for painting classes, including private classes, from here: Registration for painting classes

Previous post about recent acrylic paintings: New acrylic paintings

Art collections by Inese Poga

Enjoying spring nature and presence of painting subject

Nostalgia, acrylic painting by Inese Poga

Spending time with spring nature

Spring is already here. Art studio is a place which is always in bloom. Art studio has all seasons at once, and spring is presented to a high degree. Spring also means, one can take a canvas or sheet of paper and head out to be closer to the big awakening. Spring nature is an excellent subject! How much time do we really spend in nature and with it? Only with nature, without checking your phone or texting, or listening to music instead of bird songs? The research finds that it is a very insignificant amount of time compared to what we spend in a car and indoors. So, head out!

Outdoor drawing and painting

Outdoor drawing allows not only being close to the nature, but also experiencing a great presence of our subject. Many people use plants, flowers, leaves, blooms, trees, and other live natural subjects in their art. Being able to create a good reference drawing comes from observation. Outdoors is the best place to observe all growing and blossoming things and to understand how they change along with seasons.

Being close to the painting subject

Outdoor painting teaches us how to use fewer art supplies, but use them more effectively. Being in a close distance to our painting subject and having a chance to observe it is an extreme bonus. All tracing and photo editing software can never compare with direct observation. It is because of the presence. Any painting you do using real things and looking at the real painting subject will look more convincing. We can definitely feel the presence of painting subject or lack of it in the finalized art.

Direct observation and drawing

I feel that my duty is to teach other people enjoying things which are not costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty.

Daily drawing practice

We can keep our brain flexible and our cognitive function in great condition by simply drawing and sketching every single day. Just like you go to the gym, you need to engage your brain to its capacity with pleasurable things like art even when out of work and school. Observational drawing and painting is number one brain booster.

The best medication for mental issues

Drawing and painting are the best medication for any trouble, but especially mental issues, such as depression, grief, persistent, obtrusive thoughts and anxiety. We shouldn’t ignore the importance of new and challenging activities as brain fitness exercise. While one paints, they also completely forget about things they are addicted to: food, snacks, alcohol, drugs, smoking and devices, as well as phone. This gives us the much-deserved break from mind pollution.

The immediate result of painting is not the ultimate goal

It is often assumed that the only goal of drawing and painting should be the immediate result. We should not forget that here is so much to gain from the process. If you stop being concerned about the result, you will find out how rewarding the process is. Everybody achieves good results if they practice and keep painting, but certainly the process of creation is the one that deserves to be finally acknowledged and considered the main part of creativity. Along with feeling relaxed, trouble-free and happy, you will also create art that becomes better and better over time.

Picture taking

I tried to take pictures side by side, just to keep colors more relevant. My phone camera has too much contrast and my pictures come out extra bright. They have strong dark contrast which is not present in art. The real paintings are well-balanced. That is a good reason to make a trip to my art studio.

It’s not only color which is not true on photos, it’s also contrast, but especially the size. Size makes a big difference, but it is impossible to see that on the internet.  Everything from very large to very small art will seem to be the same size.

Spring, barn Nostalgia series, 24 x 20 inches, or 61 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas

Anyway, enjoy the new art, and you are welcome to attend my popular art classes.

My art products and prints of paintings on Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

Studio sale: decorate

Christmas art

Studio sale

I have created quite a few new large size artworks for my studio sale event on December 8th. I do it every year, and the attendance is usually not crows, but some people come. A couple bought one of my large fall paintings. That was wonderful because this painting was created using a lot of texture and color transitions. It just proves that this type of art is very appealing and people love it. I could have probably created even more textured artworks because they always look stunning, especially when seeing in person.

New art classes, old chores

I haven’t been posting much recently, and there is certainly a reason for that. I was busy advertising my art classes after I moved the studio to another location, and that takes so much time and efforts. I have had quite a lot success so far because I believe potential students realized soon that this is a studio where they can really learn something new. That is very flattering and I appreciate the huge interest. It looks like January and February classes will be well attended.

Some years are just not that good

This year started out on a promising note, but it had prepared some unexpected challenges. The necessity to move house and studio was a huge problem, but my trip to Latvia was fantastic as it always is. I am waiting for the end of this year, nevertheless. It’s hard to admit, but nothing can replace wasted time, and I am extremely considerate about wasting even a minute. I once wrote how I measure the time flow by accomplishments. I wish this year had more accomplishments.

New types of paintings

This is a year when I created less new paintings than I expected, but more new types of paintings, I added a lot of figures, imaginative characters, many still life and floral paintings. I will post these paintings as soon as I get time. I know there is no excuse for posting that few articles. The truth is that my art and creations take a lot of time: weeks, sometimes months. When I have finished a painting, I need to make time for taking pictures. Then I take pictures, and there is no time to post them, and so it goes.

New images of new art

These are the images of new mixed media works, it took me couple of weeks to get them done, and they look amazing. I think colors came out just wonderful. I regret I can post only pictures because the actual works look really very attractive. I create something better and better every year and I’m very happy about that.

Mixed media works can really take long time, but they look stunning

I also added numerous layers of paint, although it is not that visible on a photo. All works are 3-dimensional

All of these artworks are 20 x 24 inches in size, about 5 inches thick, therefore, I would offer them rather locally because shipping would be very problematic

The look is very festive and colors look beautiful with lights on or off

New art for kids

I have created beautiful snowman and gnome characters and they are large and came out very nice, but I hope posting them some other day. You can find them on Fine Art America site, there is a special collection ” Art for kids”. All of these paintings and many more are available during my studio sale event. I had to post an update not to lose all my blogging friends. Enjoy!