Ajax Ontario Archives - INESE'S ART STUDIO

August 7, 2025August 7, 2025

Perfect subject for acrylic painting

Beginner art classes in acrylic painting

Summer is always busy, and I am wrapping up summer art classes next week. After that, I have only private classes for a while, and we restart in September. Since my students are mostly beginners who have been trying other options, like tutorials and video lessons and decided that it’s worth to learn rather directly.

Getting acquainted with new medium

Introduction in new medium, art supplies, like brushes, canvas and other tools should realistically start with exploration thereof. Most people come to an art class with new brushes, new paint tubes and neither I, nor they know what they have. We have numerous paint manufacturers, some pretty bad, some acceptable and a few – decent. The only way to know how our paints work is to try, test and use them.

Important aspects of painting

I am trying also to teach about basics of painting apart from practical things and techniques. It’s important how we create composition, how we lay down the first layers and how we achieve contrast and value distinction. It’s important to approach acrylic painting based on the properties of acrylic paint, meaning, how long till it dries, what happens if you don’t stop working some segment when paint is tacky and so forth.

Brushstroke and brushes for acrylic painting

Brushstroke is very much neglected part of painting, and it takes quite a while until one gets sufficient with the use of their brushes. Fan brush is fantastic and we use it often with landscape painting, except, that one has to practice using it until they can achieve the desired effect. Brushes can do a lot; we just need to be aware of what! Below is an image of updated barn painting from a few years ago.

Specifics of acrylic painting

I teach painting in layers and segments with first blocking in the main shapes. The correct way is to start with what’s underneath and that means also applying dark colors. We basically never paint details first, as well as the final colors. We build them up. The first layers can look not attractive at all, but we keep adding layers and painting starts to come to life.

Patience matters

We are always rushing and impatient nowadays. We want results right away and on the spot. In painting, results come after spending time with our paints and brushes, after learning what painting involves and how to achieve what we would like. That never happens within a few days or weeks. It takes time to make our movements automatic, like cleaning the brush every time we switch color.

Good subjects for acrylic painting

Clearly defined subjects, like this barn and other barns in landscape, are easier for beginners, there’s something to hold on. We need abstract parts and defined parts in a painting, but we should never put small details in the background. All students were extremely satisfied with their paintings while they admitted there’s much more to learn.

Fantastic result – old barn in summer meadow

I personally enjoyed painting this barn in a summer meadow. Colors worked very well, and like always, the actual painting is better than my photos. I don’t think any camera has the ability to perfectly capture the soft and gentle color transitions, as well as vert accurate colors. Well, it’s available. Barn painting is 20 x 16”. The other barn with flowers is 24 x 18″, and I think it looks impressive.

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May 31, 2025May 31, 2025

Blue sky over summer meadows

I’ve been working on many things, including painting, sketching, drawing, teaching art classes, but most of all, I had to deal with planting the garden. That left me not much time for posting anything anywhere. “Blue sky over summer meadows” painting was started in class. Therefore, it’s really not my personal choice of subject.

Blue sky over summer meadows studio view

This post is just simple and short update since I already skipped April. April was quite nice, but then May brought bad and extremely cold weather, and I had no motivation to paint a lot. I have finished sketches and watercolor paintings, but they’ll have to wait for another time. “Blue sky over summer meadows” is a fairly acceptable acrylic painting, except I struggled abnormally to get realistic pictures.

Blue sky over summer meadows on the easel

Every art class also takes preparation; the biggest problem is what to paint. Teaching art classes nowadays is extremely difficult. Most people watch tutorials and speed paintings, and that causes one to believe that any painting is done within an hour or less, even if one is a complete beginner. That also makes one believe that there’s no need to know anything about painting, particular medium or brushstroke.

Blue sky over summer meadows acrylic painting

Anyway, I tried my best getting some images, and I must admit none of them is like the actual painting. I mostly can get very yellow or very blue images and resulting green is also either very blue-green or very yellow-green. The device I have always hated most is the iPhone. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing I can currently use, and it is very upsetting and frustrating to never have a good and decent image.

Blue sky over summer meadows, summer landscape painting

Therefore, I like very much the black and white version which shows only values and none of the wrong colors.

Blue sky over summer meadows black and white version

Regardless of how the “Blue sky over summer meadows” painting looks online, it’s a very uplifting and memorable artwork, and it’s available. The size is 20 x 24” or 51 x 61 cm. I just saw some really bad paintings in size 5 x 5” selling on Etsy at $89. Really? Well, my art is priced very moderately at the moment, but I cannot include free shipping, that’s for the huge companies. So, somebody might like it and keep the memories of summer on their wall.

Blue sky over summer meadows framed landscape painting

I intend to completely conclude the green spring and summer paintings, and do instead close-up garden, flower, early fall, fences, mist images and some abstracted landscapes. I don’t have water in my backyard, but I have attractive old trees, even my own house looks very interesting since it has so much character. Painting and sketching plein-air is more rewarding and interesting which is what I am going to do.

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May 13, 2024January 29, 2025

Interpreting your vision when painting

Bluebell forest, spring landscape, acrylic painting

Art and creative side of us relates to our ability to interpret our vision, our perception, our emotions about what we create to a great extent. I personally strongly disagree that everything is art, for the simple reason that it isn’t. Empty frame isn’t art, and a piece of wallpaper, just because it’s in frame isn’t art. Are a few paint blotches and a few unrelated brushstrokes art? Is our vision that poor or our ability that degraded that we are fine with not only animated and undeveloped shapes, but practically nothing?

The ability to draw and paint reflects our ability to interpret the world, our life, the planet, the universe as such. Our universe at that. While modern art tries to convince us that the shapes, forms and interpretation of a five-year-old is all there is what we call art, it isn’t true. When somebody starts learning manual writing, their lines and shapes are never perfect. They are all over the place. Some people never get beyond that. Why? They have no interest in perfecting it, they are simply unable to because their brain doesn’t process multifaceted things in more than one dimension.

Lake and trees, textured acrylic painting

What is a normal painting process? We have an idea, maybe view, maybe image and the next step is to figure out how we turn this vision into an image perceivable not only by yourself, but others, as well. That means planning underpainting, background, choosing our personal color palette. That is not what somebody tells you, but how you feel about it. Normal painting process involves composition, the most important part, feature or color which will be dominant, the abstract layers and the well-defined front ground. It also involves volume, contrast, values and all tools which create that: perspective, atmospheric and linear, shadows, direction of light and so forth.

Many art teaching sites say: no experience required. That would be fine, you start somewhere. However, if it is just a painting in one sitting, there’s just way too much information to be absorbed. Secondly, painting greatly relays on our physical ability and knowledge how to move brush, how much paint or water to use, what brush to use and the mostly neglected – brush cleaning step. Don’t clean the brush? All colors will be muted, muddy and not bright. It is an automatic step; we develop it over time.

Therefore, I always advice to start with a simple image which allows developing brushstroke, use of paint and color. One thing about people who just started to paint is – they never use enough paint. So, I repat numerous times, use more paint, use more paint. You cannot paint with empty air or water. The other problematic area is that we paint at first what is behind and underneath. We don’t use the final color, we build it up, layer by layer.

Nobody can learn turning their vision into decent art within a few hours. It’s just not possible. We allow our brain to process all information, and we also have to develop the automatic movements of hand. It takes time we get our hand to do what our brain and vision tell us. Therefore, at first, everybody paints like a small kid. No flowing lines, no great color transitions, it’s all rather very animated, simplified and sort of rough. Do you want to go further than that? It depends on whether you want to create something which says – you, your subject, your vision.

Flower paintings, pink and white paintings

Deep down, we always paint ourselves. Even when we are painting a landscape, a still life, a floral, a building or portrait. It should be us not only by the choice of subject, color palette or type of brushstroke. Basically, it takes time to learn how you can turn your vision into artwork which is yours, start to finish. My experience says, it’s better to learn from your own errors and achievements than trying to copy somebody else’s work. The only way to be you also in your vision is simply to do things what are close to you and your personal perception of the world.

The attached images are of paintings created over longer time, not like yesterday. I have had hard times posting recently because of my health issues, but I still think these paintings deserve attention and maybe can inspire somebody else to keep trying until it all works. Every painting probably should be the featured image, unfortunately, with so many, I cannot choose just one.

Enjoy!

March 29, 2023October 15, 2024

Techniques for spontaneous watercolor painting

Abstract watercolor painting, private art classes

The versatile watercolor

Watercolor is a medium we can use in hundreds of different ways. What we create and how it looks depends largely on technique we apply. While many of my watercolors look carefully worked out, I often start painting with just randomly washing some paint onto watercolor paper. I posted my spring palette colors in the previous article. For spring paintings, I am using a limited palette:

Color combinations for spontaneous watercolor

Payne’s grey

French ultramarine

Brilliant yellow

Burnt sienna

Burnt umber

Gold ochre

Leaf green

It’s possible, however, to create numerous color tones using these paints. They work well together and with decent application of water, there’s no mud. I will work on floral spontaneous watercolors next, and I am adding magenta and carmine for these.

Allowing paint and water to work

While the paint application is extremely loose, I still have some idea. Washes look great when painting treescapes and paintings with abstract water. This is a technique which perfectionists might not like. We simply allow colors to mix and flow as they please. It’s a myth that watercolor painting cannot be adjusted or changed. One just needs to know how to do that.

Lifting paint

I think many watercolor artists use too less of paint lifting technique. For paint lifting, large brush with pointy tip is very useful. My main brush is Luke number 14, round. Along with simple lifting, I implement one more step: lifting with very liquid other color. It’s a fantastic, but unpredictable process. It’s also fun, and I love this technique because it allows me adding definition to subject. Lifting paint is an essential technique for spontaneous watercolor my-style.

Non-cotton paper has its uses

Lifting automatically takes care of the negative space. When to lift and where to add paint depends on our personal preference and feel. For this technique, cotton paper is not the best option. Non-cotton watercolor paper makes lifting paint an easy step. In fact, it’s way easier to lift paint from some thick non-cotton papers than to add an extra layer. I am using for these paintings Strathmore 400 series paper. It requires flattening afterwards. All non-cotton watercolor papers must be weight-pressed after application of water and paint since they become uneven.

Watercolor painting, rocks, trees, water

Multi-step process

While people ask when I will have online art classes, I must say, I probably won’t. Things I am writing about most often cannot be shown online. One must see the actual process in order to understand how we create loose, spontaneous watercolor painting and add the touch of reality to it. The process involves drying paper and restarting wet-on-wet, then adding dry paint, then lifting more and so on. It takes about 6-8 hours to paint one artwork. I have spent about 3 days in average on each painting.

Abstract landscape watercolor, art classes for beginners

Testing paints

Spontaneous watercolor works great for people who just want to explore what their paper and paints can do. Check compatibility of colors before you start painting. Water takes care of lot of things with loose watercolor painting, but there are colors which will destroy the flow and cause unpleasant muddy shades. To avoid that, learn what your paints do. My paints are rich in pigments, all artist grade. I never use white or black colors, as well as, I don’t even have masking fluid. These paintings consist only of watercolor paint on paper.

Abstract watercolor, landscape and water

Give it a try

Want to try this approach? No better time than now. This means absolute freedom, you don’t need any photos to follow, but having an idea is helpful. I love using the earth colors togethers with blue and green. Burnt sienna adds a bit of red tint. Simplicity is beautiful; however, I’ve never been a minimalist in any regard. That goes for any of my paintings. Well, we can stop working whenever it feels right.

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November 11, 2022April 14, 2025

My large sketchbook and ink drawings

Sketchbook as collection of ink and 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.

I hope you enjoyed this article!

Category: Ajax Ontario

Perfect subject for acrylic painting

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Blue sky over summer meadows

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Interpreting your vision when painting

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Techniques for spontaneous watercolor painting

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My large sketchbook and ink drawings

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