Ajax Ontario Archives - Page 2 of 14

September 5, 2022October 15, 2024

Show time

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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April 25, 2022April 5, 2025

Playing with green color

Green spring landscape, painting in progress

Green is a color which we feel extremely attracted to in spring. I do feel that way, and maybe you do, as well, if you’ve had many months of grey and white view out of your window. I celebrate the return of green color since it uplifts my mood and promises nicer days ahead.

There are numerous concepts and assumptions about using green in art. Many artists avoid it almost completely not be accused mixing their colors properly. Just like with everything else, it’s better to have our own take on that and experiment.

For acrylic painting, there’ s practically no need to buy green paint. Why? Depending on your personal preference, it’s possible to mix up any green shade from other colors, including three primary colors. I don’t like aqua and phthalo too much, and although, they are strong and good for cooler areas, I prefer using the quieter tones.

After 5 layers are applied on the textured background

I love black plus yellow plus touch of blue, or blue plus burnt sienna and touch of yellow. Here and there simple blue plus yellow work well. The thing is we can have cold and warm yellow and very cold and warmer blue and that changes the green we are having. Every one of colors we get has some good potential for applying it. Where? It always depends on the project, intention and technique.

After 7 layers of paint or so

It is advisable to break up the green spaces with calming tones of purple, red or cool/warm brown. My most favorite set of basic colors for spring is blue, green, grey and some warm brown, burnt sienna or white. It is a calming combination and surely conveys the concept of an artwork well.

After adding light color to selected areas

I had a 24 x 20 in or 61 x 51 cm canvas from 2015. Everything is expensive right now, and that is an extremely high-quality canvas. I cannot recall what exactly my idea back then in 2015 was, but I decided to reuse it. This canvas had quite visible textures underneath of a few layers of grey/green/blue colors. I couldn’t change the tree shapes or location dramatically, the same goes for the water patch. Therefore, I adjusted the textured image and after a few layers it started to come to life.

Spring creek landscape painting — Closer view of top and middle parts of painting

Green spring creek — Closer view of top and middle parts of painting

It’s interesting how many starting-out artists believe they’ve got to finish their painting in one sitting. That is the damaging impact of paint nights which are not art classes, but entertainment, and tutorials which use rather tiny canvas or paper. If the size of painting is quite large, it is physically impossible. Every single spot need attention and work. Acrylic paint requires timing the paint application. That means, we cover some areas very quickly and for some – we wait until the previous layers are dry. That way we get our colors to shine and shapes to work well. That translates as painting in small segments and retuning to them layer after layer.

I called this painting “The moment before”. That includes everything that happens before the nature explodes in brilliance of blooms and abundance of green in leaves and grasses. The photos are taken with iPhone and the camera of 13 Pro Max is quite disappointing. The actual painting has no real yellow in it, and the green is well-coordinated in cool and warm areas. You might not see it that way, but anyway, that’s how it is.

The moment before, 24 x 20 in or 61 x 51 cm. Enjoy!

And don’t forget to sign up for art classes: Group art classes

And look at other art for sale: Shop original acrylic paintings

December 7, 2021October 16, 2024

A little bit of nostalgic beauty: snow and winter paintings

Snow and winter paintings are a great way to start painting since we can interpret the landscape or view in many ways. We can apply warm or cool glow to the snow and winter paintings, we can use shadows, different colors for sky and use distance or abstract background. We can stick to a photo or do what I’m doing: implement some visual ideas from memory or just look through the window and paint what is there. Out of my studio window, there’s plenty: all kinds of trees, buildings and so forth, including spruce, firs, pine and there’s a big sky, too. Quite enough for my snow and winter paintings.

Ontario weather takes care of the rest. Here and there, snow will be deep and bright white, capping every single branch and putting a warming snow scarf on every surface. It will have shadows in clear weather and it will show the branch shapes which puncture the clouds and sky. Altogether: it’s almost a finished landscape view, choose whatever angle suits better. Therefore, and because many of snow and winter paintings take origin as demos, I didn’t need or use any photos. The interpretation of these views is somewhat abstract. I will let the art speak more this time. It only has so many chances.

Snow landscape, country village — Enjoy the snow and winter paintings, they make such great mood for Christmas!

The collection of snow and winter paintings has grown quite big over years. It’s also a good selling feature before holidays. To be honest, winter and snow paintings usually sell only around this time and very rarely during other seasons. It’s a brief moment, and I believe I don’t really need more of snow and winter paintings at the moment. Until Christmas, we love snow and white wonderland landscapes. When it gets to February and March, oh my! We are totally tired of grey and white with spots of green which is also not the lively spring green. That certainly depends on the area where one lives. Ontario winter can be long.

I hope you’d love to make my Christmas and maybe purchase some art. There’s way more than I can publish just in one post. Enjoy!

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Thanks for visiting and reading!

October 24, 2021April 5, 2025

Fall art projects for art classes

Art projects for art classes and paintings for a show: they are very different by nature, subject and size. Time is of essence since one can attend only that many art classes usually (I always hope they’d come back for more!) and an art class needs to be of certain length. After holding extremely many of them, I’ve stayed with roughly two academic hours or 1.5 hours. There is a reason for that. The attention span can stretch only that long, and to create something good, we absolutely need to be attentive, focused and alert.

For show art projects, I’d definitely choose a much larger canvas size, as well as maybe more tricky, more complex and more intriguing subject which my students who can be almost or practically beginners would not be able to paint. The painting process itself is not the same also: I work on the entire painting and not with a few colors or on a few areas. My attention goes to any spot which requires it and I obviously do not follow special steps, but rather my idea and its implementation. All attached images are 20 x 116 in or 51 x 41 cm in size.

Over time, one learns how to apply paint automatically, how to clean brush automatically and very frequently, as well as how not to skip the messy stage of acrylic painting which can look quite horrible at times. Brushstroke is one of the most important parts of the painting process. When somebody starts out, they just don’t have it yet. If you still remember how you learned to write manually, you know that the hand cannot follow what the brain tells it to. The other sensitive issue is that if you have experience, you never start acrylic painting with the final color and layer. You build color, build your subject, all shapes and color transitions starting with dark and moving up. Our art projects allow practicing all of that.

To cheat the visual perception easier, as well as to have at least one good base layer on what to build the rest on, I do ask my students using pre-painted canvas only. Yet, still people are so afraid of dark colors that the pre-painted canvas is way too light. Without strong base, there is nothing much of a painting. We can all move paint around, even to the point when it becomes muddy brown-grey, but to get on that canvas some impression and some mood, takes much more than that.

Since everybody paints abstracts and there’s no clear understanding what’s a good abstract and what’s just a colored canvas, I stick to my personalized realism. It definitely allows implementing my own features and apply something which others do not. Therefore, my art projects include some of realistic features. While having texture layer on canvas attracts lots of attention let’s say at a show, it can look not good on photos because the high spots catch more light which doesn’t always correspond to light areas on the painting.

The attached images were initially painted between 10-5 years ago. The subject of these art projects is what we liked back then: barns, roads, fall colors, something not too complex, but bright and vivid. The current acrylic class deals with slightly more sophisticated acrylic art projects. We’ve just had one class by now and the start looks promising. The group is tiny as in COVID era, so no problem treating everyone very individually. They are still very good paintings, the ones which took the first brushstroke long time ago, and I will hang them in the studio room where I can put art on the wall because I cannot do that everywhere. Well, I rent, and that comes with requirements.

Enjoy! What better time to immerse oneself in color than now?

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October 1, 2021October 21, 2024

Fall season and fall colors – let them in

Who doesn’t love painting during the fall season and applying the vivid and bright fall colors? I haven’t met any nature artist so far who is intentionally avoiding the warmth of golden tones and sparkling red, orange and yellow, as well as rich and saturated earthy colors. I have posted recently many watercolor paintings because I switch from one medium to another, and acrylic art will be posted soon.

Here are Bright autumn leaves, original watercolor 20.5 x 16.5 in

Bright autumn leaves, original watercolor 20.5 x 16.5 in

I have accumulated numerous half-done paintings during the years of giving art classes. While I had my own studio-gallery in downtown Whitby, I sometimes gave art classes and workshops almost every day, including weekends. Especially busy all art classes were during the fall season and that is understandable: subject is so attractive, traveling and garden work are in the past. Most people have free time on their hands and using it smartly is a big deal.

Fall still life watercolor painting for sale

Fall fruit still life, original watercolor painting 11 x 14 in

My problem has always been framing, that’s why I try creating more acrylic paintings because frame isn’t a must for acrylic art on canvas. Yet, I have the need to bring to conclusion any painting which looks promising, especially the ones I have started on very thick and heavy cotton paper which has become quite unaffordable now. I sure have throwaway pieces, too, which I use for color testing and just toss in the garbage.

Still life with onions, original watercolor 15 x 11 in

This time, I’d love to share one big watercolor painting which wasn’t added to my store yet and a few smaller ones which were in the beginning stages. I added a few more layers and brought them to completion. The common feature is subject relating to the fall season or painted during it. If you are blogging for many years, you most likely now how everything becomes invisible over time because attention is on the most recent or most viewed posts.

Vibrant red color of Bell peppers, watercolor painting

Bright red Bell peppers, still life painting, original watercolor 15 x 11 in

Fall season has lots to offer, including harvest vegetables and fruit, stunning colors, inviting views and late blooming flowers. The combinations of fall season painting subjects are endless. We can certainly use any style we prefer: from abstract wash to detailed focal points and so forth. Painting nature is an excellent practice for any potential or established artist because it really moves and activates our imagination.

Golden fall reflection, original abstract watercolor, 14 x 11 in

Teaching drawing and painting is an almost impossible undertaking. We can teach and explain many aspects of art creation, but the fact that one knows these principles and techniques doesn’t mean they are going to apply them. Also, there are aspects we can teach, and many other things we cannot. In my opinion, the most important part of creating art is gearing it towards your personal preference. My group art classes focus on personal palette, preferred color combinations and original style: Art classes, schedule and registration

The other area which is practically not teachable is the emotional aspect of creation. That can only happen when we have already good technical skills, efficient brushing and drawing techniques, as well as knowledge of basic painting principles. Blindly tracing a photo is not the key to a successful painting. Understanding all elements of painting and adding our personal touch to every one of them make all the difference. My private art classes focus on that; Classes specifically for your needs

The adorable fall season is here, and all we have to do is let it in! Canadian Thanksgiving is on October 11, here you can find inspiration, click on image:

Have a wonderful time viewing, watching and painting fall colors!

Category: Ajax Ontario

Show time

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Playing with green color

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A little bit of nostalgic beauty: snow and winter paintings

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Fall art projects for art classes

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Fall season and fall colors – let them in

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