Art Archives - INESE'S ART STUDIO

May 29, 2023October 10, 2024

Acrylic flower paintings in new settings – art never expires

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.

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.

Pink tulips, acrylic painting, flower paintings

Sunflowers, acrylic painting, flower paintings

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.

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.

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?

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

Shop original acrylic paintings

Art collections by Inese Poga

January 19, 2022October 17, 2024

The many functions of art

Most often, when somebody visits artist’s website or blog, they are simply curious what the artist has come up with. People look for something which would potentially suit their space, and the art students seek for inspiration and advice. Art has many more functions, though, and they depend also on who you are. If you are a creator and love to try painting or drawing, art is a full-scale adventure for you. And me. In my mind, time is not spent usefully when I haven’t painted anything for a while. The creativity-satisfying and mind-moving functions of art shouldn’t be underestimated.

The moment when a painting is signed and done, comes with feeling of achievement. This is a moment of complete satisfaction. We all set our own goals with any task, so this moment shows that I can whatever I wanted to achieve. I don’t stop working until every smallest brushstroke is where it must be, that’s according to me. Therefore, my works take quite a while from the idea to its implementation.

The ties with reality are interesting nowadays. On one side, we have this immense internet surfing space and it transitions more and more into unreality. Digital and virtual world is just that – the things which exist only where there’s internet. On the other hand, our life happens based on real terms, read conditions and in an actual environment. The difference between unreal and real can cause somebody true depression and dissatisfaction with life. I personally prefer the tangible reality which won’t go away if I accidentally click on a wrong keyboard key.

That explains why I paint what I paint. The subject doesn’t exclude fantasy and impossible landscapes, still life settings or colors. That is one more function of handmade art: to take you anywhere you’d like to be. I would love to skip winter altogether. Since I cannot sleep it away, I still need to do something. Anything. It would be so pleasant to have plus 13 Celsius tomorrow instead of minus. The best functions of art are the ability to transfer one with all senses into a pleasurable space and provide with the feeling of being there.

As always, I’m not very happy with the internet display of art on different devices and phone. Every single painting deserves to serve as the cover image, every one of them. Unfortunately, that’s not possible. The full-size image, although, distant out in the internet space, still gives one that feeling of closeness to the source. So, I’ve spent couple of weeks taking horizontal pictures. For example, when my painting is vertical, I cannot use it as a cover image. If my painting is horizontal, it looks small or even tiny when viewing images on the phone. Some photos are very good, some just satisfactory, but I wish for internet space where they’d be all visible in large format, full-width, full size and have colors that match the original.

That remains to be seen and tried again and again. I have my hopes up for the new Twenty twenty-two WordPress theme. Hopefully, it will be what it promises, both, regarding size and flexibility. Until switch, I will just edit what I have. Other than that, we are in extremely deep snow in Ontario. We were completely cut off of everything yesterday, but it’s sunny today. Thanks for reading if you did and wishing you, too, more sunny days!

Shop original acrylic paintings

Art classes, schedule and registration

Art collections by Inese Poga

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!

August 19, 2021October 17, 2024

Watercolor nature, as seen in imagination

Before the horrible heat became an issue, we were creating watercolor nature art outdoors. I do always go for the simplest solution whenever there is one, therefore we did not use any masking fluid or any other extra watercolor enhancing supplies. The simplest technique with watercolor is painting around the parts which you want to leave light. It was very tricky in some parts regardless of the large paper size. Let’s just say, I added an element every time when somebody asked how to paint one or another part.

Nowadays, classes are not like art classes we used to have even 10 years ago when I would start with color properties and selection, features of brushes, techniques of using that particular brush, techniques of adding washes, glazes and details. I mean, I would make sure that my student knows at least a little bit about the medium, its application and the important aspects of painting. The shift has been towards very quick paintings, – the quicker, the better. Although, I’m not trying to squeeze in impossible steps, everything still takes time.

Watercolor landscape — Creek trees on rocky background

Students jump now from knowing nothing to trying to paint something great. It is what I told a girl who was attending a few nature art classes: to learn using brush and paint properly and automatically takes years, not hours. Our brain is wired in such a way that it will not allow doing automatically things which haven’t been rehearsed for numerous times. You have to add to this the novelty of particular technique, and mental attitude towards learning fast. Altogether, learning art has become an activity when one learns and applies the new skill immediately. I mean, they didn’t know it existed before the class. Most often, it won’t result in something great taking into account what I said before.

Since we all have started with something, for beginner, any scene is probably good enough. It’s just so that the potential participant judges the worthiness of a class by an image which I have painted. That is an absurd way of accessing the task ahead because I know what I’m doing and I can paint anything no problem, especially when the sketch is drawn by me. I know how to make parts of painting work or how to improve them if they don’t. Students take every brush application as final which by any means it isn’t. We certainly worked a lot, and due to the outdoor settings, I don’t have all steps on photos. I have finally started creating the downloadable materials, and steps will be available.

Before we start painting, we must explore our tools: watercolor paper, set of paints, brushes, everything. We cannot create a good painting when we don’t know what colors we have and how they act on paper. The same about color combinations, like burnt sienna plus any dark blue, but French Ultramarine and Prussian blue in particular, like in these paintings. We need to know what our paper does when it’s wet. One paper I used for demo, absolutely didn’t accept paint. I later found out; it was Fabriano. I avoid using any Fabriano papers, since my experience has been horrible with them. It’s not Arches either, but Strathmore 400 series.

Rocky creek, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor

I hope we can have more confidence and trust ourselves to a higher extent. That is absolutely necessary with drawing and painting. Nobody really cares if you get it right or not for as long as you’re happy with the outcome. It sure would look better and cleaner if I had masked out all tiny areas, but I am ok without having too much detail. If that were Arches paper, the washes on bigger parts certainly would have looked nicer. However, art class is not my own painting session. There are many interruptions and many times when I have to go over and over some part.

Trees on the hill, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor

As you might know, watercolor requires perfect timing. That can be an issue outdoors with higher temperatures when paper dries too swiftly. I’m not that meticulous that I wouldn’t paint just because something around isn’t right. I also use only 1 number 14 brush for practically entire painting. It has an extremely great tip, but due to frequent use it starts wearing down. Well, time to start looking for replacement brushes.

Second version on different paper, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor

I use St. Petersburg watercolor paints because they’ve been my favorite ever since I remember. When I was about 10 or so, that’s a bit more than half a century ago, I stopped by at my neighbor’s place. They rented a room to an artist. She was great with watercolors. I noticed the large paint box on the table and colors in it looked so fantastic, nothing like my small student grade paints which I had. So, I asked: what paints are these? Her painting was extremely vibrant, literally alive. She said: Leningrad watercolors. Those times, it was still Leningrad, it only later reversed to St. Petersburg. I got my first St Petersburg watercolor paints about 20 years ago and have used them since.

I hope you enjoyed the new large paintings which resulted from my demos.

August 8, 2021October 10, 2024

The extremely calming pencil drawing

Pencil sketch and drawing

For me, many of paintings start with pencil sketch or drawing. It can be a marker or a simple black pen, too. I’ve never counted my drawings, but there are numerous of them, many hundreds. Every time when I give an art class, I create an outline sketch, value sketch or quite a detailed drawing. Compared to other medium choices we have, drawing is the simplest and the least dependent medium on anything. We need just something to draw with and on, but the rest can be imagination, real items, even a photo. In my opinion, pencil drawing is the beginning of any art which displays realism to some degree.

Easy drawing process

Pencil drawing doesn’t require timing your process. It allows to start, put off and continue any time afterwards. With water media, such as watercolor or acrylic, timing is an extremely important factor. The same goes for humidity, ambient temperature and similar aspects. Quality of water media art is strongly affected by the quality of art supplies. Pencil drawing can be done even when we do not have special pencils of different hardness, we can draw even without eraser and pretty much on any paper. I do regret that many of my drawings are done on transparent paper since I needed them to be transferable onto watercolor paper. They don’t look that good when photographed and cannot be presented as finished artwork, although, many are. In fact, any large and very large drawings are problematic to photograph.

Still life and perspective — Pencil drawing: amazing activity and practice

Still life with fruit — Pencil drawing: amazing activity and practice

Sketch and draw real things

I’ve noticed that people, who haven’t been using photos as reference for creation of their art initially, develop the ability to draw more effortlessly and it is easier for them to understand the mechanism of capturing something which has volume onto a flat surface. These, who have started out tracing, copying and using somebody else’s drawing, have more difficult times. It’s probably because they don’t trust their eyes, have less confidence and don’t want to take risks or experiment. However, all it takes is seeing your subject in an artistic way. Seeing is the part which many of us are lacking.

Drawing shadows — Quick marker drawing on shadows

All buildings and one-point perspective drawings are constructed and drawn from imagination, without using any reference.

Constructed one-point perspective drawing, full size 24 x 19 in or 61 x 48 cm

Distorted photo images

I come from a different background; therefore, I simply didn’t have photos and couldn’t take them either. That worked out as an advantage eventually. If you look online at photo images, you cannot help, but notice how distorted they are. That most likely comes from the frequent use of phone cameras and the way perspective, as well as colors are automatically adjusted. What we get, is a profoundly wrong reference which is no good for drawing or painting. If you pay attention to shadows or reflection, solid structures and their dimensions, or for that matter, comparative size of separate parts and their proportion, the absence of correct linear perspective is very notable. If the reflection or shadows stretch for miles, it simply looks wrong. It will be even less acceptable in a painting. The same applies to buildings and street views.

Live art classes

Since private art classes resumed, we’ve done a few drawings, pencil sketches, as well as watercolors and acrylic landscapes. My younger students usually aim for filling up portfolio, therefore, they want to learn about perspective, shadows, direction of light and similar aspects of drawing. That is fantastic because regardless of medium, any more or less realistic art consists of the same parts: composition, linear and atmospheric perspective, values, contrast, light and shadows, as well as size and proportions between parts. It is interesting that younger students eagerly want to learn about perspective, correct proportions, types of shadows and ways to display play of light on their drawings and paintings. One-point perspective is a very good subject for beginners.

Drawing from real fruits — Pencil drawing of pears and apples

Painting process simplified

The fastest way to learn about all aspects of a successful painting is using pencil. Pencil drawing allows seeing the essence of your subject easier and in a more impressive manner. Students love the fact that they cannot do drawing wrong, hence, we can erase anything if want to. Pencil drawing is a fantastic pastime for people, who have time, or the best artistic practice and preparation step for artists, established and beginning. It is a calm and soothing activity. There’s no rush as with water-soluble paint which might dry too fast, get tacky and so forth. There are no worries about water flowing where you don’t want it or pigment acting weirdly. Pencil dances on the paper and this allows creating our phantasy or reality. Whichever we choose, we are the winners. Pencil drawing is extremely rewarding in any regard.

Fence post drawing — Fence drawing is a complete artwork

Mastering drawing

Taking or making time and being observant is difficult for folks nowadays, but drawing requires seeing things which people normally do not notice. This activity makes our world bigger with every single pencil line. Due to preparation work for art classes, as well as the huge time that was necessary for setting up the outdoor classroom, I have not been able to post practically anything on both my blogs. Well, here you have it. My pencil drawings are not done just within a few hours. My drawings are usually large, up to 29 x 22 in or 74 x 56 cm, and they take plenty of time. I would say, to post this article with images which come from different years, and to take and edit current photos, took me at least a month. Many hours go into every single drawing, most often, 20 or more hours for the large ones for sure. However, it is time well spent.

Line drawing, pencil outlines intended for watercolor painting

Close-up of fruit bowl — Close-up view of frut and buildings

Pencil drawing, perspective — Close-up view of frut and buildings

Online presentation and new art classes

You will obviously see the small online images. The paper was bright white, yet, it didn’t look that bright on my pictures. Well, it is what it is. Enjoy and join the art classes if you live around Ajax, Ontario:

Group art classes

Private art classes might be an option: Private art lessons

I have added the artistic prints page, it takes to another site, so, click on the back arrow to get back onto my site:

Artistic products and art prints

My other blog is about life and getting the best out of it. Many people who click on “like” from the Reader, do not know I have it, but I write also poetry and stories, about my observations and interesting facts which became notable after many decades. You might like to have a look:

Life school blog

Have a great time in August!

Category: Art

Acrylic flower paintings in new settings – art never expires

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The many functions of art

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Fall season and fall colors – let them in

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Watercolor nature, as seen in imagination

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The extremely calming pencil drawing

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If you care, share!

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If you care, share!

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