Uniqueness of emerging painting styles and the seeming simplicity of winter scene

Creek, winter, trees, acrylic painting

Winter ends in the art studio around half January. That’s just how impatient we are: once Christmas is over, we’ve got to start preparing for Valentine’s Day, Easter and, most importantly, for spring. We use this time period to define our painting styles.

While winter may seem to be long, boring and unpleasant to many people, we are using the best part of it. The picturesque beauty of snow-covered fields makes a good scene for painting, especially when contrasted with frozen or silently running dark streams to which the majestic attraction of trees under the snow is added.

Our vision and perception of any subject are absolutely unique. There are no two persons who can see one thing in exactly the same way. That’s how nature has taken care of our individual features. That’s also how one image becomes a reflection of many personal interpretations and allows to create many distinctive paintings.

Winter creek, acrylic painting, it’s sold. I painted it as a demo for class

Painting as a process is a very individual activity regardless of how much of experience or knowledge we are implementing in this process. The art we are creating from scratch will always carry our own features, as well.

From psychological point of view, it is possible to associate certain types of lines, composition, application of paint, colors, amount of detail or lack of it with particular human features. I find this fantastic because that’s one more way how our uniqueness manifests.

Winter creek paintings by my students

The emerging painting style is like handwriting: once we have perfected it, it’s completely ours. Does it make sense to repeat somebody else’s writing? Probably not, not even in these cases when you are told your writing is hard to read. The most beautiful hand-writings are actually all complicated and hard to read.

 

Autumn silver and gold: large textured acrylic painting

Huge acrylic painting in silver and gold

Textured autumn silver and gold painting

I finally got time to finish a very large (48 in x 32 in or 1 meter 22 cm x 81 cm) semi-abstract very textured autumn scene. It is  Autumn silver and gold acrylic painting. I applied very visible textures at first and built layers of acrylic paint on top of textured background. This painting will be exhibited at my gallery entrance greeting all visitors and students.

The other texture-rich painting is 24 x 20 inches, but it also looks great on the wall. I kept colors quiet and subtle.

However, such painting technique is very time-consuming. I’d love to do many more acrylic paintings using rich texture since it adds to the impression tremendously, but it’;s a fairly slow process. The painting must be left to dry between each step until the final brushstrokes can be applied. The look is very three-dimensional. Colors shift and change also depending on the light source.

Birch painting with gold paint

Autumn silver and gold, a very large (48 in x 32″ or 1 meter 22 cm x 81 cm) acrylic painting with textured layers under paint

Art is the most space enhancing feature which there only can be. Just removing a few paintings from the wall, makes it look virtually empty, and my personal experience shows that there simply cannot be too much art around us. Seasonal art is the best decoration.

Shop here: Original paintings by Inese Poga

I love textures, and I have created numerous large paintings in this technique.

Art prints: Art collections by Inese Poga

Orchards blossoming in the art studio

Orchard painting

Waiting for something can be as exciting as the upcoming event itself.

Spring is late this year, and that makes us more impatient. Everyone is tired of storms, cold, snow and icy winds. However, why to wait when you can create sensation of spring and speed up its arrival on your own?

We’ve been busy with blossoming apple trees painting during the last 4 classes.

Unlikely many North American art schools, we are focusing not only on technical abilities, but also on the emotional impact of our creations. We pay attention to emotional aspect and the energetic potential of painting.. Great art creates fantastic energy.

When painting a certain subject, we are trying to capture not that much its photographic likeness, but rather to implement the idea  and emotions, the emotional charge within and behind the painted image.

We are trying to paint our vision in the way others could experience it, too. That requires freedom in our approach, experimenting with colors and brush stroke, immediate decision-making, and high confidence level, as well.

The painting subject was very attractive this time, and we got really great results on our canvas.

It is important that we use the same basic image and the same medium (acrylic, watercolor or pastel) in a class since every medium requires different handling and specific techniques for bringing the painting subject to life.

Acrylic is actually very forgiving, and everything can be adjusted, changed and improved when necessary.

All artists were not present at the time of taking pictures, but all paintings looked fantastic. They are beginners! This is a great achievement.

We will just have to learn how to paint sky and water yet, and these students could surprise us with fantastic paintings which they have created without a guidance.

Welcome to art studio of artist Inese Poga!

Welcome to art studio of artist Inese Poga

Art studio

Art studio is a necessity for any visual artist. I am lucky to have a real place which displays my art and has become not only my studio, but also my personal art gallery. I intend to post all news and events which will take place in my art studio and art gallery in this blog. I will share my painting tips, techniques and my thoughts about art and creativity, as well as present my art philosophy here.

It starts in spring

The weather has not been too nice this spring, but summer hopefully will bring more sunny days for outdoor painting. Painting from reality is the best way to get in touch with both: painting and nature. The settings are very suitable for creation of art, so is the season.

Inspiration for my watercolor and acrylic paintings

My watercolor and acrylic paintings are often based on scenes just outside my studio. The huge backyard offers plenty of subjects for painting. There are more and more fresh ideas originating in my head as everything blossoms and gets more beautiful outside.

Sunny spring creek, watercolor painting on Arches watercolor paper, full sheet, 29 x 22 in or 74 x 56 cm

Enjoy creativity of my art studio and my art blog

I hope everyone joining me at my art studio will have great time, gain very useful experience, acquire good painting skills and become excellent in drawing. I also hope you will return to this blog again and again to get new inspiration and to possibly buy some art.

Still life with pansies, watercolor painting on Arches watercolor paper, full sheet, 29 x 22 in or 74 x 56 cm

I love going large

I paint very large watercolors, full sheet and larger, and they exceed 1 meter 20 cm with frame in height and are about 80 cm wide , as well as large and medium size acrylic paintings up to 30 x 40 in or 76 cm x 1 m and 2 cm. The Blossoming orchard is on display in Europe. Well, and I am in Canada.

Blossoming orchard, acrylic painting on canvas, sold

To welcome my most favorite season – spring, I painted the wild blue forest anemones. Blue anemones are the first messengers of spring. They symbolize all that is alive and starts thriving again.

Still life is what I paint excellently. I love the shapes, I adore contrasting colors. Still life offers numerous variations in color and composition.

Still life with pears, watercolor painting on Arches paper, 24 x 20″

Garden works, watercolor painting on Arches watercolor paper, full sheet, 29 x 22 in or 74 x 56 cm

See you around

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at my art gallery and art studio,  and this also means a very warm “Hello!” to my future online friends, fellow artists and art collectors. I am attaching link to my Fine Art America site.

Art collections by Inese Poga