Fall season and fall colors – let them in

Fall colors

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

Fall leaves watercolor
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 fruit still life
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.

Fall season still life
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.

Fall season still life
Bright red peppers, 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.

Fall season colors
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:

Nature art

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

New fall paintings and art in progress

Art show, fall painting

New art, new fall paintings, new vision

I have painted recently and completed quite many new paintings, especially fall art and three-dimensional textured paintings. Colors are so bright and uplifting outdoors, and it is difficult to resist not capturing one or another landscape. I have to still work more on making my art visible on the internet. It is not enough to be present on  Facebook and a few print sites, like Fine Art America and ArtPal. Just as I am writing this, somebody ordered a print from Fine Art America, my bright pine cones under snow.

Managing single person business

Realistically, I get to paint a lot, and I create new art and paintings almost every second day. It’s completely different story with putting this art out there and letting somebody know it is available for purchase. I am only one person doing everything. Sites like Facebook don’t get that. They tell me that Walmart started to use Workplace app and their sales grew big time. Well, just think about that. How does one single person’s tiny business compare with insanely huge company, such as Walmart? It doesn’t. I have no employees; therefore, I cannot connect them to my workplace. I find that funny how they apply to everything one-size-fits-all.

Your interest would be greatly appreciated

Regardless of anything, I keep painting. I certainly would love to sell something before Christmas, so that I also can enjoy the fruit of my difficult, time-consuming and labor-intensive work. I usually sell at least 1 painting around this time. I should sell 100  times more paintings this season to make a space for new art, that would be terrific. I sell quite a lot of prints on different sites, but the profit from print and art product sale is like $1-$5. It is very little, yet, it means somebody loved my work so much that they were willing to spend some money on it.

New art and paintings in progress

I have brought to completion two very textured paintings: the “Rocky stream” which is more abstracted and impressionistic, and “Birch light” which was totally done during art classes. I had placed the textures using modeling paste before, since it takes quite a few hours to dry.

Birch light, acrylic painting 20 x 16 inches
Birch light, acrylic painting, 20 x 16 inches

Rocky stream, acrylic on textured background
Rocky stream on heavily textured background, 20 x 16 inches; in fact, all recent paintings are created on textured background. It looks excellent in reality, and texture is still visible on a photo, too.

Autumn path, acrylic painting on textured background
Fall path,  20 x 24 inches acrylic painting on highly textured background

Some work will be still done on the “Fall path”. Yellow color is tricky with acrylic, and it takes numerous glazes. I think the color combination works extremely well, and it will fit very nicely the late fall mood.

My next art show will be on November 23. I hope local people will attend. I have many pieces of art in different sizes and done with different mediums. There is so much to choose from!

All art products, including many kinds of art prints can be purchased from FAA:

Ajax, Ontario, art classes and winter workshops

As the weather gets cooler and less pleasant, it is great to be part of our student groups. It can be your “me-time”, it can be your stress relief, it can be the best event in the entire week as my students told me. We have created numerous paintings during my art lessons. Some are more finished, some are less done. That always depends on group. Whatever you learn, stays with you forever. Whatever you draw or paint, will always delight your eyes.

Link to art classes and masterclass: Sign up for art lessons

Share the joy of watercolor painting

watercolor painting, flower painting, painting steps

July is world watercolor month! 

It’s probably a good reason for many to participate in World Watercolor Month and share the joy of creating art and using watercolor. Isn’t that great that it has become a tradition already? I read that it started only in 2016, and I believe many people are extra excited about that. I cannot post every day, but I am certainly happy to contribute at least some images and posts.

Manual abilities still matter

While we are swiftly becoming a digital and virtual society which uses devices and apps for everything, there are some things we should not delegate to devices. It’s in our favor to maintain ability to write and draw manually. Manual drawing and painting are extremely rewarding activities which not only make one happy and less stressed , but result in enjoyable art.

My current subjects: summer and nature

Nothing is better than nature, outdoors, gardens, flowers, growing vegetables in the summer. Nature is always genuine and honest. There is no pretense or flirting; that is the most real beauty we can have. I can draw and paint anything, but I have to admit that nature is the richest resource for any goal, any intention, anything in art. Therefore, while teaching and creating art I am teaching people to also love, appreciate and take care of this wonderful resource. Everything is connected. We can only harvest what we have planted.

The dreamy purple of summer pansies

Please, have a look and get inspired by my most recent watercolor project: The dreamy purple of summer pansies. I have posted 3 steps, but the first step is actually to transfer the drawing or draw with very light lines on watercolor paper. I used Saunders-Waterford watercolor paper, but medium to heavy Arches would serve better. The size is quite serious in order to capture flow of lines and shifts of color better.

watercolor painting, flower painting, pansies
The dreamy purple of pansies, step 1, painting in first layers on flowers and leaves, identifying the subject and composition
watercolor painting, flower painting, painting steps
The dreamy purple of pansies, step 2, painting around the flowers and adding more layers on blossoms
watercolor painting, flower painting, painting steps
The dreamy purple of pansies, step 3, adding more layers on flowers and defining more the background

Join us, create with watercolor

I know how excellent it is when one can use watercolor or pen and watercolor: it can easily become an obsession. If you were always attracted to watercolor, but are not completely sure what and how to paint, you are very welcome to join our watercolor summer painting sessions. Summer is the time to go out and paint nature. Enjoy the summer, get brushes and paint sets, and let us paint!

Summer pansies in purple, watercolor painting for sale

Link to registration for art classes: Art classes

Link to my Facebook page: Art plus Life page which is Inese’s Art Studio now

How painting boosts mental health

Boost mental health painting

Mental health and creativity

Mental health is as important as physical fitness, but having flexible, fast acting and flawlessly performing brain is more important than anything else. Drawing and painting are some of the best things we can do in order to increase the brain activity, improve our memory and become more confident, self-aware and efficient with making decisions. It is needless to say that drawing and painting are calming, relaxing and rewarding.

mental health and creativity

Boosting brain performance and creating more

Every line and brushstroke we put down on paper or canvas comes from the brain impulses and activity of neurons in certain parts of the brain. Your hand doesn’t move on its own, it’s guided by your perception and the ability to transform visually and sensually perceived information into individualized personal experience. This experience is reflected on paper or canvas as you draw or paint. It is a very complex process, and we tend to think there are mysterious powers involved. I sort of want to remove the magic aspect from creativity, just to keep things simple. Inspiration will add the magic, but we have to start from the basics.

Seeing and being able to recreate what you see

Most people do not see the surrounding world as an artist does. So, the first task is learning to recognize all the multiple aspects of transforming a simple visual image into art that exhibits the artistically applicable features of this image. How do we do that? What do we need to see and notice in order to paint and draw?

Echo of image in the brain

Anything we draw or paint must find some echo in the storage space of our imagination. Such space of stored images is present within any memory and it is based on associative knowledge and acquired knowledge. Anything we create always relates to our fundamental knowledge of this world. Yet, the drawing or painting we are doing has specific subject, specific theme and atmosphere. It is a scene like no other because it always presents individual features. No two apples are exactly the same, no flower copies the other one exactly line by line, not to mention faces, landscapes or complex views.

For our mental health, acrylic painting,
Barn reflection, 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm

Personal experience and personal decisions

Since most people, who learn painting or drawing, believe that getting all information from the outside and simply following somebody without making their own decision will do the job, the first artworks usually do not come out that great. While we are sketching or blocking in the basic shapes or lines, we should already try to decide why everything is where it is, and why composition evolves as it does. The reason we place the objects on our paper or canvas as we do, should be based on a decision. We should also decide early and plan for effects which we create later.

Decision making is as important as application of art tools

Adding paint or other elements is always based on decision-making. We decide about values, shapes, edges, washes, and we need to apply color if it is a color painting. Our brain has to make these decisions fast. Most mediums require using relevant timing. If we hesitate too much with watercolor layering, it simply will be too late to achieve flow of watercolor that makes such painting outstanding. If we are too slow, the acrylic layer we worked on, will be already dry or tacky and we will have to return to it later.

Mental health and creativity

What is blocking our ability to paint?

There are two main things which are blocking our ability to proceed with painting or drawing when somebody attends or watches a class. We believe that instructor has made all decisions for us and our task is to blindly follow and to repeat what we see; and we are trying to do everything without any knowledge of why. There is no reasoning, no decisions which arise in our own brain.

Do you know what you do?

For instance, when I ask what a particular student is doing with some particular part of the painting, a very frequent answer is: “I don’t know”. How come? You have to know why you want one part dark and how to achieve that. You have to decide whether your subject is small or large, whether it has lost edges or sharp edges. Basically, we have to decide what exactly and why exactly we want to do.

No brushstroke without goal

The biggest issue is aimless brushing around, moving paint all over the canvas or paper until any distinction is lost and everything has become the same color. That is the result of not making a decision. When we decide that clouds are large and grey, we use paint to achieve this and so on. It’s obvious that only acting based on decision can contribute to implementation of our intentions.

Art instructor is not a magician

The art instructor or art teacher isn’t a magician; they cannot affect directly and immediately the way your brain works. They hope you pay attention to what they say and demonstrate and you will make your own decisions based on this advice. However, if you do not know the answer to why, what, when and how, the progress is noticeably delayed. Therefore, I also advice doing value sketches. This does not slow down, but helps tremendously with planning and deciding on what, where and how we paint.

Decision making for other areas of life

Eventually, the decision making we learn in the classroom allows us becoming more efficient with decisions in other areas of life. Everything we do should be based on decision, not impulse and lack of thinking. We should not have to admit: I don’t know why I am doing this. Unfortunately, nobody can provide you with a dose of understanding perspective, values, shapes, contrasts, layouts and other elements as a capsule or tablet to simply swallow and apply.

Acrylic painting, still life
Sunny daisies and pears, still life, 12 x 16 in, acrylic on canvas
Still life
Recent still life painting: Red and grey, absolute harmony, 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm, acrylic on canvas

Fall still life based on drawing: Fall still life

More about drawing: Magic attraction of drawing

Nothing compares to summer painting outdoors

Chickadee, watercolor

I wish summer stayed with us longer

Summer days are running away so fast that it is pretty clear: this summer is pretty much gone. It is certainly the best time to grab our paint box, some paper, pencil or brush and go outside. The weather isn’t too friendly in Ontario this year. I cannot recall so many heat waves and so many days without a drop of rain while I have been living in Canada. My mornings are spent at a clinic, afternoons – trying to get back in shape, but painting helps staying well.

What to start with?

When people ask me what they should start painting or drawing with, my answer is very simple: draw and paint anything around you. There is nothing better than drawing from real subjects and real places. Once you get used to it, you will notice how everything is more vibrant and more realistic when we paint from life.

Use real reference materials whenever possible

Lots of instructions start with: take a picture. I would love to say, however, do not take any pictures, but set up a still life or do a reference sketch. If it is a large work and you are afraid you’d forget the scene, you might also take a reference picture. The problem is that most people want to copy their reference photo instead of just using it. I might sound like an old vinyl, but it’s so silly to copy the photo and then pretend you painted it from scratch.

Chickadee, watercolor, summer

Chickadee in summer shade, watercolor, 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

That’s why we have eyes and brain; we are supposed to use them as intensively as possible.

If you can draw, you can draw anything

The next thing which matters is this: once you learn drawing, you are able to draw anything. This happens because you have perfected your visual perception, developed eye-hand coordination and your hand starts perceiving impulses from your brain. Drawing happens as if on its own, and all we have to do is relax and observe.

Summer painting, backyard

The backyard, 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

Create your personal color palette

Is it important to stick with colors which somebody else is using? Not at all. It is much better to explore and develop your personal color combinations. I also find that paints of different brands act very differently. My favorite watercolor paints are St. Petersburg artist grade paints. I haven’t seen any other paints which have such transparency and allow mixing up all sorts of colors easy. It is almost impossible to get a dull painting with these paints. The secret is the natural and pure pigments they use as opposed to many paint manufacturers which cheat and replace pigments with fillers and binders. That means chemicals which do not enhance color or its purity.

Important art supplies

I usually use just one large round size 12-14 brush and one size 6 round brush for any up to 20 x 24 in watercolor painting. Along with paints and brushes, an extremely important part for watercolor painting is paper. When I am asking my students, why they are using this really thin and bad paper, they’d normally answer: they are just learning and it’s not worth to spend money on a good thick paper. This is a wrong assumption. Every paper acts differently. The thinner and lighter papers do not even absorb paint. It floats on the surface and creates ugly marks. It is also quite easy to lift paint, but not that easy to add more. My favorite paper is Arches. However, paint keeps traveling through layers of paper even quite a while after paint application. I am using other heavy, cold press papers also.

Summer painting

My lovely old fence post, watercolor 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

Use good art supplies for practice

If you practice on a bad paper, you won’t know how much easier it is to paint on a good paper. Watercolor paper is definitely the most important part of all supplies for watercolor painting. I haven’t done much recently because I am trying to recover. It’s already a month after surgery, but it seems like I will need more time.

The current Life school blog post tells a story about the ugly side of success and how this can destroy lives: The ugly side of success

Support is always much appreciated

I would appreciate a purchase of any of my original paintings. After such a long period of being out of work, any support would mean a lot. I can certainly offer very good deals on originals; but prints and other products on Fine Art America site are inexpensive anyway. Since people rarely read these posts, this might go unnoticed, but anyway, I hope I can get something sold. Big thank you goes to 3 ladies, who bought 5 watercolor paintings!

My art prints and artistic products on Fine Art America: