Category: art for sale

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Celebrate in style: the best way to get into Christmas mood

Christmas mood, small paintings

Robins, cardinals, fun and Christmas mood

Christmas mood must be intentionally created. Original art has a special attraction, energy and flare to it, therefore, it really helps. I don’t think there can be too much art on any walls. I have usually some 200 works of art on display in my studio gallery, and it does not feel overwhelming or crowded. I rotate my art depending on demand and season. It feels very appropriate to have snow scenes and winter villages on display when Christmas is around the corner, and it is very obvious that spring flowers blossom around the gallery in spring.

Christmas mood: Bird paintings

Fantastic small bird paintings

I have a special love to small birds. I preferred them to any other creatures already as a kid. I assume that one should only paint what they know. I watch these birds during any season, and I have hundreds of sketches which I can turn into artworks later. I painted this particular painting “Robins, winter” last year. I painted 6 bird paintings. As it frequently happens, I felt I wanted to improve the color balance. So, I added a few more layers of paint to this painting. I believe it became better and birds are more bird-like, as well. The entire scene is lovely and welcoming and speaks for itself – it works very well for Christmas mood.

Bird painting for sale, holiday and Christmas art

Robins, winter, 16 x 20 in (41 cm x 51 cm) acrylic painting on canvas, sold

Festive gift painting workshop

I  invite everybody to participate in a festive workshop at the beginning of December to try out how nice of an adventure it is to create something heart-warming and cheerful. We can choose the image, and some people usually prefer winter scenes, some illustration or wall decoration type of art, as well as some might go for birds. We also paint poinsettias almost every winter. I must admit, that is a subject which always works well on canvas and paper and looks great.

Christmas mood: Bird paintings in acrylic

Create the mood, create the gift

The best way to get into Christmas mood is to create art that suits the season. Let us celebrate in style with original art this year! Please let me know if you like “Robins, winter” painting and whether you’d love me to ship it to you!

Art prints and other artistic products are available from Fine Art America., just click on image.

Celebrate in style, Christmas gifts

My favorite from all products with this particular painting is the spiral notebook. It looks unbelievably good! Mugs also look impressive, so do actually lots of my art products and art prints.

Here is how you get to purchase many fantastic prints and similar artsy things at very attractive prices: Art collections by Inese Poga

Christmas mood

Celebrate in style and have a wonderful Christmas mood!

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Celebrate in style: art that suits any taste, first featured painting

Celebrate in style

Celebrate in style

Celebrate in style includes my creations which I will post as frequently as I can taking into account that every painting takes between 6-8 hours a day. I also create decorations for display at store front. Plenty of very attractive three-dimensional paintings and gift paintings are available every holiday season from my art studio.

Celebrate in style

Winter trees under snow: great subject

Such art can be a great gift or a fantastic decoration. Winter trees are so adorable, and when the first snow is falling  getting into the holiday and Christmas spirit is easy. Having this simple, yet beautiful tree on a wall is also a pleasure. I finished painting this tree image set and I could not stop enjoying and looking at it.

Celebrate in style

Idea and its implementation

The idea comes from the internet. I saw somebody had painted simple outlines and text on the wood, and I really liked the idea of creating such beautiful look. I just had to figure out how to achieve this without wood. I simply did not have any, especially suitable pieces. Well, I usually create what I do not have. The wood textures are painted on a regular canvas panel. This painting has  touchable and visible texture, it even feels like wood.

Celebrate in style

December painting workshops

We will have workshop on December 9th. If you are not that far and reside in Durham region, Ontario, you certainly could take part and paint something similar for your own pleasure. Please apply here:  Art classes

Rustic and cozy style

This time, I am featuring a rustic Christmas tree painting that goes well with rustic style. This painting is acrylic and texture medium on 20 x 16 in canvas (or 51 x 41 cm). The background imitates wood, and it is also painted around the edges, so it does not need any frame. Extra textured tree with beautiful snowflakes, I hope you love it!

Celebrate in style

Let us celebrate in style this year! It is nice to have something original on the wall. It is absolutely ok to create something when we cannot buy it. Enjoy and let me know if I can ship this wonderful rustic tree painting to you!

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Summer flower watercolor paintings

Flower watercolor paintings

What happened to all good themes on WordPress.org?

I’ve been sitting at computer for too long. As I told before, I don’t have a better theme on my website right now for a very silly reason: I just can’t find a suitable one, it seems almost impossible. All of them look great as demos. Once I start to adapt them to what I need, I end up seeing that one page themes don’t work; themes overloaded with all kinds of fancy stuff don’t work. Also,  completely plain and flat themes don’t work, and so on. I tried 8 themes, lost money on one, and here I am: with the same Twenty seventeen.

No change is better than bad change

I decided to leave it as is because while I was doing my theme adjustments, I worked as a slave for two weeks, 14 hours a day. That was affecting my life and everything else I had to do. It’s summer after all, and one is not supposed to spend it at computer. I am going to Latvia soon, but prospects of traveling without cash are not very attractive. I will just have to make some.

Red apples, watercolor

Purple variety, delicious apples’ painting

Local sales

Once again, I will try to do something also locally which is very unlikely to be a successful thing because this neighborhood is quite dead in summer. I will try to sell something also over the internet from this same site.

Summer paintings, watercolor painting of red apples

Taking pictures of art

My biggest problem has been inability to capture the painting images. This problem has persisted for many years. I don’t think it’s only mine problem. Camera looks at painting differently, and the color balance depends on colors in painting. Blue, grey and blue green colors look better on pictures. Red, orange and yellow colors are problematic. I have paintings which have a lot of red, and I cannot show them online because there’s shine on it, It is usually impossible to bring back the color balance with editing.

Watercolor paintings by Inese Poga, floral watercolor, still life paintings

Summer watercolor paintings

Taking pictures of art in context and with background

I have noticed that watercolor artists take pictures of their paintings using contextual background. I started to take such pictures of my art intuitively, some 8 years ago or so. I noticed very soon that everything with background looked fine. I mean, paintings regained their natural colors.

Size is not visible on internet display

That also gives some idea about the size because it is quite annoying to see how my very large art is displayed smaller than my small art on some sites. Just placing something next to painting or having surroundings show behind painting or when art is on the wall results in a photo which has well balanced colors.

Flower watercolor paintings, pink petunia painting

Taking pictures of art and displaying online

This particular theme does not allow also displaying everything as I would love to. The featured image becomes too large. I tried to add my own css when doing theme adjustments. I made the blog posts page larger size, but decreasing the widget area resulted in losing the number of followers. I will have to live with this display for a while because too much editing the style caused all content text disappearing completely. I have real fun here!

Nothing compares to real painting

Most art looks better in reality. It can be so annoying at times that after taking about 30 pictures of a painting not even one is good enough to post.

Watercolor painting in red and pink color

Flowers and fruit: summer compositions

I appreciate your interest

Anyway, have a look at my art and I will also post more exercises for those, who love painting with watercolor and are learning and experimenting with sketching and watercolor. Maybe I should make a specific Facebook page for that? We’ll see how it goes. I believe pictures of paintings look better in context and with background. Some are above and below.

Watercolor paintings with pink and purple color

Good luck!

Some of my paintings for sale: Shop art

Art prints and art products on FAA

Art collections by Inese Poga

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White and pink flowers – enjoy spring

White orchids, acrylic painting, orchid painting

The best part of being able to create art is depending on our intentions and goals. There are no limitations in subjects or ways to create something. It is almost an absolute freedom, and pretty much nothing but only our personal attitude or situation can set us back.

Freedom in creation means doing what one wants and prefers.  If it is technique that doesn’t work for you yet, you will just have to practice more. In this post: white and pink flowers in acrylic.

Acrylic painting, spring magnolia

I sometimes meet people who think creating a painting is extremely easy. Most likely, instructions that say: paint like a master in one hour or time-lapse demos where a few hours of work are squeezed in just 1 minute, make one believe that a decent size art takes only a few minutes. Well, try to paint just a wall or better start with smaller surfaces like a door. Even that takes time, not to mention creating art layer upon layer with targeted and fine-tuned brushstroke.

Creation takes time and efforts. When somebody looks at painting they sometimes doubt how that can possibly take 2 or 3 weeks working every day for about 6 hours. It depends on medium, definitely. Acrylic is much slower medium than watercolor. Whenever some part is dry, it is almost as if starting everything from new. Acrylic is much slower than oils also. That is why it takes a lot of layers and building up color and value.

Acrylic painting, white magnolia

When somebody tries painting on their own, they can feel how everything takes work. Some believe that the messy first layers are a sign of a hopeless art. That is simply wrong. I sometimes demonstrate how we layer, change and improve any painting by just adding dark colors and highlights, or modifying perspective and number of details or elements. In that regard, acrylic is very forgiving and very user-friendly. The only limitation is time we spend on painting and time we are willing to spend on it. Our personal attitude and preferences change over time, as well. It’s no surprise that we might not like subject we adored a while ago or we like colors we hated before.

That is normal. That is progress or another direction.

Studio view: these paintings look amazing! Artist Inese Poga

Having flower paintings all around makes one feel fantastic. Even when my health is giving glitches, it’s a pleasure to be in the gallery and enjoy the elegant lines and uplifting colors.

Acrylic painting, Spring tulips

If you never tried to create any art, it is a wonderful time to start. The sketching season will be on soon, and that is just a pure pleasure being outdoors and literally absorbing the surrounding life, nature and beauty.

White orchids, acrylic painting

I hope to get some followers back since I lost of all of them while migrating the blog. I don’t think I have set up even all buttons yet, so, everything will come, just give it some time.

Thanks for reading!

Purchase art prints here: Art collections by Inese Poga

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Dreaming goes on because art is timeless

Christmas gifts art sale, floral and nature paintings

Art is the most timeless thing I can imagine

Art is timeless, and for a reason. To remind us not to waste our time, but rather create. These, who do not create, can still support creativity by buying art and giving art as gift.

Dreaming goes on

Many paintings to choose from

Art is timeless, Inese's studio
Art gallery of artist Inese Poga

Looks beautiful and inviting

Taking break from teaching during holidays

It’s good to wrap up things and have the feeling of “I have done everything I could, and it is what it is”. It would be certainly even better to finish the year in more elevated mood, like “Was this ever fantastic!” It’s also good not to have any classes for a while because that allows getting back to my own preferences, not only classwork. Giving classes is a big responsibility and it takes a lot of energy, as well as time-consuming preparation work.

Finalizing steps, bits and pieces

I would like to move to my personal subjects and my personal visions in art, but unfinished paintings are standing in the way. You look at some, and it begs: hey, just add a few brushstrokes, just wash in more background. I end up spending a lot of time on finishing steps, It’s difficult to return to painting which was started many years ago. I have moved on, and it feels like catching up on some long time ago forgotten thought or idea.

Trying to be more disciplined

I will try to be more disciplined and not start that many new paintings, but then again, when I didn’t do demos on canvas, I suddenly painted a few great paintings … on messed up cardboard. The wavy texture shines through, and these paintings are not any good for display. It’s even impossible to take any picture of them. You never know with painting: something good can appear where we don’t expect it, and everything can go wrong when we have high expectations. There are so many forces and energies involved that it isn’t by far as simple as “just do it right or according to your plan”.

Prep work for art classes

Classes also put a lot of pressure on any teacher because teaching is also not that simple. I usually think and plan and sketch until I find the right image for a particular group. I also have to think about simplified ways how to put it on canvas or paper.

 

Red poppies by Inese Poga, sold

Red poppies, both are sold

Unfortunately, I don’t have any better picture of these red poppies, they were sold right away

Inese Poga's art gallery
Look at my gallery wall, most paintings are sold

Look at my gallery wall, most paintings are sold

Barn reflection
Sunset on lake, sold

Sunset over shore, sold

My solo shows at my own gallery

I had put up a beautiful show, those who came were really impressed, but I believe, my timing was a bit off. I will start to prepare the next show “Blooms and Leaves” fairly soon, and that might be ready by the end of April or by May. Anyway, there is not such a thing as lack of paintings for sale at my gallery. It’s always open and available to anybody over the internet. Just ask and you’ll make my day with a purchase.

Before you leave this site, please, spend a short moment with my other blog which  has my fairy-tale about Christmas: https://inesepogalifeschool.com/2016/12/22/christmas-fairy-tale-going-home/

Merry Christmas to these who celebrate it, and fantastic holidays to those who have other celebrations!