birch painting Archives - INESE'S ART STUDIO

December 22, 2021December 22, 2021

Painting merry Christmas

Painting merry Christmas decreases the dread and fears of pandemic. During the last years, we’ve had everything: surprises and shocks, excitement and anxiety, elevated moods and bad times, fears and hope depending on where we tried to celebrate our merry Christmas. All the ups and downs have left us sometimes in doubt whether it’s worth going for a full-scale celebration. Well, restrictions are part of our life, too. That doesn’t affect my intentions since I am not going anywhere.

I used to paint many winter, snow and holiday-themed artworks. Partially that was because I gave numerous art classes and students wanted to create something specifically for this time. What better way to wish somebody merry Christmas than with a handmade artwork? Since I took new pictures of some watercolor paintings, I thought to post them.

Poinsettia and sunset creek paintings are from 2010, birches, snowman and small winter landscape: from 2017 and January of 2018. The largest creek painting is a huge one: 53.5 x 74 cm or 21.5 x 29 in. The smaller version of Sunset creek painting is 14 x 19 in or 36 x 48 cm . Back then, it usually took me from 2 weeks to about a month to get done one large painting. I didn’t use any masking fluid, therefore, I had to paint around any tiny white spots. I still don’t use masking fluid since I cannot stand the extra hard edges it leaves on cotton paper.

merry Christmas — The big painting is on the right side

merry Christmas art — The big painting is on the right side

The online display has always seemed problematic to me, especially since I can never show the actual size of painting and changes in color affect the look also. My current WordPress theme has lots of limitations, but until the new one in 2022 comes out, I don’t see any other good options. I wish the Shopify buttons looked better, not that tiny or not that large with the full-size view. The horizontal images look unreasonably small with my current theme, and the vertical ones become huge. All of that misleads the viewer, and it’s kind of silly to expect art would make as much impact as it does in real settings.

My studio was doing comparatively great in Whitby up to August 2018, but the frequent moving, relocating to Ajax and years of pandemic are a bit of disaster. Internet environment has changed to a great extent, as well. There are abnormally many places to post art, but none really which can be used effectively. For me, posting on Facebook or similar places has not resulted in extra reach, I’ve got a bit more than 1,000 likes. I’m not on Instagram because I don’t use phone. We can post now from computer also, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it. When I had a giveaway, Facebook wanted me to pay for the post in order somebody would see it. Does that make sense? Not for me.

Red poinsettia painting — Red poinsettia in rich red tones, snowman was simply fun to paint

Merry Christmas snowman — Red poinsettia in rich red tones, snowman was simply fun to paint

The winter solstice was yesterday, and now, we are very close to our merry Christmas of the second pandemic year. I suppose, many of us simply scale down and still have some good moments. We’ve got a smaller size, but very good-looking tree this year. The numerous room plants, as well my art on all surfaces around us, takes care of festive settings. I didn’t buy any gifts neither last year, nor this. I intend to paint one gift still. It won’t be season-related, but I should get to work.

Maybe you could paint some merry Christmas art, too? The snowman and blue snow landscape were painted just for fun. It makes most sense to create such art for yourself and to your liking. The good thing about art is: it doesn’t expire and it’s always in style as long as you like it. Art is also the most memorable gift we can get or give. Years will pass, but when you look at a particular painting, you’ll always recall when you got it, who gave it to you, or how you created it. Art visualizes our memories and they stay with us for a lifetime.

I’d like to wish merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates it, and a nice holiday season to these, who have other festivities planned! Stay healthy and safe!

Original watercolor paintings for sale

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Art collections by Inese Poga

October 12, 2021October 12, 2021

Lifting morning fog, birches, classic landscape

The lifting morning fog is the most recent addition to my art collection. Birch trees have always been a favorite for autumn paintings, especially, when I have a few students who want to learn painting fall colors. The classic involves an artwork which we started in 2018, and it got not finished until now. Half-done paintings sort of nag and urge me to not be lazy and just add a few layers of paint.

Every day is only worth what its accomplishments are. I believe every day is good when I can show something for it. Therefore, time I devote to each artwork feels as a well-spent day. While everything else is rather slow and inconclusive in our life at the moment, one aspect of it is always unchanging: the creative aspect and pleasure of creation.

Acrylic paints dry darker, that’s why we need to learn what color combination is suitable for background, middle and foreground. I’ve talked a lot before that applying color is not the same as building it up. Building up color creates volume and color shifts, as well as allows implementing color temperature.

Textured birch trees on bright forest ground takes its origin probably in 2015 if I am recalling this correctly. I apply textures on canvas which is painted in the base color, grey or brown usually. I cannot judge yet whether it will become a good painting or not, therefore, many layers of paint are required to make it work.

Textured paintings are more problematic to photograph because the textures are raised and reflect more light. Color play is important part of textured paintings, but it comes to full expression seeing the art in person.

Here is the Rusty gold of autumn birch: it’s the same painting, compare with the image below; but pictures show completely different background colors. Unfortunately, neither one is absolutely true. The actual painting isn’t yellow, and the background isn’t bright blue, but the options are either to publish or not, and I would most often choose to publish. Rusty gold of autumn birch painting is 24 x 20 in or 61 x 51 cm.

I started to paint the lifting morning fog at the beginning of August. I had a very diligent student who attended private classes, and she was interested in fine detail of acrylic painting, layering colors and achieving a certain grade of realism. Nobody without experience can just jump in such art right away with the first brushstrokes. We managed, but such art takes much longer than a few hours. In my case, it’s rather a few weeks.

The lifting morning fog painting is created on my favorite size canvas: 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm. I love this size for both, watercolor and acrylic.

Pictures were taken with iPhone, and that sometimes adds way too much contrast and changes the color temperature. Colors usually on pictures are either stronger or weaker, but not my actual colors. My experience is that grey becomes strong blue and that disturbs color balance of my artwork. I’m using a grey-bluish shade which is carefully crafted, unfortunately, it looks very blue on the images.

I hope you like the new additions to my art collection, and some will also be put up for sale soon. Currently, there are quite a lot of acrylic paintings, and I update the sale pages quite frequently. Stay in touch and all the best enjoying the October colors!

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Art collections by Inese Poga

Group art classes

September 30, 2020January 4, 2023

New fall art, online art show and sale

Finding the right conditions to work

I’m very pleased I can finally publish my newest fall art. If you read my posts, you probably know, we have to go through a live-in renovation. It hasn’t been easy, in fact, I had to take a break from anything I was doing for a while because it just wasn’t possible. I can only work in silence and when there’s no direct presence of anybody. I normally do not answer phone and also do not talk while painting. I’m all consumed and taken away by the creative process. I paint in silence without any music, but I open the patio doors and listen to birds and other sounds of nature if the weather is good.

Strict preventive measures prevent public access

My show should have been on from October 1^st. After visiting the exhibition site, we decided not to go ahead with the real show. We have new restrictions in Ontario, and it basically comes to this: if hardly anybody is attending the exhibition site and they have to go through a strict procedure to be allowed on the premises, there’s no point in putting up a show. It is time-and effort-consuming process, and I just don’t see any value in exhibiting my art at this time.

Show and sale move online

The show will be all online. People, who reside in Ontario and can make an appointment to come to the studio, one person at a time, would be another option. I have numerous Thanksgiving pieces of art: from ecological prints to handmade unique cards, boxes and more. The ecological prints are created using nature materials like flowers and leaves and arranging them on thick watercolor paper. The process involves boiling and drying and then framing this art or using it in mixed media pieces.

Time-consuming creation process

My large paintings usually take up to month to finish, some – even longer, like 2-3 months. For medium size art, it’s approximately 2-3 weeks of work. I have never painted anything just in 1 sitting in acrylic. That is because of acrylic paint properties. Acrylic paint dries darker, much darker with some colors, therefore, I am glazing and adding new layers as I go. I want my art to be something impressive and something where one can literary feel like they are walking into the painting. I also take about 200 pictures of each painting, download, cut, resize them, then watermark and chose the most appropriate. That’s why I usually cannot post sooner than every 2 weeks at the best.

The birch valley

Fall art for sale — The birch valley is large painting, its size is 81 x 66 cm or 32 x 28 inches. Here it is on the easel. On the monitor screen, a picture of another fall painting is visible.

Fall art by Inese Poga — Birch valley, textured, large acrylic painting. As always, I have painted around the edges and painting is ready to hang on the wall.

Fall in the hills

I suppose it would look great on any wall. It depicts excellent mood and I think my color choice supports that. The first layers on this canvas were put down in 2015. It’s amazing how long it took me to add the final touches and turn this art into something I wanted to.

Fall in the hills, fall art by Inese Poga — Fall in the hills, beautiful soft colors and good composition

New red barn

And finally, the “New red barn’ which we started painting during art classes exactly a year ago. Just recently, I decided to finish it up so that one more painting is completed. Students were rushing, but I decided to work out this painting properly by adding enough layers and some detail.

Online art sale — The new red barn, acrylic painting on canvas, 20 x 16 in or 50.5 x 40.5 cm

Beauty has no price

I assume, my paintings when sold from the studio are not expensive. I don’t think you know anybody who’d work for $25-$40 a day and add even materials. Compared to all abstract and animated, as well as very amateurish art out there, my paintings are very recognizable on this background since I use certain colors, paint certain subjects and have a distinctive personal style. The truth is that fewer and fewer people can draw or create somewhat realistic looking art nowadays, and that works for me and lets me stand out.

Updating website and tackling shipping

I will work towards making my sales pages better in the upcoming weeks. They need update big time; I just didn’t get to that yet. Unfortunately, shipping is always what Canada Post charges me. They give great deals to huge customers so that their clients get free shipping, but a single person business pays way above the global average and also about 40-50% more than in the US.

Only original art

I am only selling originals for now. The new fall art looks amazing. For prints, I can order them myself and then resell, but that’s a risky process. I trust sites which specialize in creating and framing prints, such as Fine Art America, for instance. They do good job and nobody could ever compete with options for frames, as well as prints on numerous materials including wood and metal.

Art prints and other artistic products:

August 20, 2020September 17, 2021

Find inspiration on the birch path

Birch path painting: no reference required

Birch path paintings did not have any reference. I’ve done many paintings without any references, just having some imagined concept and adding to it as I paint. Paintings with birches inspire many established artists and beginners, and birch path in early or late fall is such an inviting landscape since the viewer can walk into it. As you may know, I come originally from Latvia, and birch path and birch grove is a very characteristic view over there.

Simple composition

The composition is usually simple and leads to the focal point which might not always be very accentuated. However, some other of my paintings are just plainly depictions of colorful abstract leaves. My students always asked for birch path and birch tree paintings; therefore, I have many of them. I always paint along with students. After a while, when acrylic paint has reached its complete drying and settling moment, I’d evaluate the painting and add or remove some parts of it as required.

Original landscape paintings by Inese Poga — Close-up details of Birch path, 1. Phone camera applies very long perspective, but the detail is still visible and so is sponge and fan brush work

Birch path paintings — Details, Birch path 1 and Birch path 2, this picture shows some tiny red spots

Stepwise approach

My process is usually simple, too. I start with application of texture by randomly creating leaf and grass patterns. After that, I prime and paint canvas. I don’t use any special acrylic primers any longer. I find that using acrylic paint which can be just leftover paint is much more beneficial to the final colors and impact. I use sometimes fairly dark grey, lighter grey, mix of burnt umber, burnt sienna and yellow ocher or cardboard color. These underpainting colors work the best with my art.

Original paintings by Inese Poga, Birch path paintings by Inese Poga — In company of other birches: the combined picture shows colors better

Defining the landscape

The next step is pretty much blocking in large areas on which I follow up with sponge and fan brush. When the background is set, I paint in main tree trunks. Using fan brush, I apply more layers. Any of my paintings has numerous layers, as well as switches from cool to warm colors. Camera cannot capture that, and it is painful seeing that photo can never show the fine-tuned colors I’ve used. Camera tends adding too much blue, too much yellow or green while sometimes omitting red completely. These particular paintings contain no blue color, but it might look as if they do on photos.

Fall birch, acrylic painting — Birch path 1, it has the most detail, 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas

Achieving balance with finishing touches

My painting is finished when the flow of colors and lines is balanced and I am satisfied with the most part of a painting. Balance in my art means quite a lot, and I’m aiming for it intentionally. The birch path originals are certainly very impressive and abstract parts compliment the detailed areas. It’s such a pleasure to look at these paintings when they’re next to each other. They are similar, but also have distinctive features.

Plenty of inspiration on birch path

I found my inspiration on the birch path and colors came to life. One can paint realistically imaginative landscape, or abstract trees from reality – it doesn’t matter what approach we use – to me personally, painting becomes art when it tells us something. I mean, it tells something without lengthy description. I hope you can feel the leaves under your feet, as well as more trees in the distance. Enjoy! Prints are available from Fine Art America site.