Nature Archives - Page 2 of 11 - INESE'S ART STUDIO

June 28, 2022October 15, 2024

Works and artworks

It’s time to feature a few summer-related artworks, something which widens our space and takes us to places which might or might not exist. The power of imagination! I use imagination to a great extent since life has become somewhat subdued in the post-COVID era. Back to summer artworks.

Artworks, summer nature — New 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm summer landscape from art classes

Artworks, summer — New 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm summer landscape from art classes

I have to take new pictures of paintings which were created years ago, as well as quite recently. I mentioned in previous posts: an artwork for a show and an artwork for demonstration at art class simply cannot be the same. As art teacher, I try to adjust the subject to the skill level of students. Therefore, such paintings are more abstract. One example from the recent classes: bright summer landscape which is quite abstract, but uses strong colors.

While I was using iPhone 6, all my pictures were dark. With iPhone 8, then iPhone 10 Pro Max, all my pictures had yellow and purple overcast, the colors in paintings were as if yellowed out. With iPhone 13 Pro Max, I have sometimes extreme contrast, but there’s more ability to adjust the distorted perspective and color. However, paintings have extra bright blue-green, too strong blue, or all-over yellow-green and too much purple. Basically, any edits are global. I’ve never gotten my painting images right, practically never.

So, I have to take new pictures replacing all images between 2010 and 2018. They simply have no saturation, no contrast and make no sense either. One might ask: why to bother? Well, although few people ever read entire posts or look at all images, online images are often the only way they will see what I have painted. Since I have spent numerous hours cataloging my artworks, I decided to feature quite a few artworks from different years.

Home, Daisy field, acrylic painting of summer daisies

In Ontario where I live, summer is not that long. I rush to do gardening, painting, teaching while I have to catch up on regular chores also. Lots of things are still in boxes and many tasks await their completion. However, summer is for taking a break, too. Therefore, I won’t apologize for not posting very frequently, but I hope you love and purchase some art and love my artworks added to this post.

Have a great, green and blue, enjoyable summer!

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February 21, 2022January 13, 2025

Spring edition, moving art studio

My art studio is moving again, indeed, it has happened so many times during the recent years. I’ve moved three times since 2018 and now I have to do that again. While it sounds quite simple, it actually isn’t. The toughest part is finding a place and qualify for it. That requires mountains of paperwork, numerous hours of printing, scanning, signing, sending documents and so forth. That is the reason I hardly looked at the internet, any social media or blog sites. There wasn’t enough time in a day to cope with all that, and nothing was left for painting, unfortunately.

The Amsterdam paint tubes are added for color balance in photos, I use Liquitex for painting.

I did try to catch up with the artistic side, I sure did. However, that mostly resulted in wasted paint and a bit of frustration. As soon as I squeezed out acrylic paint and got in the mood for painting, the phone rang or I received a message, we have to go: to see a place, to meet somebody, to do whatever, and there was no other way around it. As you know, acrylic paint dries very fast, and even when preserving some in a tight container, it doesn’t work quite well as the fresh one.

Trillium forest, original acrylic painting

I’m really hooked on the moment when nature awakes. The most fantastic view for me can be a tiny sprout breaking through the soil and greeting the sunshine. The first wild flowers are such a welcome sight! Strength to overcome the freeze and courage to break through impossible obstacles: that is what grasses and wild flowers have. I cannot resist, I return to wildflowers in spring settings every year.

Art studio, spring painting by artist Inese Poga

One of my most favorite color combinations involves earthy tones, many shades of green as in sprouts, young leaves and grasses, blue patches of sky, as well as bright white, blue and pink of the wildflowers. According to such palette, I paint some knew dreamscape which I most often have seen only in imagination or which is stored in my memory chambers.

White anemones,art studio paintings by Inese Poga

My art studio in this big house had to be adjusted and the actual painting space was sparse. As you might know from my previous posts, I usually paint only by daylight. There have been times when I have to add evenings, but I try to avoid painting at night when artificial light is required. It could be my eyesight which dictates that, but I am very sure that for true color match we need the daylight.

So, the art studio is on the move again, and I have started to pack up a few things. Very large and small paintings will be moved first, as well as part of my countless brushes and art supplies. I would love to sell a few more paintings, but I don’t have much time for advertising at the moment. We will be moving 9 large rooms into 5 rooms, only one of which is large. My art studio is going to be arranged there, in the largest room. Daylight will be much better in the new place, however. It’s an older building with large windows, lots of character and huge backyard. That is such a luxury nowadays!

My best guess is everything will be ready around April 15, and that’s when I can start with my own paintings and art classes. Until then, – I go through moving troubles, packing and unpackaging, sorting, cleaning and being busy with all kinds of things which are not necessarily art related. There will be moment when we won’t have internet yet, and when I am all set up, I will come up with my newest discoveries in painting. You can still scroll through my blog which documents all art studio moves, gives lots of advice for new and established artists and offers excellent quality art at great prices. Stay well! I’d love to hear from you!

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January 19, 2022October 17, 2024

The many functions of art

Functions of art, flower painting, spring flowers

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!

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November 19, 2021October 10, 2024

Fall landscape, dazzling colors

Fall landscape, fall trees, acrylic painting

Fall landscape is especially attractive painting subject when days shrink and it gets pitch dark already around 5 pm. The added bonus is bright color palette and the options of mixing colors are endless.

I’ve been painting away, but since the daylight is sparse and ends soon, the hours I can work on a painting are short, too. If you have ever done acrylic or oil painting, you probably know how wet paint is reflected in artificial light. To the extent that it becomes impossible to paint.

If you favor walks in the nature and you are just like I am – always enjoying the play of colors in the sunlight or cloud shapes when it’s rainy and overcast, – you will probably like this painting with its vivid colors and the nature-related subject. The fall landscape is something I paint always around this time, but I am going to focus more on fragments of landscape in the future, unless it is a huge canvas.

Fall landscape — Left side and right side detail of fall colors and forest road

It took very many layers of paint and going over and over some areas because it’s no secret acrylic paint is more and more lacking quality and saturation with pigment.

Fall landscape is a great subject for reflecting our love to color. To facilitate brightness and strong tones, I let the painting dry every night and return to it when the daylight is acceptable. Therefore, the process extends over a few weeks, but I am fine with it now. It already received lots of great feedback. The size is again 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm. I started this painted for the class, but certainly, getting it done took many more hours.

My paintings are very color-sensitive. While the picture will show only what camera with automated settings can capture, the actual painting always has more of everything, but definitely great balance between dark and light, as well as cold and warm. These particular pictures are more on the warmer side. Just like always, I took many of them and chose to publish the ones which are the closest to the original.

Other acrylic paintings, page will be updated: Shop original acrylic paintings

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September 17, 2021October 16, 2024

Enjoyable watercolor painting ideas

I decided to share watercolor reference paintings and, perhaps, suggest a few simple watercolor painting ideas since there’s no shortage of passionate self-educating artists. I took many pictures of these paintings in numerous combinations, invested lots of time, and I love how they came out. I’m doing all of this in hopes to get something more happening at my studio.

When I was about to publish the new schedule, I noticed I have no suitable images to illustrate the new art classes and their subjects. The truth is that any pictures taken even 3-5 years ago, are not that bright. They look dark or pale, but never really on spot. Refreshed look is always beneficial, and in this visually-engaging era even more so. I suppose you know me by now, and the fact that I do not prefer minimalism in any area of my life. Therefore, I need my images to look rich, inviting and colorful, attention grabbing.

Taking pictures for images that represent what I do is not that simple as it might seem. I have plenty of material, that’s for sure. However, I need to choose small size artworks and add something that ties it all together. The glue for tying together images this year, is the color swatches on good quality watercolor paper.

For this season’s watercolor painting ideas, I specifically painted a few new 12 x 16 and 11 x 15 in (a quarter of full sheet watercolor paper) paintings. They are created without drawing, just applying watercolor washes, and then adding a few defining elements which seemed to be fitting. In the past, I used to make new reference paintings for acrylic and watercolor classes every year or even twice a year. Well, classes were ongoing, but COVID caused a major two-year-long disruption, and I lost a lot of contacts.

After about 300 pictures for watercolor and acrylic, I selected a few which I thought were the best. Watercolor wash is a fantastic way to get started with watercolor paints. I’d say the most enjoyable watercolor painting ideas are very basic, using wash, blending colors, allowing water and pigment to work.

For interestingness, you might add a few details which can be painted on top of watercolor washes. The next enjoyable watercolor painting ideas involve keeping your subject uncomplicated and choosing to lift paint instead of masking fluid application. Such artwork won’t be realism, but such techniques make your abstracted art stand out more. When you look at abstracted paintings online, you probably notice how they look very similar. Your personal style and details create difference and recognizability.

One more watercolor painting idea is as follows: paint the subject which you love and in colors you personally prefer. Tutorials might make you believe there are strict rules about using one or another color. There aren’t. You can choose any colors which speak to you. However, when painting with watercolor, I don’t ever use black or Chinese white. They make the look of dark areas muddy and light areas pale and opaque. For strong dark color, use numerous other options starting with Burnt sienna plus any type of dark blue, Payne’s grey plus any other clean color or Sepia on its own. Options for creating personal dark colors are endless.

I hear students saying that watercolor is more difficult than other media which, in fact, it isn’t. You simply practice using your brush to its full capacity, learn how to lift paint and switch between sharp and washed-out edges, as well spend some time just testing water and pigment proportion for watercolor wash. Paint flows only to these areas which are wet. It never goes into dry paper areas unless there’s a puddle of water. Realistically, we maintain control at all times. The number 1 thing to learn when using any medium is how to use your brush or brushes.

If you reside around or not far from Ajax, Ontario, I hope seeing you in my art classes: Art classes, schedule and registration

If you work on your own, try my watercolor painting ideas and let me know what the result was Get inspired by my art and purchase. Artistic products and art prints

Thanks for reading and have a nice September!

Category: Nature

Works and artworks

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Spring edition, moving art studio

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The many functions of art

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Fall landscape, dazzling colors

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Enjoyable watercolor painting ideas

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