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.
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.
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 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
Before the horrible heat became an issue, we were creating watercolor nature art outdoors. I do always go for the simplest solution whenever there is one, therefore we did not use any masking fluid or any other extra watercolor enhancing supplies. The simplest technique with watercolor is painting around the parts which you want to leave light. It was very tricky in some parts regardless of the large paper size. Let’s just say, I added an element every time when somebody asked how to paint one or another part.
Nowadays, classes are not like art classes we used to have even 10 years ago when I would start with color properties and selection, features of brushes, techniques of using that particular brush, techniques of adding washes, glazes and details. I mean, I would make sure that my student knows at least a little bit about the medium, its application and the important aspects of painting. The shift has been towards very quick paintings, – the quicker, the better. Although, I’m not trying to squeeze in impossible steps, everything still takes time.
Students jump now from knowing nothing to trying to paint something great. It is what I told a girl who was attending a few nature art classes: to learn using brush and paint properly and automatically takes years, not hours. Our brain is wired in such a way that it will not allow doing automatically things which haven’t been rehearsed for numerous times. You have to add to this the novelty of particular technique, and mental attitude towards learning fast. Altogether, learning art has become an activity when one learns and applies the new skill immediately. I mean, they didn’t know it existed before the class. Most often, it won’t result in something great taking into account what I said before.
Since we all have started with something, for beginner, any scene is probably good enough. It’s just so that the potential participant judges the worthiness of a class by an image which I have painted. That is an absurd way of accessing the task ahead because I know what I’m doing and I can paint anything no problem, especially when the sketch is drawn by me. I know how to make parts of painting work or how to improve them if they don’t. Students take every brush application as final which by any means it isn’t. We certainly worked a lot, and due to the outdoor settings, I don’t have all steps on photos. I have finally started creating the downloadable materials, and steps will be available.
Before we start painting, we must explore our tools: watercolor paper, set of paints, brushes, everything. We cannot create a good painting when we don’t know what colors we have and how they act on paper. The same about color combinations, like burnt sienna plus any dark blue, but French Ultramarine and Prussian blue in particular, like in these paintings. We need to know what our paper does when it’s wet. One paper I used for demo, absolutely didn’t accept paint. I later found out; it was Fabriano. I avoid using any Fabriano papers, since my experience has been horrible with them. It’s not Arches either, but Strathmore 400 series.
Rocky creek, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor
I hope we can have more confidence and trust ourselves to a higher extent. That is absolutely necessary with drawing and painting. Nobody really cares if you get it right or not for as long as you’re happy with the outcome. It sure would look better and cleaner if I had masked out all tiny areas, but I am ok without having too much detail. If that were Arches paper, the washes on bigger parts certainly would have looked nicer. However, art class is not my own painting session. There are many interruptions and many times when I have to go over and over some part.
Trees on the hill, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor
As you might know, watercolor requires perfect timing. That can be an issue outdoors with higher temperatures when paper dries too swiftly. I’m not that meticulous that I wouldn’t paint just because something around isn’t right. I also use only 1 number 14 brush for practically entire painting. It has an extremely great tip, but due to frequent use it starts wearing down. Well, time to start looking for replacement brushes.
Second version on different paper, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm watercolor
I use St. Petersburg watercolor paints because they’ve been my favorite ever since I remember. When I was about 10 or so, that’s a bit more than half a century ago, I stopped by at my neighbor’s place. They rented a room to an artist. She was great with watercolors. I noticed the large paint box on the table and colors in it looked so fantastic, nothing like my small student grade paints which I had. So, I asked: what paints are these? Her painting was extremely vibrant, literally alive. She said: Leningrad watercolors. Those times, it was still Leningrad, it only later reversed to St. Petersburg. I got my first St Petersburg watercolor paints about 20 years ago and have used them since.
I hope you enjoyed the new large paintings which resulted from my demos.
Summer makes one a believer in better things ahead of us. The stage is set, nature unfolds all it has to offer. No doubt, we have to enjoy everything from short walks to distant trips, from simple garden chores to breathtaking adventures. My choices are not that many at the moment, but I make my garden a place where everything is as it should be in the real world: healthy, relaxing, soothing and rewarding.
I don’t mind having flowers between vegetables, roses next to zucchinis, green peas and marigolds friendly sharing their spot under the sun: they all make my place look more magic. I have to intentionally find time for painting because it’s always so much to do in the summer if you have a garden. July 1st is the first day of World watercolor month. I’m very sure I cannot get done a painting a day since my paintings usually take more like a week or two weeks each, but I will try to present more of my most recent watercolor paintings.
The garden rose sort of asked to be painted. After rain, every bloom was covered with shiny water pearls and I cut a few small branches and took inside. As I was sitting there and looking at the well-defined and artistic shapes of petals, I started to draw what I saw. For watercolor painting, I actually would need only outlines, but pencil just kept moving and I got a value drawing on my transfer paper.
I placed drawing and painting side by side
Next day, I transferred outline drawing onto watercolor paper which happened to be quite large in size: 24 x 18 inches, or 61 x 46 cm. If you have read my art blog, you probably know that whenever possible, I paint and draw large. This painting organically developed itself while my model flower stayed fresh and lovely. It changed shape slightly, but for adjustment, I could use my drawing.
Close-up and detail of pink garden rose
If you could ever see this watercolor painting of garden rose in person, you most likely would find that water drops feel like you can touch them and the size is such that the rose bloom literally takes one’s full attention not only with its colors, but also size and composition.
My pretty garden rose with rain drops
As soon as I got the second dose of vaccine and 2 weeks passed, I could restart the live art classes. We will create more garden paintings. Subjects are right here, and they are all kinds of! Summer days are long, but, nevertheless, they simply disappear. I can say my garden provides me with everything: models for my art, opportunity to recharge, colorful dreams and it also is a rewarding experience for my soul. Small place with everything which my universe consists of.
Garden rose with rain drops, full size
For now, please, love, share and enjoy the pink garden rose painting! I wish you a happy and adventurous summer!!
Like every year, we get from winter into summer heat in Ontario. I’ve noticed there’s nothing in the middle quite often. It was cold even until the first weeks of May, and then suddenly, we got high heat. That means plants and flowers bloom over in a few days, and everything at once. It is difficult not to take part in all breathtaking blooming and return to life of nature, therefore, I am feeling as if in summer in my art already. The old story: creation must be done in advance of any seasons, celebrations and festivities.
Not only for shows
It’s not so that I am creating only complex art for competing in shows and simple art for teaching art classes. One of the other categories would be plainly decorative art, and we are seeing lots of it recently. Just some splash of color, some shapes or basic subject on white or abstract background. Nothing extreme, nothing mysterious or hiding deep meanings, just art for covering wall space and keeping the creative hand sensitive. This is the routine art which doesn’t reach ceiling of mastery and doesn’t strongly affect our mind or soul. Art that is often described as “lovely, nice, cute”. These are, besides, the worst compliments when it comes to creativity and creation. They say practically nothing, they are empty words. They leave one unaffected like water drop rolling down a leaf leaving no trace as it evaporates.
Summer cottage
Technical side versus emotional aspect in painting
t’s understandable that with overload of images the internet viewer is attacked with in a split second, nothing gets more than a quick glance. Rarely, somebody will notice elegance of lines, flowing or strong brushstrokes, shifts of warm color into cool shades, perspective, mood, the way the subject reveals itself, I mean, all things which exceed just purely technical approach of painting. Technical approach dominates because lots of art on the internet is done by beginners and emotional level is left out when the main focus goes to the technical side of using art supplies and creating the subject.
Mastery in art
The most adorable category is art as discovery, art as secret, art as mystery and soul touching art. Not every artwork becomes a masterwork, far from that. Even well-known artists have uneven level of mastery in their works, and that is just a very human feature. Nobody can be at the top of their creative juices and riding the wave of inspiration 24/7. Any human has ups and downs, divine moments and dark alleys where they get lost. It is a good personal goal to have more of good art which has lasting effect on the viewer. Every artist tries to achieve that, and in the best artworks, mastery comes to expression.
Show continues
The virtual art show continues, and since the lead post was helping a little, but I need to add new art, I am including in this post variety of available images, the brand-new blooming meadows paintings and some other art. I know how nobody wants to see more sales and so on, but I simply need to turn visitors’ attention to the fact that these are show artworks and they are currently sold at their best prices. I will probably change the content after a while, but for now, please enjoy, and you might possibly like to purchase some art.
