Techniques for spontaneous watercolor painting

Abstract watercolor painting, private art classes

The versatile watercolor

Watercolor is a medium we can use in hundreds of different ways. What we create and how it looks depends largely on technique we apply. While many of my watercolors look carefully worked out, I often start painting with just randomly washing some paint onto watercolor paper. I posted my spring palette colors in the previous article. For spring paintings, I am using a limited palette:

Payne’s grey

French ultramarine

Brilliant yellow

Burnt sienna

Burnt umber

Gold ochre

Leaf green

It’s possible, however, to create numerous color tones using these paints. They work well together and with decent application of water, there’s no mud. I will work on floral spontaneous watercolors next, and I am adding magenta and carmine for these.

Allowing paint and water to work

While the paint application is extremely loose, I still have some idea. Washes look great when painting treescapes and paintings with abstract water. This is a technique which perfectionists might not like. We simply allow colors to mix and flow as they please. It’s a myth that watercolor painting cannot be adjusted or changed. One just needs to know how to do that.

Lifting paint

I think many watercolor artists use too less of paint lifting technique. For paint lifting, large brush with pointy tip is very useful. My main brush is Luke number 14, round. Along with simple lifting, I implement one more step: lifting with very liquid other color. It’s a fantastic, but unpredictable process. It’s also fun, and I love this technique because it allows me adding definition to subject. Lifting paint is an essential technique for spontaneous watercolor my-style.

Non-cotton paper has its uses

Lifting automatically takes care of the negative space. When to lift and where to add paint depends on our personal preference and feel. For this technique, cotton paper is not the best option. Non-cotton watercolor paper makes lifting paint an easy step. In fact, it’s way easier to lift paint from some thick non-cotton papers than to add an extra layer. I am using for these paintings Strathmore 400 series paper. It requires flattening afterwards. All non-cotton watercolor papers must be weight-pressed after application of water and paint since they become uneven.

Multi-step process

While people ask when I will have online art classes, I must say, I probably won’t. Things I am writing about most often cannot be shown online. One must see the actual process in order to understand how we create loose, spontaneous watercolor painting and add the touch of reality to it. The process involves drying paper and restarting wet-on-wet, then adding dry paint, then lifting more and so on. It takes about 6-8 hours to paint one artwork. I have spent about 3 days in average on each painting.

Testing paints

Spontaneous watercolor works great for people who just want to explore what their paper and paints can do. Check compatibility of colors before you start painting. Water takes care of lot of things with loose watercolor painting, but there are colors which will destroy the flow and cause unpleasant muddy shades. To avoid that, learn what your paints do. My paints are rich in pigments, all artist grade. I never use white or black colors, as well as, I don’t even have masking fluid. These paintings consist only of watercolor paint on paper.

Give it a try

Want to try this approach? No better time than now. This means absolute freedom, you don’t need any photos to follow, but having an idea is helpful. I love using the earth colors togethers with blue and green. Burnt sienna adds a bit of red tint. Simplicity is beautiful; however, I’ve never been a minimalist in any regard. That goes for any of my paintings. Well, we can stop working whenever it feels right.

Group art classes

Private art lessons

Works and artworks

Artworks, lifting fog

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.

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.

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!

Shop original acrylic paintings

Special art offers

Spring edition, moving art studio

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.

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.

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.

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!

Special art offers

Original watercolor paintings for sale

Shop original acrylic paintings

Art gifts and art prints on FAA:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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!

Shop original acrylic paintings

Art classes, schedule and registration

Art collections by Inese Poga

A little bit of nostalgic beauty: snow and winter paintings

Snow and winter paintings

Snow and winter paintings are a great way to start painting since we can interpret the landscape or view in many ways. We can apply warm or cool glow to the snow and winter paintings, we can use shadows, different colors for sky and use distance or abstract background. We can stick to a photo or do what I’m doing: implement some visual ideas from memory or just look through the window and paint what is there. Out of my studio window, there’s plenty: all kinds of trees, buildings and so forth, including spruce, firs, pine and there’s a big sky, too. Quite enough for my snow and winter paintings.

Ontario weather takes care of the rest. Here and there, snow will be deep and bright white, capping every single branch and putting a warming snow scarf on every surface. It will have shadows in clear weather and it will show the branch shapes which puncture the clouds and sky. Altogether: it’s almost a finished landscape view, choose whatever angle suits better. Therefore, and because many of snow and winter paintings take origin as demos, I didn’t need or use any photos. The interpretation of these views is somewhat abstract. I will let the art speak more this time. It only has so many chances.

The collection of snow and winter paintings has grown quite big over years. It’s also a good selling feature before holidays. To be honest, winter and snow paintings usually sell only around this time and very rarely during other seasons. It’s a brief moment, and I believe I don’t really need more of snow and winter paintings at the moment. Until Christmas, we love snow and white wonderland landscapes. When it gets to February and March, oh my! We are totally tired of grey and white with spots of green which is also not the lively spring green. That certainly depends on the area where one lives. Ontario winter can be long.

I hope you’d love to make my Christmas and maybe purchase some art. There’s way more than I can publish just in one post. Enjoy!

Shop original acrylic paintings

Special art offers

Art collections by Inese Poga

Thanks for visiting and reading!