Just like birds, I will take off tomorrow. I won’t go south; however, I will go east, to Latvia. Whether we like it or not, September is soon over, and October will come with its gold to soothe and comfort our aching souls because, oh well, we are heading towards the winter. Eventually, snow silver will cover the rusty golden sparkles, and our feet will be walking the icy and cold sidewalks of freezing town and city roads. I love the colors of autumn, just like we all do! It is such an injustice that this beauty disappears so fast. Nevertheless, it is a great time to capture and enjoy the fantastic colors. Regardless of personal preferences, nature’s cycles are inevitable.
Fall art projects
I kept working on some projects and I also tried to bring to finish the class project: the distant blue background and the lonely tree. Pumpkins are going to be uploaded to Fine Art America; maybe somebody will like them as greeting cards or other products: there are so many now that I cannot even list them all.
Looking forward to my time in Latvia
I will try to report about my adventures in Latvia since I have a new laptop. Laptop is fine, I would not say I’m very excited about Windows 10, it came with so much abusive stuff which I never intend to use that it takes me hours and hours to adjust my settings for my personal needs.
Alone: lonely tree; 20 x 24 in acrylic painting, it was sold to Brenda. Thanks, Brenda!
Pumpkin for Thanksgiving, 20 x 24, in acrylic painting
High above, acrylic painting, 20 x 24 in by Inese Poga, sold
House under big sky, it’s a very large acrylic painting, 30 x 40″
Painting tip for students
If you would like to paint some fall scenery, put the color you want to use exactly on a spot where you want it. Do not keep brushing the paint around for so long that everything becomes the same color. This is easy using a feather-like, light brushstroke. It is like running on a spot: you just use the flat and wide side of the brush with light motion, so that it mostly is parallel to canvas surface.
Enjoy the sunny fall days and survive patiently the dullness of rains and chills of winds!
Routine and stagnation go hand in hand. I also believe that talk solves nothing. I am deeply convinced that too many “everything is fine” statements can actually cause harm. When our intentions remain only as to-do-lists, there is no result. There is huge gap between the real action and intent. Therefore, we need the divine inspiration to interrupt our routine.
Life is fair, humans – not always
We often hear that life is not fair. Well, life as such is fair and fine. It is us, humans, who make things unfair and unfavorable for others. We should know: if we win, somebody else loses. When we are at loss, somebody has won the big prize. Therefore, I wish there was much less pretending that everything is fine and much more doing in order it was like that. While total equality isn’t possible for very many reasons, we can at least try to measure up to the ones at the top.
The dearest rose of all, the rose for my mom
What is the divine in our daily life?
For me, praising the divine does not mean unstoppably talking about it. That means bringing the beauty to people and making them understand how little, in fact, we need to experience the most valuable things on this Earth. There would be much less suffering if one day we had opened our eyes and started calling things their correct names. Becoming realistic is not a bad start. making regular things divine is something we all can do.
Colors and shapes of flowers will blow you away
Losing time due to routine
The daily routine is absorbing plenty of time and taking away lots of energy. People who are not rich have to deal with chores whether they are happy with that or not. Even though, I could do so many useful and exciting things instead of cleaning up and washing dishes or cooking, that is not going to change. I am efficient, and I have prevention system in place: to avoid general cleaning, I do not allow any dirt or messes to accumulate. I spend 12 hours or more a day quite often on medical writing. That is the job I make my living with. but I hope earning my living with art at some point.
Poppies, simple and divine
Love to divine within simple things
I have inherited love to the nature and all Gods creations from my great grandparents, grandparents and my parents. I strongly believe that family either makes one creative and resourceful or completely ignores this necessity by not appreciating the great experiences and benefits creativity has to offer, although, this does not always mean any financial benefits. I am genuinely thankful I have all skills and knowledge to dress myself, design my clothes and outfits, to grow my own garden plants , flowers and vegetables, to cook fantastic meals with little efforts, to decorate my living space and create all necessary items for that and so on and so forth.
Butterflies and apple blossoms, just the right things for sunny mood
Necessity to be active
This is all because of my family. Somebody might call me workaholic, but I hate simply sitting around and doing nothing. I cannot recall any single episode of my childhood or earlier years when I had to admit I was bored. I was always busy. Trying to make something from nothing. That is a great way to, a great way to live since I am seeing some opportunity just about everywhere.
Rose and apple blossoms, spring is here
Flowers: the divine aspect in daily life
I am sending flowers to my mom every time whenever there is some important day or some celebration because I know she appreciates and loves them. We are far away, the Ocean is between us, but we can talk on Skype. My husband gives me flowers on every occasion, not only when there’s a celebration or birthday, but just for pleasure, as well. I have always fresh flowers around me, many are potted. I believe he does this because he knows how I am talking to plants and how much I enjoy them. They respond with adorable blooms and never-ending beauty.
Apple blossoms for spring
Teaching is a duty
I feel that my duty is to teach other people to enjoy things which are not that costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty. The importance of brain fitness is completely ignored, but I am trying to make everybody aware how this can be achieved with simple sketching and drawing on a daily basis. If one can escape the age related dementia and loss of brain functionality just doing some visual art exercises, why don’t they do that? That’s a good question because physical body is always put first and mental and spiritual well-being is supposed to occur automatically which is absolutely and totally wrong.
New greeting card images
I hope I’m doing my part and creating art you enjoy. To me, this means praising the divine every single moment not only in words, but with doing.
I’ve noticed that too much preparation can result in never getting started with anything. That is especially true when trying to know everything will prevent one from ever getting started, for instance, with painting. That will cause insecurity and feeling of always missing something. Many people mention also fear, the fact that they are scared to draw on white paper or paint on blank canvas.
Children do it right
Children usually are very successful with new things. They don’t try to prepare for everything which might or might not happen. They also don’t try to collect all possible and imaginable tools and references in order to get started. That is an issue I have observed during my very long teaching career. It was the same when I was teaching German language and literature, English or Latvian, design, drawing and art.
Rose and apple blossoms, spring is here
Information flood can affect our readiness to get started
We are flooded with huge amounts of information. When we turn on TV, when we are scrolling through computer screen, and when we are checking out our phone, there is huge amount of information. This information can be related or totally unrelated, true or false, meaningless or crucial to whatever we are doing, and we are normally absorbing at least some of it. Should we? To some extent, we obviously should be aware of what’s going on and do research when we are exploring matters that are important for us, However, with so many sources and with such infinite amounts of advice, we most likely will feel rather lost.
We don’t ever know everything
This refers very directly to drawing, painting and any other creative activity. I know people who would not start drawing or painting because they assume they don’t know everything about it. They are trying to get ready for this activity by exploring techniques, mediums, tools, paint characteristics, types of brushes and features of colors and any other related matters. Many of them never get to any drawing or painting because they don’t feel they know enough and they don’t believe they have all necessary art supplies.
Choose smartly
There are millions of different techniques, styles and ways to create art. Since internet has controversial advice and sometimes even misleading suggestions, it is very hard to distinct between true help and silly recommendations. How is it possible to find out whether painting is what you want to do? It is extremely simple: just give it a try. Nobody knows everything about everything. We can follow hundreds of websites, we can watch thousands of “how to” videos and read endless articles or books about painting. There’s plenty of advice out there, and some of that is useful for us, but most of it will not help one starting out in art. Why not? We have to start doing things before we can decide if we like them or not. Only these, who dare to try, can hope to get something done.
Jumping on it without any fear
Other good thing about students who don’t have too much knowledge is that they have no fear. They are not afraid to damage paper or canvas, and they fearlessly apply courageous brushstrokes or put down lines on paper. That results in a good or satisfactory first painting. They do not think it is some kind of superb masterpiece, but realistically evaluate it. Therefore, they can keep improving their abilities when doing the next painting. The knowledge comes through doing, and that is the only way to gain experience.
Experience is an excellent building block of mastery
This is how hands-on activities are contributing to fast development of any skill: you see it happening and you try it immediately. If something went wrong, try it again. Watching other people can give us an idea about how we should proceed, but until we haven’t tried it out for ourselves, we will never know how exactly it is done. We can learn all kinds of compositions and color theories, but when the paint dries out fast and when the brush is moving quickly, there’s no time to recall all of it.
Our personal color theory
The way we can create our own color theory is to mix colors, to use color swatches, to test multiple colors in a mix and to apply paint accordingly to how we feel about it. This might take some time until the brain remembers what hands were doing and how this was suiting our creative intentions. Eventually, we will have our own color and painting theory. That will become the base of your personal style.
Never stop at the first failure
The first steps are the most difficult. These, who are afraid to get wet, won’t ever learn swimming. It is interesting to compare the first art you ever created with the most recent drawings or paintings. There is always a progress. Improvement is visible immediately. Every piece of art we create allows seeing better where we want to go with our creations and what we eventually want to achieve.
Red color is eye-catching and warm. Poppies is a much-loved subject in art classes, and since November is the month which many people in Canada associate with poppies and Remembrance day, we just couldn’t resist and painted some, too.
Red color must be fantastic for lifting up one’s mood because I cannot remember when else we were joking and laughing so much.
Flowers and easy flowers, such as poppies, are excellent painting subject for beginners. Also, while red color is supposed to be difficult to scale down and up, it still works very well as contrast. We have painted poppy fields, individual poppies, bunches and arrangements with poppies: every time these paintings come out nice and attractive.
The best part of being able to create is probably that we only depend 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 our personal situation can be a set-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.
Work in progress adult painting class
Red is an attractive color. More so, if you want to explore all shades of red. Painting flowers is easier if you start on canvas which has already a layer of paint in medium dark color. It also saves time because you have to work on the dark and light colors without worrying white spots between some parts. Secondly, acrylic paint is applied easier also on a previous layer of paint.
We all know mothers who have brushes, paints and canvas; however, canvas is not on their easel or painting desk. Art supplies are pushed deep in drawers or hidden in storage boxes for the day “when I have more time”. We know life is hectic; there are so many duties, obligations and tasks to deal with!
There’s more to life
Many years ago when I was in my thirties, an older lady was my friend. I was wondering often how she got everything done and still had time for concerts, trips and visits to friends’ places. She told me this. “You know, dishes, laundry, cleaning: that is something endless, there’s always more of it and there’s never time enough to do it perfectly. I chose to simply take some time off when I need to and nothing too crucial has happened so far neither with our dishes, house, nor clothes.”
All the beautiful flowers blossom at once
Good advice
“I realize, my house is not perfectly polished at some moments, but do I want to say at the end of the day all I did was cleaning, washing dishes and doing work around the house? There’s more to life, so I just had to disregard not that urgent stuff and make nice things happen for me.” I followed this advice and ever since I had weekends for doing something more than just routine duties.
Learn how to say “No”
One more thing is that we have to learn saying “No”. I have no time for this, and, no, I am not going to this event, and, no, I’m not watching this. No, my dear family, I will not be cooking tonight since I have my art class. That’s exactly how it works. Once in the studio, you are out of reach of all troubles and nuisances and annoying daily obligations, even phone conversations, bills and other provocative and stressful stuff.
Painted flowers last longer
Some mothers already have it all, and it is not that easy to find a perfect gift for them. The best gift nowadays is time for oneself or time for doing something peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable. Gift of experience works very well. You can give your busy mom a gift certificate for art classes, and this gift will last for quite a while.
Orchards in bloom, acrylic painting, it is on my mom’s wall and she looks at it frequently
Gift certificate for art classes is also a perfect solution for children who cannot spend a fortune for Mother’s Day, but would love to still give a meaningful, valuable gift which does not get eaten up right away and does not wither within two next days.
