Landscapes which live in my memory

Spring painting, spring creek

Places where I have spent most part of my life, do not stand out with spectacular landscapes. I don’t usually paint mountains, oceans, seaside or waves. I’ve seen them, but I have hard times recalling such views in detail which is necessary for creation of painting from memory. Many of these paintings were also started a long time ago just as a demo for my live art classes. That means, I’ve spent very limited time painting them during the class. My main focus was what students learned from each process and less an attempt to create a masterpiece.

Therefore, I had to change some parts, add finishing touches, increase strong values, add strong highlights, refine some details and mask out some other parts. These landscapes are views from my memory and imagination, they might or might not exist, but I usually want the subject to be recognizable without long explanations. I suppose, I’ve said it quite a few times that I’m not thrilled about small size, like 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm paintings of complex views and detailed subject. For me personally, the most comfortable size for acrylic is approximately 30 x 24 in or 76 x 61 cm and for watercolor: full sheet which is most often 30 x 22 in or 76 x 56 cm. Such size allows implementing aspects which are very important in painting: decent values, decent size subject, powerful color switches and a few outstanding details.

The current trend of displaying paintings in clusters is a great one. Even when painting is large, it takes a lot of design skill to make it rather become a part of space than dominate it or disappear in it. Clusters of paintings suit any taste and allow using paintings of small and medium size, too. They do change the mood in room, they can take you to any season or make feel happier in your space. I am not allowed to hang much on walls in my rented space. We tried strips and some of bigger paintings fell down. I didn’t even attempt hanging the huge and large watercolor paintings that way.

The history and story behind these paintings is the same, but some are pretty much painted from new. You can do that in acrylic, no problem. In fact, I think acrylic looks better with numerous layers, – the more, the better. Colors become intense and also change in different light settings, the most dramatic parts become textured and that looks really adorable. These paintings have taken weeks to accomplish letting dry between layers. I know how little of that is visible in an online image, but the presence is still there.

Since I spent 46 years in Latvia and it’s not even twenty in Canada yet, the subject of my painted landscapes is associated most often with Latvian countryside, Latvian country roads, gardens and plants, as well as with nature in Latvia. The area around Ajax where I live now is similar, but I would never paint the local box-like boring buildings which really offend one’s esthetic principles. That’s why we have imagination and can travel back in memories to any season, any place and any emotion that provoked.

Other than that, I’m finally working on compiling a book of acrylic painting techniques for landscapes, still life and floral art. It is a slow process, and it probably will take numerous hours for creating more pictures, describing tools and efficient process steps, as well as basic principles of painting in any medium since most of them are the same. Creating art should never be struggle, that’s why I will also keep teaching live art classes when we reopen. That might be in July, or August, or September.

Thanks for reading, enjoy!

My art store is not coming along swiftly as I hoped, so for prints, please, go to Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

I’d love to take you for a walk in spring forest

Nature paintings, spring paintings

Virtual walk in a spring forest

I’d really love to take you outdoors for a walk in a sunny spring forest. Imagine birds chirping, warm air, wild flowers opening buds and trees have gotten their new leaves. Spring forest has green color, and green color is the one which brings hope and calm. Walk in a spring forest would be so great taking into account the double-digit minus degrees in Ontario right now. Painting something which isn’t possible is the best part of creation.

Romantic subjects

A few years ago, we were painting numerous nature scenes in art classes. Students didn’t want to paint abstracts, and I didn’t either. Therefore, we painted numerous birches, flower fields, forest paths and rivers. One might think, it’s kind of too naturalistic way of painting, but it does exactly what I mentioned before: it takes you to places where you cannot be or sometimes – where you’ll never be. Such places might exist only in our imagination, too, but that’s ok.

Mellow-yellow or blue

You will notice how huge the difference is assuming you’re using a color-sensitive device for viewing content of this blog. One picture is blurry to a small extent, but it has practically true colors, cold and warm. It’s taken by the old camera. The other picture is done with iPhone 11 Max Pro and it has wrong warm colors all over it, especially, this mellow-yellow main tone. This phone has so many automated features that one shouldn’t ever hope to get a realistic look.

Spring forest with blue flowers

Let’s return to the updated spring forest now because that’s where the joy is. I can certainly tell you about colors and you can believe me or not, but the one true thing is these spring paintings look great when looking at them in reality. I have surrounded myself with spring paintings currently to survive winter easier until we get outdoors again. I think I simply need green color. I’m a gardener also, and nothing makes me happier than seeing the first green spouts in the backyard. Spring forest with blue flowers is quite large, too, 20 x 24 in or 51 x 61 cm.

Color discrepancy

The discrepancy of true colors becomes huge issue when publishing pictures of paintings. There is editing, but editing affects the image globally, so the improvement is none or just somewhat acceptable. Realistic, semi-realistic or imagined realism uses both types of color: warm colors and cold colors to make the image work. Now, my iPhone 11 Max Pro doesn’t understand that. I do adjust exposure and switch between lenses, I change the backgrounds and settings, but the outcome is the same. None of my pictures show my paintings as they are.

Visual content

My blog is mainly visual as it should be. After all, I’m a visual artist creating paintings and dealing with images. Painting is ok, but ever since I delegated picture taking to iPhone and the big camera became outdated, I was in trouble. Apart from absurd perspectives, automatic zoom, too strong contrast and deviations from reality, the worst is color deviation. All my painting images have mostly yellow-purple gloom on them, or they look very blue. I later understood that the automated settings can capture only warm colors or only cold colors which is not what art has.

Lost likes and outdated pictures

I am trying to take new pictures and update images on old posts. Pictures from 9 years ago look blurry. I started this website on May 29, 2011. At that time, it was a blog, WordPress dotcom. Moving my extensive blog to a website in 2017 was quite an event. I lost half of images, everything was more or less misplaced. If you go through posts, you will notice how posts before 2017 have many comments, but no likes. Well, you cannot transfer likes. Many followers disappear also. I had to literary rework every single post, and I also deleted many. I’d love to maybe install a new theme, but when I think about images not lining up again and some things looking awkward, I put it off. Too much work.

So, definitely, take a virtual walk and enjoy!

Art prints:

Art collections by Inese Poga

Seasons in art, seasons in life and nature

Acrylic painting, spring nature

Living by seasons

I live by seasons, and seasons make me do, want or pursue something specific just like people who lived thousand years ago. I live in expectations of spring during the winter months. I look at trees not that far away, just behind the window glass. Deep down the roots of a tree are alive, and the tree is just collecting and accumulating energy for the big blast of blossoms and buds when the time is right. It’s a very good time to keep refining my skills because we always must go forward. When we believe there is nothing more to learn, we stop moving ahead. The progress ends, and we become old. Who wants that? Nobody!

White forest anemones is a square acrylic painting. This subject has been always very attractive to me.

Lovely green when it’s grey outside

Many artists are genuinely afraid of using green color because it makes painting look abusively green, because nobody likes green on their wall, it is a bad taste and because there are so many colors in the rainbow. Classy art is supposed to have lots of grey, earthy colors, blue shades and different white tones. No green, or at least green with purple neutralizing undertones, red or burnt sienna injections and aqua colors. When I got my first acrylic paints in 2007, I was very fond of them. I come from watercolor and pastel drawing, and I loved the extremely beneficial opportunity to effortlessly create volume with acrylic paints.

My personalized realism

Ever since that first time I got to use acrylic paints, I’ve been extremely happy that I can create anything which looks exactly as I like. People sometimes want to squeeze me in all kinds of categories, and none of them actually fits. I don’t paint realism if we think realism as art genre. The reason for that is I rarely use photographic reference as the base for my painting.  I check out parts of my nature views, but I usually have a certain color palette in my mind and I can picture it on the blank canvas. That takes me somewhere, to an imagined landscape or still life components which I visualize. Tackling memorized and imagined views is more difficult than tracing and copying a photo. However, I frequently receive comments in art groups how people can place themselves in my paintings, how they can recall some particular site or place, or feel they are surrounded by my painting.

Spring, forest anemones. This picture was taken with my old Canon camera, and it displays great colors.

Adjusting process

My painting process is simply longer. I go over some areas many times, and I try to achieve exactly what I feel should be there. The difference is, when repainting a photo, you know where what is. I don’t know that because I improvise. I’m usually happy with the result. Then there is picture taking. You have painted a great acrylic or watercolor, you take pictures in different settings with all kinds of backgrounds. Then, you download these hundreds of pictures and it can happen so that not even one is exactly as painting. We can edit pictures, sure, but the changes are global. If the device has added more strong contrast in dark areas and lightened more the light areas, there are just more abnormalities after such editing. Somebody said on their blog (I don’t think they were artist; they just teach artists) that pictures always look better than paintings and that is just not true. I have the opposite experience: paintings look better.

Playing on emotions

So, here you have it: I don’t paint reality except for watercolor still life and some watercolor floral paintings. It isn’t abstract art also because I like my subject to be recognizable, yet, I introduce abstract areas in any painting a lot. I love color and art to impress, but it isn’t impressionism. I love precision of a few details and let go undefined other parts. I stop painting when there is nothing more to say because my art isn’t a demo of technicalities. I always want it to work on the emotional level. Therefore, I cannot say what color I have used on any part, but I can name a few colors which started the painting. I mix these few colors in all possible ways and that unites the painting in one organic bundle. Harmony and balance matter to me a lot, and I do everything in order the view had flowing lines and smooth color transitions.

Spring creek, acrylic painting

Artistic spring starts in January

Continuing my long-time tradition, I always paint spring and flowers in winter. These images were supposed to be presented in two posts, but I run out of time, and it’s one post now. I decided to show steps and reveal small painting secrets in PDFs for download. They will come, I’m just a bit too busy at the moment.

I always paint around edges of canvas, thus, extending the image. This allows using painting without a frame.

Healing art

Creativity and necessity to create something new never stop, never go away or cease. 3 things stronger than pain for my own conditions have been drawing and painting, taking care of garden, plants and room plants, as well as reading. It’s been a year we have been struggling with COVID-19, and we have the second complete lockdown here in Ontario. I don’t feel like painting masks on faces or injection needles. There’s already too much of that. The main healer for me is creating something at my own pace. Stay safe! Thanks for reading!

Art prints are available here: Many choices of my paintings

Good addition to my watercolor flower collection

Watercolor flower collection, flower paintings

My watercolor flower collection grew noticeably

Previous year, while it was not good in many health- and business-related aspects, was a very good year for creating art. I added to my watercolor flower collection quite many paintings. I cannot share all in just one post. I also painted quite a few watercolor roses and still life art. Some of these painting have been published in previous posts, and some I will publish when time is right. I have a habit of painting flowers and spring landscapes from January to approximately end of May. Then, I move to still life, and I get to fall paintings in July and August. Painting flowers and spring in winter is a good habit because it shortens cold and chilly winter days during the dark months.

Addition to my watercolor flower collection: white trillium blossoms on dark background

Missing giving art classes

I was missing the live art classes and interaction with my students. While everything is available online, I think live art classes are the most beneficial. Just ask school kids and teachers, -everybody will tell you that serious and decent learning happens only in person. Art is an easy subject to put online, but there are very many things which you need to touch, to see close-up, to check with your own eyes. I don’t want to make large investments in equipment at the moment, but that’s what I would need to teach online. Space is one more issue. It might be so that I like the live classes too much.

These are spring flower watercolor paintings, fantastic addition to my watercolor flower collection! Magnolia, trillium, wild anemone and daffodils

Daffodils are a fantastic subject for spring flower painting. This is the close-up version.

Not abstract, not photo-realism

Very many artists paint abstracts nowadays, really many. Therefore, I’m glad I’m doing something different. Sometimes I’ve told, I should make my art more realistic, but I don’t intend to. I’m mostly painting what I can see. What I can see is not what camera captures and one can enlarge until every ant on a grass stem is visible. It’s just my opinion, but I don’t want to go into tiny photographic detail and use computer. My art is done by simply using sketch or real flower, or real still life as reference most often. As you know, I can draw anything and do it fast. I would sometimes add a little bit of extras from imagination, like water drops on pansy. So, it’s my own realism with touch of imagination.

Magnolia, pansy Purple variety apples. and trillium and the fantastic purple pansy.

Personalized use of color

White is a good background for flowers, and dark background colors make white flowers pop. I personally do not like black with watercolor, that suits oils or acrylic more, I believe, and makes watercolor too heavy, but that’s just my personal preference. When I was very young and at school, my art teacher told I should never use black watercolor paint. I have followed her advice. I never use black watercolor paint. I took one more advice to never premix watercolor paint, but add color as I go and use it as I see fit. I actually do the same with acrylic: I use paint without previously mixing it, unless it’s for extra-large area or under-painting.

Decided to leave my website as is

I spent about 3 or even more previous weeks trying to figure out how I could change my website. I tried different things, considered new themes and tested them, asked advice from very well-established artists, who have excellent online presence and whom I know personally. They all told their websites were done by web designers or specifically created for their needs. Most of them have also social media and online representation specialists, video editors and filming teams, etc. Therefore, I decided to leave my website as is. I’m the only one for every single task and I’m doing anything that comes my way. However, I cannot spend all time just editing social media posts and website. I want to paint, draw and create also. Therefore, I prioritized creativity over online perfection. That’s just what works for me right now. I hope you like my flower collection and it inspires you to create flower paintings, too.

Stay safe, healthy and thanks for reading!

Original watercolor paintings for sale

Spring flowers are in bloom at the studio

Soft yellow spring daffodils

While the weather is still changing swiftly outdoors, my studio blossoms in full force. Spring flowers are in bloom!

Art is timeless, it can easily survive us. Art is a gentle reminder that we never know everything and we are here just to learn and to give our skills to others.

We are adding new projects practically weekly, and I am finalizing some paintings at least twice a week. Light is great during the day and days are becoming longer, too. I am not sure how much brighter the light should be for video recording. It is very sufficient when painting, but for video recording it is still not enough as it appears.

Doing is better than watching

My personal point is, nobody has ever learned anything by watching others do it. We can either paint or draw, or watch others paint. It’s pretty much so that we cannot do both at the same time. I would say, if you want to learn, just go for it. Everybody damages many watercolor papers and paints over previously painted canvas many times and until they manage to use the brush properly, as well as understand what colors they like and how to create them.

What is important

It was never about how to paint or draw an apple, or one particular flower, or one particular landscape. Painting and drawing is a skill which follows certain principles and teaches one to become efficient with decision making.

No need to be afraid

It is silly to be afraid of damaging paper or canvas. While we learn, we are in process of discovering so many aspects of our subject. This is a path which involves many sideways and much blundering around until we find the right way for us.

White and yellow daffodils, watercolor

Trillium forest, watercolor on paper, one of my recent watercolor painting projects. It is so lovely to paint fresh greens!

This was an amazing project, and we really enjoyed creating dark background around the white blossoms.

More spring flowers from previous projects

That’s what I do every spring: disappear in flowers until it is time to start digging and planting seeds in the soil.

Enjoy the spring blossoming and lovely colors of flowers. This subject really works well using any medium, but especially watercolor, thanks to speed and fast coverage of large areas.

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Art collections by Inese Poga

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Copyrights of the displayed art belong to artist Inese Poga. Please, do not copy, or use, or place images of my art on any other websites without written consent from Inese Poga. See full Copyright notice on the widget area.