Acrylic flower paintings in new settings – art never expires

Large flower paintings, art for sale

Flower paintings in acrylic

As an artist, we always have some favorite paintings. Some of them we don’t sell at all, and some we give as gifts to dear people. Since many of my previous posts were about watercolor, I’d love to post this time a few acrylic flower paintings. This post has quite a few images of painted pink and white flowers. Unfortunately, as we get older, there seems to be less time for anything. That refers to painting, posting, sharing and so on. Somebody told me that we feel this way since we spend more time on any task.

Flower paintings, pink and white paintings

Quality over quantity

I suppose with experience, both life and art, we value quality over quantity. Anybody who’s spent decades creating art, can reflect of the process of discovery. Discovering subject, discovering new color palette, discovering adorable things we didn’t like before, discovering new dimensions of the same old story. I love pure and clean colors, and pink color offers so many shades.

Flower paintings, rose painting

My paintings with past

As the time goes by so swiftly, I sort of regret not painting exactly what I prefer. That’s as opposed to subjects I teach in art classes. I’ve mentioned before that an artwork for juried show, artwork for quick sale, commissioned artwork and paintings which I create as demonstrations – they are all very different by nature. Time has been always a factor, but also my health problems. So, you have to be ok when you cannot do anything at all also. I didn’t paint these flower paintings yesterday, but hopefully got better images of them.

Art is more than copy of reality

My taste doesn’t comply with generally preferred art which we see online. That is sunsets, waves, backlit shapes, too sweet nature scenes, as well as very close copies of photos. I always believed art is more than copy of reality. The latter anybody can manage with enough patience, tools and devices. Not everybody can paint spontaneously or draw without any printouts or edited images.

Flower paintings, pink magnolia

Relation to reality

On the other hand, I love that my paintings display things which are recognizable. People frequently tell me; they know that or this place in my painting. Well, such place doesn’t exist, but apparently the painting relates to somebody’s experience. Sometimes, the viewer can feel fragrance of flower. That’s why I avoid painting completely abstract art, but I still have a lot of abstracted paintings, especially, the extra textured ones. Also, my backgrounds are not definite.

Amaryllis, flower paintings

Everything is art, but I disagree

While all artistic genres – music, singing, acting, writing, poetry – have moved on and aimed for higher goals and more mastery, internet has facilitated degradation of classic art. If you want to see what’s for sale and what’s taught on some skill-sharing sites, just google any term. It can be quite awful and total beginners art. I remember how my students 10 and more years ago were so self-critical. Nowadays, that’s a ready-for-sale art. I agree, it’s easier to hang an abstract on the wall, but it becomes a simple decoration, not always art. How long are you going to look at 2 lines or some big blob of one color?

Colorful, large flower paintings

Enjoy!

I always struggled with photos of my paintings because to my sharp artistic eye, the photos have never the exact colors and I usually have to crop off some crucial parts to make the image straight. Nevertheless, let me know if you like some flower or other painting. I don’t think original paintings have ever been so affordable. It’s been a while, and I wish everything was better, but enjoy! With better, I mean mostly the financial side. The creative side is fine, I never have any problem with that.

Rose painting, pansy painting, flower paintings for sale

Shop original acrylic paintings

Art collections by Inese Poga

Summer and watercolors are inseparable

Summer and watercolor, paint more

A simple way of using watercolor

Summer and watercolor: that is such an artistic combination! Watercolor sketch, pen and watercolor or purely watercolor are excellent ways to paint summer scenes, summer flowers, summer landscapes and simply enjoy the outdoors and beauty. The easiest way to practice painting with watercolor is using pen and watercolor wash.

That enables us creating great composition and not caring too much about pencil lines and perfect application of watercolor.

I said it once and I would love to repeat it: pen and watercolor wash is a great technique for beginning watercolorists. Some like it so much that they stick to this technique and turn it into their personal style.

Save time, paint effortlessly

If you are afraid of drawing with pen, do the initial drawing with pencil. Afterwards, you can draw over with pen and delete everything else. Therefore, we have a beautiful and clean drawing in black ink, and the watercolor paper is not damaged.

The most exciting part is adding watercolor washes, as well as more detailed areas with more saturated paint. We can create a wonderful painting in less time this way because we do not need multi-step drawing transfer onto watercolor paper and it is much easier to know where to use paint because the black outline clearly identifies that.

Real subjects make good painting

Summer is definitely a very suitable time for practicing painting plants, flowers, vegetables, fruit and all kinds of landscapes and garden scenes. I find that implementing fence or corner of a building adds extra impact. White or grey fence looks great with flowers and leaves.

What to do with the background?

There are no strict rules about backgrounds and additional details. Very frequently, less is more. Whenever we can, we should simplify our scene and subject. Whether to include a detail or leave it out usually depends on our style, intention and skill level. Minimalist paintings look as great as detailed realistic paintings; there is no such a thing as mandatory inclusion of detail in a painting. Many beginning artists wonder: what should they do with the background: leave it as is, white, make it dark or add background shapes and colors? That, too, will depend on how you have captured the subject.

watercolor painting, flower painting, poppies
Summer poppies, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Less can be more

My personal point always is: let the painting or drawing tell you what else to do. It usually does when you look at it carefully and from some distance. Realistically, you should always look at your creation from some distance since being too close to it all the time makes us not notice flaws and strange areas which require improvement. Certainly, step back and have a look. If it is all flat and lacks any contrast, add some.

Don’t be afraid of dark colors in painting

I find that beginning artists are afraid of dark colors. Even when painting with acrylic where there is no threat of painting something too dark because you can always paint over, the first layers and make it noticeably lighter, new artists use no dark color. Having absolutely no dark colors and contrast reduces our ability to add volume and impact.

Patience and practice

We all want our art to be great and impressive. However, if you are new to some medium or absolutely new to drawing and painting, you have to bear in mind: nothing happens right away and with the first brush stroke. I have had absolute beginners who were somewhat disappointed that their first attempt wasn’t a masterpiece. Every skill takes time, efforts and work. However, not being satisfied with the first few drawings and sketches, is no reason to give up painting or drawing. You might be surprised how much better one becomes after a while.

Focus on potential

Focusing on perfection right away will cause you to be disappointed. Any artist will tell you that they have damaged, and thrown out lots and lots of initial sketches, painted over initial paintings, changed the layout and composition completely, switched to a different colors or tools. They have done many things before they have got their first good painting. Not every drawing or painting is or should be a masterwork. It should be a stepping stone on our way to better us, to better art which we have created.  We use our errors as a way of discovering how to achieve what we want and have intended.

If you love it, go for it

It doesn’t matter what somebody says about your drawing or painting. They might not be the best critics or they might also praise it too much.  Practice is practice, we have to spend time learning until we get where we want to be. Regardless of how somebody looks at your creation, regardless of how much they praise or criticize it, you have to be realistic and admit what is wrong and what is great to yourself. That will help keeping your assessment realistic. Do what you are good at. I hear frequently: I am very bad with whatever, I need to do that. Leave that for later when you have more experience. We should do everything we like and love, at least in art.

Application for art classes: Art classes

Copyright notice: Copyright of displayed paintings, drawings, images of work in progress and images of finished paintings belong to artist Inese Poga. The use of painting and drawing images is prohibited if I have not issued a written permission. That includes no pinning policy.

Focusing on still life and garden scenes

Focusing on still life and garden scenes

Summer is a great time to engage in plein-air painting.

I recently painted a garden scene called “Take a Rest” with some flowers and garden tools.

I use real scenes and real set-ups to create my paintings, I somehow cannot paint using photos, I just can’t.

First, I do a freehand drawing. The weather was very good for a while, so, I could paint every day outdoors. I had set up the exact items in my backyard, and it was a double pleasure to paint there.

The other painting is a still life called “Kitchen Symphony”.

I had set up all items in my art studio where I have a good light. For my paintings, daylight is extremely important because of color adjustment. Any artificial light changes color.

I think, both paintings came out quite nicely, however, it was very late when I took a photo of my garden scene, so the light might be not that perfect.

I hope you enjoy such art!

More of my still life: Painting still life