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.
Drawing for garden rose
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.
Painting steps of garden rose
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 get the second dose of vaccine and 2 weeks pass, I could restart the live art classes. However, for materials and demo paintings, I 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!!
I have drawn and painted numerous flowers so far not only in pen lines and watercolor, transparent watercolor, but also in acrylic, and less known are my pastel paintings just because I don’t have any photos of them. Among them are roses, magnolias, orchids, daffodils, tulips, lilies, calla lilies, daisies, peonies, pansies, poppies, sunflowers, lilac, trillium, wildflowers, forest flowers and flower fields. I probably forgot to mention some. Flowers are convenient for painting since they are always around. Something is always available and that suits me and my personalized realism. Being in the middle of so much beauty, real and painted, feels extremely good.
My opportunity
As I explained in Part 1, my background is very different from Canada-born artists. I am purely expressing my personal vision about the subject because nothing stands between me and my idea which I am putting on canvas or paper, not even a photo, and no devices are involved. I could say it’s the purest form of creation, going from what you see to what you create. I love most turning white paper and blank canvas into something where you can walk in or are able to almost touch the drawn or painted subject.
Technique versus idea and emotional aspect
While it’s possible to get carried away by the technical side of painting or drawing, I’d love to remind that there’s also a concept, an idea and a hidden meaning within such art. The concept isn’t the subject itself, it’s what it can tell the viewer and how deep emotional impact it can make. That’s my opportunity to stand out. Drawing for me is pure pleasure because I don’t have to struggle with it, I usually do not need any eraser. Pencil dances on paper, the subject takes shape and it will definitely have more meaning than simply trying to be lifelike.
Complexity or simplicity of subject and display on the internet
I wrote in part 1 that the driving force for me is the subject, especially the challenging aspects of it, ability to create more complex and deeper paintings. I love complex paintings more. Also, it isn’t important whether my subject looks exactly like the real thing. I want the viewer to get my message, the idea behind the visible lines and colors. On the internet, you can only see a fairly small image of my art, often, the size does not reflect the actual size. On this blog, all vertical images look much larger than the horizontal ones, except the featured image must be horizontal. On Fine Art America print site, vertical paintings look much smaller than the horizontal ones and so on. Therefore, display doesn’t make a correct impression.
Drawing based still life
Drawing as base for watercolor painting
Realistic watercolor painting most often uses drawing before paint application. We can avoid that and create everything with brush only, and I have done that, too. However, when it comes to complex still life, floral or landscape painting, it’s best to plan values and know where to use what. I transfer such drawing onto watercolor paper using extra light and hardly visible lines. Watercolor paper doesn’t like eraser, and strong pencil lines disturb the image, at least I like only transparency of watercolor paint to be visible. This all refers to watercolor done traditionally: leaving white of paper for white and layering different value colors where they belong.
As seen in my sister’s garden, purple apples
Solo shows and juried art shows
I started out very well in 2011 in Ontario with showing my large watercolors and fewer acrylic paintings in a gallery near Toronto Beaches. I couldn’t find this gallery on a map now, it has probably changed hands and has a different name. I also took part in art fairs, juried art shows, gave classes and workshops at my own gallery, everything was working really well. Recently, a few art students from back then shared their memories on Facebook and told how much they had learned in my art classes and how much they appreciated them. It was a different time. Being in a commercially zoned property definitely helped. Then health problems caused me to slow down between 2016 and 2019, plus, we had to move 2 times after 2018.
Moving an art studio
Moving just a house is difficult and stressful, but moving an entire large art studio with all kinds of art supplies, extra furniture, easels and numerous paintings of my own together with house, was a hassle. It’s inevitable that some art gets damaged, I had that happen even when moving art around to shows. It seems everything is packed up safely, but such move normally involves many people and not everyone of them knows how to handle a huge painting, for instance. That’s why I feel reluctant showing very large framed watercolors now. Glass sometimes breaks, it’s not only the high price for museum grade glass that worries me. Painting can get scratches, too, and the entire thing needs re-framing.
My painting method and technique
When I paint in color, I definitely need daylight. Regardless how good the artificial light is, it causes changes in color. Therefore, some parts of painting require extra work, that can be a lot of extra work. With watercolor especially, there might be parts which I cannot undo. Whenever possible, I paint only by daylight. The usable portion of my current place isn’t that big, maybe spacious enough, but I could utilize easily double this size for an art studio. When there’s a lot of heating in winter, it’s very difficult to paint with acrylic paints. They dry on touch. For watercolor, it doesn’t matter because I can always make the paper wet again. Colors or shapes are not affected when re-wetting watercolor paper.
Art is my full-time job
It is a huge risk to take on art as one’s entire lifestyle and full-time job. There are only a few fields where competition is as fierce as in art and teaching art. I had strong support when I engaged in art in Canada, but during the pandemic everything went downhill real fast. I don’t teach art as entertainment because my definition of learning is not the same as social drinking and using art as extra feature. I take painting seriously and I teach aspects I have discovered during many decades to those who want to master medium or observational drawing. That requires focus, interest in learning as a process, not only in a quick result. My students, who displayed the most willingness to learn, have become excellent artists.
Very much drawing based pen and watercolor painting
I will share my acrylic painting creation process and my thoughts about teaching observations in Part 3.
Realistic painting of Bell peppers on white background
Representational art and my transition to personalized realism
To me personally, creating art means observing and creating it without help of any devices, and where possible, using the real things as references. It also means drawing and painting the subject in a recognizable way, but not necessary sticking to life-likeness so tightly that I cannot implement my own adjustments which are not present in reality. Representational art is pretty much neglected and not recognized in Canada. The modernism and contemporary traditions run here deep, and, certainly, artists who engage in abstract and contemporary abstract art, are way better off.
Flooding spring water, watercolor, 42 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm.
So, how come I prefer realism in art?
First of all, my background is very different from Canada-born artist’s background. I moved over here when I was close to 50. By that age, the local Canadian artists have established their niche, gotten decent visibility and have participated in numerous juried and other shows. Well, I had with me 2 brushes and a travel set of watercolor paints, and that’s it. No portfolio, no previous paintings because you just don’t have space in one suitcase. I hadn’t even ever had a camera before I arrived here, therefore, I had no images also. So, I started from scratch. I’ve been very successful and productive comparatively, but I certainly couldn’t catch up in a few years with what others had done during quite many decades.
Country barn in spring landscape, size of this painting is 22 x 16 in or 56 x 41 cm
Talent and practice
I had some features which lots of artists do not have when they start out, even if it is at quite old age. I was drawing since early childhood, all on my own. Unlike in North America where somebody would immediately get a private tutor for talented kid or send this kid to a specialized school, nobody gave anything about my well-done drawings. I didn’t have any artists around, moreover, I had never seen any real art. We didn’t have TV those times, nobody had even dreamt about internet back then. It was a countryside out of a small picturesque Latvian town where we lived, but there were no museums, no exhibitions. I had the feeling that I can draw, and my goal was to create drawings so that the things on them looked real.
Country barn, spring, pen and watercolor, 16 x 12 in or 41 x 30.5 cm
Self-criticism
I was very critical and paid attention to every flaw in my drawings since there was nobody else to provide with critique, explanation or suggestion. I practiced for numerous hours until my drawings looked good to me. The paper I had wasn’t a drawing paper, nothing like it. It could be wrapping paper, white pages in front of a book, some paper for notes and later notebooks for school. I was certainly not selective when it came to art supplies, I simply didn’t have them, but pencils were around. I didn’t have eraser, therefore, I learned to draw without necessity to use an eraser.
Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm
Rocks and water, size of painting is 22 x 15 in or 56 x 38 cm.
Big works for me
I always loved drawing big or as big as I could depending on paper size. In high school, I was drawing life-size figures, huge posters. Well, Latvia was still in the Soviet Union, you couldn’t just go out and get a photo of a musician or modern poster because there weren’t any. I filled this gap and my paintings and drawings were very popular. I added to my stipendium during the University years (government paid students who had excellent results) income from drawing portraits of fellow students. It was a decent extra income which I immediately spent in old and rare book store. That explains why I do not draw and paint portraits while in Canada: I always did it from a real person, not photography.
Peaceful, lake view, watercolor, size is 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm
My favorite subjects
We always had a garden and orchard ever since I can remember me. After helping my parents with most urgent work (we always had to work as soon as we were able to, like 5 or 6, and it was due to necessity of life, not my parents’ dictatorship), I sat down in front of some building, in a park or next to a flower or plant in the garden and just drew and drew for countless hours. When the drawing had all decent values, contrast and proportions, I was genuinely happy. I called my lines “completed lines”. If there was something not fitting in or sticking out, I started over. I developed my own style eventually since I had zero outside influence. Zero, and it’s a good thing. Although, I couldn’t study at art academy, I never gave up art and always kept it close to me.
While anemone forest, spring painting, 24 x 18″
Canada got me going on watercolors
The first paintings I did upon my arrival to Canada were all full sheet watercolor paintings: 30 x 23 in or 76 x 58 cm. This was the first time I ever had a real watercolor paper. It was Arches, 300 lb or 640 gsm. It felt like wood, and I loved it. Its cost was about 10 times less what it is now, and, yes, I used it for everything, even color tests. I was wondering how could the American and some Canadian artists get so much detail in their paintings because, realistically, what I cannot see, I cannot paint. This was the first time also when I discovered that artists were repainting photos, too. That was new since I was always told that repainting a photo is the worst of artistic sins.
Early spring, rural hills watercolor, size of this painting is 24 x 18 in or 61 x 45 cm.
I chose personalized realism
I never went that direction myself, though. There was no need. I can draw effortlessly anything assuming I want to or that subject seems interesting. It also shortens the number of steps: there’s no need for taking, downloading and editing photos or getting printouts. Yet, I need the subject to be present. That’s not always possible, like in winter and so forth, therefore, I added memory images to my reference sources. Indeed, due to drawing so much I developed photographic memory over time. I have numerous large drawings in a few huge folders. They include plenty of landscapes and most often flowers, still life and birds, as well as buildings. When I go through these drawings, I can usually find something I want to paint, or I just look for a new subject outdoors or indoors.
Uphill, rural house, size of this painting is 21.5 x 16.5 in or 54.5 x 42 cm
I hope it looks good
I have scattered my watercolor paintings from previous years all around this post. Many of them were posted before, but image quality had decreased, so, these are new images. I noticed on the phone that an article with too much text doesn’t look good. These paintings include black pen and watercolor wash and only transparent watercolor paintings. I do paint very loose actually. Students who have attended my classes know that. When demonstrating a feature or a particular subject, one simply doesn’t have too much time. I use targeted brushstroke, generous amount of water and paint, as well as excellent quality, pure-pigment-containing watercolor paints.
Early spring in rural village. Size of this painting is 18 x 24 in or 46 x 61 cm.
Realism it is, although, not strictly
I am not interested in abstract art, although, I can create it if somebody asks, for instance, for a commissioned painting. Completely abstract art doesn’t present me with enough challenge. The driving force for me is the subject, especially the challenging aspects of it, ability to create more complex and deeper paintings. I don’t care whether they look exactly like the real things. I want the viewer to get my message, the idea behind the visible lines and colors. That’s however, a theme for another post because these are aspects which internet display doesn’t bring to expression.
All paintings deserve being featured since my early posts get very little or no attention. I placed some on page for watercolor sales:
While I have decided to stay away from snow paintings since I’ve got already too many, I still did a winter watercolor painting, just a quick one for mostly celebrating this time and things we need most in our life. I think we all need a little magic and a few miracles.
We need certainty about the days to come and self-assurance that all goes well. We need somebody’s understanding shoulder to cry on and somebody’s smile to warm up on a chilly winter day. We need peaceful, healing silence filled with lights of candles, flavors of delicious meal lingering around the house and lovely greetings on Christmas cards.
I personally need a real, live Christmas tree, and I have it – a beautiful one. The green, living tree is to remind that love never ends. It always returns and is more resilient than ever before.
We need miracles to also remind us that many things are not what we thought, neither that simple, nor that easy to understand. Miracle touches us all. That’s a new outlook and a new hope, but most of all, it’s a never-ending trust in good outcome for us.
If you are observant and if you love watching the sky and stars, you know that the universe is full of miracles, and it is up to us to believe in them and to shake off the tiredness and lack of determination. We need to open our eyes and start seeing.
This watercolor painting is called “Magic winter night”. It could be called winter night miracle also.
Magic winter night, watercolor, 18 x 24 in or 46 x 61 cm, first washes go into the sky area, adding salt when wet shine on paper starts disappearingStep 2: identifying all parts of painting with light washesMagic winter night, step 3: adding more layersMagic winter night watercolor is almost ready. I’m adding more layers and salt on paper while it has still some shine
When I was trying to take the last pictures, my painting was still a bit wet. It is watercolor on a thick paper, it takes a while to dry. Nothing compares to watercolor when we’d love to create a quick winter painting. The white of paper does the trick. I used salt to create the sky and snow in some parts. As hard as tried, the photo still doesn’t look right to me when compared with the actual painting, but it will have to do. Enjoy!
Magic winter night, watercolor, 18 x 24 in or 46 x 61 cm
May you have your Christmas miracle and may the lights brighten up the way into a better New Year!
If you draw manually, you don’t need to purchase any brain flexibility and memory boosting supplements and medications. Manual drawing as an activity is far more superior to writing, reading, solving crosswords or simply memorizing words. Lots of research has been done in this area to date, and it’s important to point people in this direction, but I didn’t need any research to be sure about how much manual drawing increases memory, focus, decision making and any type of activity where engagement of the brain is required.
Just get started
From the first days at school, I couldn’t help but notice how easy it was for me to recall and remember things without any effort. I had only excellent and the best grades in all school subjects from elementary school, to high school to University, especially in math, chemistry, history, biology, geography and foreign languages (Russian and German), although I spent very little time studying. I lived in a very different environment back then. We had no nursery schools, kindergartens or similar available in early 1960 in Soviet Latvia. Both parents worked, my grandmother was always busy, I was practically on my own. I started to draw very early. I was drawing anything which was around and since I didn’t have a special drawing paper I was using wrapping paper or any paper which had space for my potential drawing.
Practice is the mother of skill
During all school years, including high school, I drew every single day and read a book a day. We didn’t have internet, computers or even TV back then. Photos were taken on exceptional occasions, like wedding or big anniversary. My drawing was always based on my own visual perception and ability to recreate what I saw. Nobody ever taught me or explained how to draw, but I experienced almost daily discoveries in recreating volume, dimension, getting good shadows and so forth. I studied available books going systematically through art history from ancient Egyptians to French impressionists, to Russian and West European classic art and Latvian artists. I illustrated every single book I read. I drew death masks of Egyptian princesses, Nefertiti’s head, Roman citizens, renaissance buildings, book characters. Nobody paints in my family and never did, so, it was a complete self-development.
I was right
After I started teaching, I noticed very quickly that my German language groups which also did drawing course with me, succeeded much faster than the others in languages also. Later in life, I paid special attention to how well somebody’s memory was depending on whether they loved drawing or not. When internet became available, I could see that my guess was 100% correct. Other people had also noticed the mental and memory advantages which were apparent in people who loved drawing just about anything.
Research backs me up
Research has proven the superiority of manual drawing over other similar activities. You can check out Canadian University of Waterloo research pages which show why manual drawing works so well in boosting memory. Nowadays, people do not have to write or draw a lot because devices can do all of that. It works best when you do not focus on the result, but on the drawing process. Research also finds that improvement of brain activity and brain cell longevity does not depend on quality of drawing. It’s the process and the way we handle the image mentally and recreate it using vision and manual drawing. Even when you’d describe the drawing as bad or poor, it still has done so much good for the brain. Result matters if you are entering an art competition, but it doesn’t if you are doing exercises for the brain and your memory.
No need for perfection
People also want everything to be perfect nowadays, and to get that result immediately, therefore, they’d trace or project photos, print off outlines or the entire image and so forth. Well, that is the part of drawing which won’t give the necessary boost to the brain because, like I mentioned before, the key is the image processing and active recreation of it. You will still learn new things, and that is always advantageous, but to a lesser level.
Engage in manual drawing, develop a habit
I had to write this because I’m seeing how many ads ask you to purchase all kinds of supplements, medications and use treatments to improve memory and brain flexibility. Why not to enjoy a wonderful meditation-like state of mind and achieve a great memory naturally? Drawing also doesn’t require many art supplies, just decent paper and sharp pencil. Try using no eraser and that will allow you advancing much faster. Once somebody has gotten started with drawing, they’ll soon feel that it turns into habit, as you might know developing a habit takes approximately 90 days. You will get blocks of drawing paper, possibly a sketchbook and carry them around wherever you go because it is simply fantastic.
My new art classes
Please, enjoy the beautiful watercolor wash and black pen line art. I decided to share the overview since pen and watercolor art will be the subject of my first online downloadable art instruction classes.
Drawing and sketching with pen and watercolor wash is an excellent way to familiarize with painting techniques, color mixing, composition and watercolor as such.
