Category: watercolor

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Summer poetry in colors and lines

Watercolor still life

The poetic medium – watercolor

Watercolor is a very poetic medium. That’s not only because of its flow and easy transition of colors, it is also because nothing else captures our mood, idea, concept or scene as impressive and as fast as watercolor does. Managing classic watercolor painting takes mastery. We can apply it very abstractly allowing water and pigment to create the initial shapes and values, or we can use watercolor in many layers making it opaque and creating strong dimension and volume.

World watercolor month

World watercolor month is getting close to its end. I usually do not devote or create specific paintings during July, but keep using it as I normally would since it is one of my preferred mediums. I like applying watercolor in many different ways: from very abstract to very detailed and from almost animated to very realistic. Our painting style is usually a summary of our personal objectives and intentions. Generally, I do not aim for a very lifelike look, but rather impression my artwork makes. I participate in shows and exhibitions and I want my art to be visible and standing out among hundreds of other paintings. It quite often does thanks to style, colors and large size.

Good energy

Please enjoy the gallery, and you might like to purchase some art or art print which comes in numerous options for frames, mats and printing surfaces. Print is not original, but in specific spaces it definitely serves the purpose: it gives a space complete look and never stops inspiring and being beautiful. There is never too much beauty in our surroundings. Good art is valuable because of energy it sends out. Energy presence is almost touchable in my art.

African violet, watercolor
African violet, watercolor, 20 x 14 in or 51 x 36 cm

I used to have numerous African violet plants. A few survived, and these are the ones I have been painting.

Garden roses, floral watercolor

Garden roses on fence were painted in winter of 2019.

Probably the saddest time ever. since my mom passed away in February. All paintings of this time are so uplifting, light and cheerful. For balance.

Summer pansies in purple, watercolor painting for sale

Purple pansies, 20 x 14 in or 51 x 36 cm

Pansies belong to my favorite painting models. Purple fits them well because of all variations. Purple pansies are somewhat abstracted and painted using watercolor wash and a few strong edges.

The summer still life paintings have been in creation for a long time. I started them probably in 2016, but they got their finishing touches only now. They both have very vibrant colors, just as summer vegetables do, and everything which has great shape worth capturing, suits my still life well. Enjoy!

Watercolor, still life
Watercolor still life

Summer still life, 20.5 x 16 in or 52 x 41 cm and Kitchen still life, 18 x 24 in or 46 x 61 cm, both watercolor

Please, visit my Fine Art America site for all kinds of artistic products:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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Pink and purple summer flowers with painting steps

Morning pansy, pansy watercolor painting

Summer flowers

When else to use live flowers as a model if not in summer when everything is in full bloom and getting more beautiful by hour? Although, we’ve been hit by a heat wave, there’s plenty to paint outdoors and indoors. I won’t write a long text this time because pictures will display the painting steps I use and also probably inspire somebody to get a brush, pencil and watercolor paper. There you have it: I’m presenting pink and purple summer flowers with painting steps.

Petunias

Petunias are usually in every garden. The pink and purple petunia painting is more abstract. I do usually create a drawing on a separate paper for reference and not to damage the watercolor paper with erasing anything. I transfer my drawing onto watercolor paper using daylight on a glass door and how it perfectly shines through even thick watercolor paper.

Summer flowers, watercolor painting steps
Summer flowers, painting steps
Summer flowers, painting steps
Summer flowers, painting steps
Summer flowers, painting steps

Watercolor paper

Watercolor paper is one of the most important aspects of watercolor painting. I started Bright petunias believing that I was using Arches watercolor paper. After a while, I realized it didn’t work like Arches. If you have painting experience, you know that Arches facilitates beautiful washes and easy flow of paint. It is possible to lift paint also. I discovered that this sheet came from leftover Saunders-Waterford paper. Some 10 years ago, it used to be a good paper, but it gradually became worse and worse, and the last batch they sent me was so bad, that I will simply never buy any Saunders-Waterford paper again.

Washes with big brushes

I always start with basic washes which I am applying to wet paper. Any cotton paper needs to be wet in areas which you intend to work on, except for fine details which we add at the end. Then I gradually build the shadows and shapes using multiple layers of paint. My pictures show how unsuitable the paper actually is. The only plus is it doesn’t buckle; therefore, I don’t have to tape it down as with cheap watercolor papers.

Paints and brush

I always use round brush with fine tip, size 14. I always use large brushes as long as possible for they hold a lot of water and pigment, yet allow getting extra fine edges and lines, too. I switch to number 6 round brush with fine tip only at the end when I need some tiny elements painted. I always use St. Petersburg original and authentic watercolor paints. I’ve never had better paints so far and I have tried very many. I’d give the second place Da Vinci paints, but they don’t sell them any longer at my art store. St. Petersburg paints have all the best qualities of watercolor paint thanks to the manufacturing process and raw materials.

Pink petunias, watercolor by Inese Poga

Bright petunias

The result could be smoother, but for an abstracted painting, it works. I use colors intuitively and carelessly actually and lots of water. For color testing, I am making use of extra sheet of cheaper watercolor paper because it shows the exact color I will have.

Morning pansy

For Morning pansy, I followed exactly the same steps. I’m creating drawing, transferring drawing to paper, making paper wet around the central flowers, starting with applying paint around the main part and allowing it to dry before I move on and start putting paint on flower. Then, I create leaves. The entire painting requires going over and over some parts. At the end I’m adding water drops. In the base of every single painting are the same principles: want impact, create values. Color to me is always secondary and I use that color which I prefer at the moment.

How I paint pansy, Inese Poga
Summer flowers, painting steps
Painting pansy, Inese Poga
Summer flowers, painting steps
Summer flowers, painting steps

Result

Morning pansy, watercolor painting by Inese Poga
While I didn’t try to paint reality since I never do, colors and shapes work extremely well in this painting.

Inspiration

I think that could inspire you to paint your own summer flowers, but I will sell later drawing templates on this website. My art is always based on drawings and I like it that way. Such art reveals progress and refinement of my personal style. I’ve done abstract watercolors, too, but they seem to be way too simple and never a real challenge. I love tricky things and exploration of effects and somewhat realistic art allows me doing that.

Note: Please, respect my copyrights, and since these particular painting steps are not intended for copying, use your own drawing, but apply process and advice.

Art prints, all my paintings which I have uploaded to Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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Floral watercolors: the softness that soothes

Summer petunias, floral watercolor painting for sale

Touch of flowers

Floral watercolors are amazing. It is easy to get carried away by soft colors and gentle shapes of petals. It usually depends on season, weather and what I feel like doing, but I go for the opposites. When it is cold and dark, I love something sunny and full of light. We have been painting soft and lovely floral images also in classroom most often in December and January. These paintings and process of creation provide with the much needed contrast between the upsetting darkness outdoors and the light and brightness of such artworks.

Pink orchid painting, floral watercolor
Pink rose painting, watercolor painting

Pink color

Pink color is easy to grade from dark and cold to soft and warm. It doesn’t take much adding some purples or washes of light red and ocher. Mainly, somewhat realistic watercolors are closely associated with quality of drawing. Therefore, I have decided for the remaining classes to offer my drawing templates for use. Sometimes, drawing is more than 50% of watercolor painting. If you do not understand values, you do not know where to apply paint.

2020 sets of art classes

It is hard to say when everything about art classes and painting lessons shifted towards only end result. The most important part is actually the process of creation and the journey of getting to the completed painting. We are recently facing the following: people want everything right away and immediately. That is a very limiting approach for those who start from zero skills and want to learn. That simply cannot happen. Nobody paints like a master in a few hours. Therefore, the next sets of art classes will start with basics of drawing and painting and progress toward more accomplished skills.

Garden roses, floral watercolor

Roses on fence, 24 x 18″ or 61 x 46 cm watercolor

Summer petunias, floral watercolor painting for sale
Watercolor painting, pink petunias

Pink floral watercolor, petunias

Pink amaryllis painting in watercolor

Watercolor painting of amaryllis

Enjoy the gallery, purchase art

I took new photos recently, and I hope these images will look better and more balanced. I am working on a new reference booklet which will facilitate start-ups in watercolor painting. It will be available for download everywhere. I’d love to invite the art lovers and art collectors from Greater Toronto Area, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa to simply stop by at my November 23 and December 14 art shows. I am selling original art at my studio. Prints are available from Fine Art America site.

Pink roses, watercolor painting, art for sale
Beautiful rose painting, watercolor paintings for sale

We will be painting orchids and roses, large size. Link to floral painting class:

Art lessons and painting classes

Copyright notice: Copyrights of displayed paintings, drawings, images of work in progress and images of finished paintings belong to artist Inese Poga.

Fine Art America, my art prints and artistic products with my painting images:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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November needs more color and sunflowers

Sunflower painting, watercolor by artist Inese Poga

Sunflowers, the sunny flowers

Sun plus flowers equals sunflowers. It is also an excellent painting subject when it gets darker in October and November. We switched from bright fall colors to rainy and snowy start of November. Warmth of sunflower color fills up the entire studio. Gentle, soft flow of light yellow and burnt sienna tones among the strong earthy greens and burnt umber is a very attractive color combination. I am a good example of how artist’s taste and feel for the subject changes over time during a few decades. I was painting a similar image years ago, and my color choices were completely different then.

Large watercolor sunflower

My painting style

Specifics of my painting style include spontaneous and intuitive use of color and improvisation on the spot. I don’t use masking fluid much, especially, for paintings which are done as a demo for an art class. There’s simply no time for that. Ability to improvise helps with demonstration. Many unexpected  and interesting things can happen painting intuitively! Since I have been painting and teaching for many years, I can act and react very promptly, including change of subject if necessary. I love freedom in my own art. I do teach others to treat their painting like that, too. This particular sunflower painting is 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm.

Beautiful sunflower painting, floral watercolor

Red barn in fall

Subject of the following painting is a red country barn which I also painted in acrylic. My watercolor painting is larger than the acrylic one. Its size is 18 x 14 in (46 x 36 cm). Size means a lot in live presentation, but unfortunately not online. This painting relies on combination of saturated fall colors, tree shape and barn. Barn is placed strategically to increase the perspective and feeling of depth. I am trying to take pictures of my art with background in order size of paintings would be more visible. However, it’s not always possible. I love bold colors as much as simple grey and saturated brown tones. This particular image shines because of colors and diagonal use of composition elements.

Barn and golden maple tree

This is a barn which was painted a while ago. I love painting buildings, because of organized and completed lines and perspective. My mom had saved some drawings which were done when I was 12 and 13. That’s like half a century ago. These were my drawings of buildings and plants which I had done looking at the actual subject. We didn’t have internet or cameras then. I always loved drawing what’s around me. This painting is also quite big, it shows a country barn and side building as I saw them. Oranges and reds are also super energizing colors. The same goes for painting: vivid colors help.

Old country barn landscape

I hope you love my sunflowers and other paintings! It was great pleasure to paint the recent sunflowers, and this painting is the newest addition to my watercolor collection also.

Sunflower painting

Enjoy, be inspired and paint! I do appreciate visitors to my sale pages, here is Original watercolors page, it gets updated quite frequently:

Original watercolor paintings for sale

I was also chosen to be a Spotlight Artist in Fine Art America’s traditional still life group with the pumpkin still life which I published before. That is nice!

All prints from Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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

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My magic watercolor brush

Fall leaves, watercolor

Every paint brush becomes magic once we learn how to use it properly.

It’s how you use the brush

It matters how much pressure we put on the brush and what part of it we use. It matters that you use specifically watercolor brush for watercolor. Watercolor brushes are soft and able to hold plenty of water and paint. While the shape of brush matters, too, the most important part is still how one handles the brush. If you just try to aimlessly move some paint around the magic brush loses its ability to create something great. I usually use only a few brushes for every medium, most often just one or two.

My preferences for watercolor brushes

For watercolor, I use number 14 round, soft watercolor brush with a very fine tip mostly. Therefore, it performs quite a few functions. When we hold it perpendicular at a 90° angle, we can draw very thin lines. Since this brush holds a lot of water and pigment which is important for watercolor, we can use the side of brush parallel to paper and cover large areas fast with either water or paint.

Time it right

Timing is also important for watercolor. We can use just part of a large brush and move paint around. We can use full body of a big-size round brush and cover large areas of paper fast. We have to time everything accurately; if you want fine details, you will do them on dry paper. If you want smooth washes and color transitions, you most likely will wet paper first. Wet paper is also safer for those who are slow with paint application. That will allow avoiding streaks and patchy paint spots.

Fall colors

We have beautiful fall weather at the moment in Southern Canada. Leaves are turning golden, red, orange and purple. It is a good time to practice color mixing and color application since inspiration is everywhere. Bright, sunny and golden colors shine on grey and blue backgrounds. Use that in your favor when creating fall paintings. I started the painting of fall leaves a few years ago for watercolor painting class and finished just yesterday.

Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor

The most recent watercolor painting class image

This a quick watercolor painting without drawing and applying rather washes. Mine was done on not that great watercolor paper, but it still makes a lot of sense. Not to mention, that real painting always have more balanced colors and look way smoother than extra sharp iPhone pictures.

Watercolor brush

I hope you enjoy these paintings.

Fall, watercolor painting, large size

To sign up for art classes, please go to page:

Art classes, schedule and registration

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Art collections by Inese Poga