It happened so that I gave numerous drawing classes this season. People love pencil drawing and sketches, and they are excited to learn how to create such art or a value drawing for other art, like for a watercolor and acrylic painting. Therefore, I have many drawings now. I always ask my students to also use big size paper for their creations. We most often use 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm paper.
Using reference image or setting up still life
I personally prefer real items in front of classroom for my pencil drawings and sketches. During summer and fall, it’s extremely easy to find something suitable. We used real items for still life, but perspective pencil drawings and sketches are simply composed and constructed from imagination. I haven’t got images yet of other drawings with personal items, shoes, jeans jackets and figures. We gradually increased complexity and went from still life and perspective drawing to pencil drawings and sketches of figures. That took about 30 private art classes. Large size paper makes a lot of sense and allows creating the best compositions and value transitions.
Tutorial won’t do that
Tutorials usually teach something one: style or technique of a particular artist, one subject or one feature of it, and that doesn’t always mean your tutorial will include explanation or clear understanding why to choose exactly this one style, feature or part of subject. Demonstrations are frequently done on small sheets of paper. I’ve mentioned this numerous times before: if you can draw, you can draw anything without any limitations. You won’t need photos, printouts, grids and similar things. If you can draw, you just observe, pay attention and allow pencil to do its job. Which I always do! I hope you love seeing these drawings and sketches! I have to post many at a time because there are way too many.
Most often, when somebody visits artist’s website or blog, they are simply curious what the artist has come up with. People look for something which would potentially suit their space, and the art students seek for inspiration and advice. Art has many more functions, though, and they depend also on who you are. If you are a creator and love to try painting or drawing, art is a full-scale adventure for you. And me. In my mind, time is not spent usefully when I haven’t painted anything for a while. The creativity-satisfying and mind-moving functions of art shouldn’t be underestimated.
The moment when a painting is signed and done, comes with feeling of achievement. This is a moment of complete satisfaction. We all set our own goals with any task, so this moment shows that I can whatever I wanted to achieve. I don’t stop working until every smallest brushstroke is where it must be, that’s according to me. Therefore, my works take quite a while from the idea to its implementation.
The ties with reality are interesting nowadays. On one side, we have this immense internet surfing space and it transitions more and more into unreality. Digital and virtual world is just that – the things which exist only where there’s internet. On the other hand, our life happens based on real terms, read conditions and in an actual environment. The difference between unreal and real can cause somebody true depression and dissatisfaction with life. I personally prefer the tangible reality which won’t go away if I accidentally click on a wrong keyboard key.
That explains why I paint what I paint. The subject doesn’t exclude fantasy and impossible landscapes, still life settings or colors. That is one more function of handmade art: to take you anywhere you’d like to be. I would love to skip winter altogether. Since I cannot sleep it away, I still need to do something. Anything. It would be so pleasant to have plus 13 Celsius tomorrow instead of minus. The best functions of art are the ability to transfer one with all senses into a pleasurable space and provide with the feeling of being there.
As always, I’m not very happy with the internet display of art on different devices and phone. Every single painting deserves to serve as the cover image, every one of them. Unfortunately, that’s not possible. The full-size image, although, distant out in the internet space, still gives one that feeling of closeness to the source. So, I’ve spent couple of weeks taking horizontal pictures. For example, when my painting is vertical, I cannot use it as a cover image. If my painting is horizontal, it looks small or even tiny when viewing images on the phone. Some photos are very good, some just satisfactory, but I wish for internet space where they’d be all visible in large format, full-width, full size and have colors that match the original.
That remains to be seen and tried again and again. I have my hopes up for the new Twenty twenty-two WordPress theme. Hopefully, it will be what it promises, both, regarding size and flexibility. Until switch, I will just edit what I have. Other than that, we are in extremely deep snow in Ontario. We were completely cut off of everything yesterday, but it’s sunny today. Thanks for reading if you did and wishing you, too, more sunny days!
Fall landscape is especially attractive painting subject when days shrink and it gets pitch dark already around 5 pm. The added bonus is bright color palette and the options of mixing colors are endless.
I’ve been painting away, but since the daylight is sparse and ends soon, the hours I can work on a painting are short, too. If you have ever done acrylic or oil painting, you probably know how wet paint is reflected in artificial light. To the extent that it becomes impossible to paint.
If you favor walks in the nature and you are just like I am – always enjoying the play of colors in the sunlight or cloud shapes when it’s rainy and overcast, – you will probably like this painting with its vivid colors and the nature-related subject. The fall landscape is something I paint always around this time, but I am going to focus more on fragments of landscape in the future, unless it is a huge canvas.
Left side and right side detail of fall colors and forest road
It took very many layers of paint and going over and over some areas because it’s no secret acrylic paint is more and more lacking quality and saturation with pigment.
Fall landscape is a great subject for reflecting our love to color. To facilitate brightness and strong tones, I let the painting dry every night and return to it when the daylight is acceptable. Therefore, the process extends over a few weeks, but I am fine with it now. It already received lots of great feedback. The size is again 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm. I started this painted for the class, but certainly, getting it done took many more hours.
My paintings are very color-sensitive. While the picture will show only what camera with automated settings can capture, the actual painting always has more of everything, but definitely great balance between dark and light, as well as cold and warm. These particular pictures are more on the warmer side. Just like always, I took many of them and chose to publish the ones which are the closest to the original.
It is a local Greater Toronto Area event, and, therefore, a fantastic opportunity for local artists, artisans and writers to show off their creations. In normal years, we would head out to the Esplanade park in Pickering and see in person what artists have created, what musicians and writers would like us to hear, but this year the event is virtual again.
The virtual arts market website gives a brief introduction about each participant, and one can follow a link if they are interested. I hope they are! My personal website is extensive, however, the theme I am using does not support good Home pages, therefore, my Blog page and this new article will have to do that.
My art can be attributed to a few main categories.
and a page which offers art related to current season or which suits the current trends: Shop special offers
While all nature subjects appeal to me, I have always paid special attention to seasons, therefore, I can certainly say that I have plenty of spring, summer, fall and winter paintings.
Finally, my website has excellent search option and if you type a name which best describes the subject in the Search box, all posts which include this entry will come up.
Available acrylic paintings
As you will notice, all available paintings are originals. I think it’s best to allow companies which specialize in making prints to allow doing that. The smallest acrylic paintings are 12 x 12 in or 30.5 x 30.5 cm. Many are 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm, 18 x 24 in or 46 x 51 cm, as well as 20 x 24 in or 51 x 61 cm. I haven’t published the largest acrylic paintings yet.
I always paint around the edge; therefore, painting can be displayed without a frame. Painting continues around the sides of canvas and looks great.
Available watercolors
Available watercolors are also only originals painted on watercolor paper, frequently, heavy and very firm Arches, Saunders-Waterford paper or bright white archival quality paper in case of pen and watercolor art. On sale pages displayed watercolor paintings are sold without a frame or mat. The framed watercolors are available in person only, many of them have glass and I cannot take any new photos, and they have beautiful oak wood frames, therefore, I wouldn’t be able to ship them anywhere. The smaller size framed watercolors are in 11 x 14 in or 28 x 36 cm standard frames with mats and one can also purchase them in person from studio, but not from website.
How to purchase available art
If you like a painting, just click on View product label and continue as directed. For purpose of this particular local event, you can pick up the painting practically any day between 11 am and 8 pm. I’m located in Ajax, almost downtown.
To ask any questions and to find out more, please, use this page:
I will be happy to assist. My website does not process any payments; therefore, you are submitting your info to Shopify or PayPal and they process the payment. Paintings are sold without tax and prices are in Canadian dollars. If you pick up your painting, that’s the final price. I can exchange any painting to a similar one, but I won’t take it back once it has been in possession of somebody.
Thank you kindly for reading and I hope you like some painting so much, you’d love to own it!
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.
The elegant pink rose watercolor was painted in winter, that’s why it has so much life to it. The white background enhances the look. Its size is quite large: 20.5 x 16.5 in or 51.5 x 41.5 cm.
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.
The purple pansies come from 2018 I believe. It was almost summer already, and the purple on green really looked impressive. It is also a large watercolor: 20 x 14 in or 51 x 36 cm
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.
Blue reflection or water edge is a painting from my ” vivid blue” period. I was teaching watercolor washes in art classes, therefore, some paintings got created along with this subject. This painting was done without any drawing using water and paint washes.
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.
Still life with sunflowers carries a special meaning for me. I painted it in the fall of 2019. It wasn’t an easy time. I had just moved my gallery or rather moved to a new place and I was sad since many plants and my blooms were left behind. This sunflower painting worked as a cure and helped to return to happy mood.
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.
Chickadees on blue are from 2015 collection. I created two similar paintings, chickadees on blue and chickadees on yellow. Both paintings are large watercolors to help spending time while waiting for spring when it it doesn’t want to arrive. Chickadee painting is large: 24 x 18 in 61 x 46 cm.
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
