Tag: art classes

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Spring edition, moving art studio

Moving art studio

My art studio is moving again, indeed, it has happened so many times during the recent years. I’ve moved three times since 2018 and now I have to do that again. While it sounds quite simple, it actually isn’t. The toughest part is finding a place and qualify for it. That requires mountains of paperwork, numerous hours of printing, scanning, signing, sending documents and so forth. That is the reason I hardly looked at the internet, any social media or blog sites. There wasn’t enough time in a day to cope with all that, and nothing was left for painting, unfortunately.

Art studio, moving
Art studio, spring
The Amsterdam paint tubes are added for color balance in photos, I use Liquitex for painting.

I did try to catch up with the artistic side, I sure did. However, that mostly resulted in wasted paint and a bit of frustration. As soon as I squeezed out acrylic paint and got in the mood for painting, the phone rang or I received a message, we have to go: to see a place, to meet somebody, to do whatever, and there was no other way around it. As you know, acrylic paint dries very fast, and even when preserving some in a tight container, it doesn’t work quite well as the fresh one.

Art studio sale
The most recent painting: White trillium blooms in spring forest

I’m really hooked on the moment when nature awakes. The most fantastic view for me can be a tiny sprout breaking through the soil and greeting the sunshine. The first wild flowers are such a welcome sight! Strength to overcome the freeze and courage to break through impossible obstacles: that is what grasses and wild flowers have. I cannot resist, I return to wildflowers in spring settings every year.

White trillium blooms
Refreshed and updated photo of Trillium bloom hills

One of my most favorite color combinations involves earthy tones, many shades of green as in sprouts, young leaves and grasses, blue patches of sky, as well as bright white, blue and pink of the wildflowers. According to such palette, I paint some knew dreamscape which I most often have seen only in imagination or which is stored in my memory chambers.

Art studio, white anemones
Spring creek and white forest anemones, updated and refreshed

My art studio in this big house had to be adjusted and the actual painting space was sparse. As you might know from my previous posts, I usually paint only by daylight. There have been times when I have to add evenings, but I try to avoid painting at night when artificial light is required. It could be my eyesight which dictates that, but I am very sure that for true color match we need the daylight.

White anemones,art studio
White spring anemones, new photo

So, the art studio is on the move again, and I have started to pack up a few things. Very large and small paintings will be moved first, as well as part of my countless brushes and art supplies. I would love to sell a few more paintings, but I don’t have much time for advertising at the moment. We will be moving 9 large rooms into 5 rooms, only one of which is large. My art studio is going to be arranged there, in the largest room. Daylight will be much better in the new place, however. It’s an older building with large windows, lots of character and huge backyard. That is such a luxury nowadays!

Art studio colors
Art studio colors and paintings
The paint tubes are added for color balance, iphone doesn’t get colors right

My best guess is everything will be ready around April 15, and that’s when I can start with my own paintings and art classes. Until then, – I go through moving troubles, packing and unpackaging, sorting, cleaning and being busy with all kinds of things which are not necessarily art related. There will be moment when we won’t have internet yet, and when I am all set up, I will come up with my newest discoveries in painting. You can still scroll through my blog which documents all art studio moves, gives lots of advice for new and established artists and offers excellent quality art at great prices. Stay well! I’d love to hear from you!

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Pansy smiles, once again, and new art classes

Yellow pansies, floral watercolor

Pansies, they smile for sure

My garden provides me will all painting subjects which I usually use for floral and still life paintings. I can also see quite a landscape from the second-floor balcony, so I’m all set up for any nature painting without needing to take any photos. First of all, with nowadays cameras, perspective is completely distorted, it would damage drawing or painting to huge extent. Colors are practically never true, and that is a reason good enough to rely rather on our own eyes. This time I’m presenting the new smiling yellow pansy faces surrounded by great shapes of leaves and abstracted background.

Yellow pansies, watercolor painting
Yellow pansies, watercolor painting

Never-ending supply of art ideas

We had big problems buying any seeds this past spring, therefore, I have mostly what grows from my own seeds and flowers and veggies which planted themselves. I got 2 sets of pansies. The one which I painted this time, was larger. It had interesting colors in the middle: not completely purple and not completely dark red in the lower part. Yellow is not that difficult color to paint as it is very annoying getting pictures of it. I can never go wrong with art ideas which grow all around the garden. It’s never-ending inspiration, always something new and more beautiful than before.

Creating watercolor painting
Creation of painting
Creating watercolor
How to paint watercolor pansies
How to paint pansies
How to paint watercolor pansies
Painting process

More art, less reality

When I draw or paint something, I usually change a lot from what it is in reality. I want on my painting more art, more me, more my style, and less reality. That doesn’t mean I will paint my subject in a completely abstract manner. The reason is there’s way too much abstract art already, and also – it is much easier to work on one’s style and maintain it when using recognizable and nature-like things. Pansies are a convenient subject for painting, especially when you have some around. For photo-taking reasons, I will make next painting pink or red because watercolors in such palette shades are much easier captured with any camera.

pansy smiles, floral watercolor

You see what you see

I regret that most of you will ever see only images of my art. I dare saying that you will never know what I and how I paint in reality. I surely can tell you that the camera made the light-yellow spaces white and caused the darker areas look like outline which they are not, I can tell that my colors are crafted and very balanced, but you see what you see. Plus, there’s no perception of size and its impact. It is again a 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm painting, and that is quite large for watercolor. As it leans against the white support board, it lights up the entire studio. It’s cloudy and rainy today and this painting just shines as extra light source.

Yellow pansies, watercolor painting

Pansy smiles, purple hearts, watercolor 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm

New live art classes

After a long interruption of almost 2 years, I’m resuming live art classes in a very cozy outdoor space which is surrounded by blooming and green plants. This feature will add more safety to participants. It’s just so that I haven’t seen that many yet. To be honest, I’ve never met or had a student who learned mastering their style or medium online. I’ve written about that before: it’s one-sided, and that’s the problem. The human perception is very distinctive when it comes to any art concepts, therefore, everybody understands and applies the same thing in all kinds of ways, and rarely – correctly. In my mind, there’s nothing which can replace a real, live interaction, but that’s just my opinion. I suppose for drawing and painting animated outline drawing or extra simplified watercolor wash, anything is fine.

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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.

Acrylic painting, country barn with daffodils
Country barn with daffodils is an acrylic painting on 20 x 16 or 51 x 41 cm canvas

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.

Spring creek, acrylic painting
Spring at creek, acrylic painting on 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm canvas

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.

Acrylic painting, spring creek
Along the spring creek is a multilayer acrylic painting on 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm canvas
Painting spring in acrylic
I use fairly limited number of paints, black, white, burnt umber, warm and cold yellow and blue

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.

Acrylic painting techniques, creating a book
The image contains painting detail and some color reference for along the spring creek painting

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!

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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.

Soft yellow spring daffodils
Trillium forest, watercolor by Inese Poga

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.

Learn painting with watercolor
These are watercolor supplies we were using

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.

Spring flower paintings by Inese Poga

White and yellow daffodils, watercolor

Flower watercolor paintings by Inese Poga

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.

Spring flower paintings by artist Inese Poga

More spring flowers from previous projects

Floral watercolor paintings by Inese Poga

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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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

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