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

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Art collections by Inese Poga

Pure, transparent watercolor – rose geranium

Watercolor painting, pink geranium, floral watercolor

Geranium is a healing plant, my mom told me to have a geranium plant always at my workspace, window ledge or in living room. Its energy is simply uplifting, and it blocks out bad vibrations and cleans air. How can you not love the geranium blooms? I have two kinds of blooming geranium currently: the pink rose geranium and bright orange-red geranium; besides, the red is more present, altogether looking like one of my most favorite colors. Well, pink color is great for painting. It’s also easier to photograph than, for instance yellow or red.

I started this painting not only because I adore the fluffy, colorful blooms and well-shaped leaves of geranium plants, but also because I wanted to create support material for art classes. Most students who’d love to learn painting, cannot really draw. Therefore, they normally trace photos or print-outs. It must be tough, and, thanks to my early devotion to drawing, I can draw anything on the spot. I created outline drawing of a large bloom and added a few leaves. As it appears, the drawing paper (it was actually some kind of newsprint I think, large sheets) was a bit smaller than my watercolor paper.

My painting composition looked fine as outline sketch, but after a few first layers I could see that something is missing, so I got a reference leaf and drew it in the upper right part. I kept adding layers, and the flower which actually consists of numerous small blooms came more and more to life. Around layer 5 I think, I discovered that the bottom part needs something more, so I added half of a leaf and small corner of as if leaf.

While it is step 1, step 2 and so forth, each step took quite a few hours, and the entire painting – about 8 full days. I hadn’t counted on all parts requiring so many layers. The paper isn’t Arches again, it is Strathmore 400 series which comes in this size I like 24 x 18 inches (61 x 46 cm) and which I had available. You cannot create very attractive washes on this paper, therefore, I intentionally left the background white. Certainly, if you want washes in your painting, you have to use cotton paper. There is no comparison how wash looks on Strathmore paper which is still very thick and firm, and on Arches which is at least 140 lb.

I do most parts of painting with my number 14 brush. I’m so happy it has still the fine tip, but it has started to wear down. Well, I have 3 of the same brushes, and two are useable. Not only it is faster, it is a lot easier, too, to cover an area with paint and add some other color to it. I do not like a few things with watercolor – using masking fluid and using very dark colors. I never use black in watercolor. For that case, there’s Payne’s grey, we can use Sepia, purple, indigo and so on. That allows creating gradual transparent color which looks almost black, but shaded black.

I love the transparency of watercolor, and I do aim for flowing lines, as well as colors which do not hurt, but have a soothing quality. I didn’t have Opera pink color which is extra bright and can be used for such flower paintings, I simply couldn’t find it, therefore, I used what I had, many shades of dark red and Carmine, plus some purple and blue, although, it isn’t well visible on photos.

It’s beauty which always touches me, the elegant shape of leaves, the fragile softness of petals. If you paint, add some heart onto your painting. Don’t worry always about the technical aspects and perfection. Having heart in art is already enough and that feature makes it shine and stand out among others.

Pansies, click on image for article

Yellow pansies, watercolor

Garden rose, click on image for article

Painting rose in watercolor

Group art classes

Thanks for reading! I hope your September has started off on the right foot!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Life as art, creation as lifestyle, part 2

Light corner of art studio

Good life comes from good things

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.

Watercolor rose painting

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.

Pansies, watercolor

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.

Still life with apples
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.

Red apples, watercolor
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.

Watercolor reflection painting

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.

Sunflowers, watercolor

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.

Watercolor birds

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.

Still life with nuts and berries
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.

Watercolor painting, peppers
Realistic painting of Bell peppers on white background

Also, please, have a look at my art collections: Art collections by Inese Poga

All online show pieces will be listed soon, currently acrylic art page is still getting done:

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Original watercolor paintings for sale

More acrylic paintings will be added: Shop original acrylic paintings

Thanks for reading!

Seasons in art, seasons in life and nature

Acrylic painting, spring nature

Living by seasons

I live by seasons, and seasons make me do, want or pursue something specific just like people who lived thousand years ago. I live in expectations of spring during the winter months. I look at trees not that far away, just behind the window glass. Deep down the roots of a tree are alive, and the tree is just collecting and accumulating energy for the big blast of blossoms and buds when the time is right. It’s a very good time to keep refining my skills because we always must go forward. When we believe there is nothing more to learn, we stop moving ahead. The progress ends, and we become old. Who wants that? Nobody!

Acrylic painting, spring painting
White forest anemones is a square acrylic painting. This subject has been always very attractive to me.

Lovely green when it’s grey outside

Many artists are genuinely afraid of using green color because it makes painting look abusively green, because nobody likes green on their wall, it is a bad taste and because there are so many colors in the rainbow. Classy art is supposed to have lots of grey, earthy colors, blue shades and different white tones. No green, or at least green with purple neutralizing undertones, red or burnt sienna injections and aqua colors. When I got my first acrylic paints in 2007, I was very fond of them. I come from watercolor and pastel drawing, and I loved the extremely beneficial opportunity to effortlessly create volume with acrylic paints.

My personalized realism

Ever since that first time I got to use acrylic paints, I’ve been extremely happy that I can create anything which looks exactly as I like. People sometimes want to squeeze me in all kinds of categories, and none of them actually fits. I don’t paint realism if we think realism as art genre. The reason for that is I rarely use photographic reference as the base for my painting.  I check out parts of my nature views, but I usually have a certain color palette in my mind and I can picture it on the blank canvas. That takes me somewhere, to an imagined landscape or still life components which I visualize. Tackling memorized and imagined views is more difficult than tracing and copying a photo. However, I frequently receive comments in art groups how people can place themselves in my paintings, how they can recall some particular site or place, or feel they are surrounded by my painting.

Acrylic painting, forest anemones
Spring, forest anemones. This picture was taken with my old Canon camera, and it displays great colors.

Adjusting process

My painting process is simply longer. I go over some areas many times, and I try to achieve exactly what I feel should be there. The difference is, when repainting a photo, you know where what is. I don’t know that because I improvise. I’m usually happy with the result. Then there is picture taking. You have painted a great acrylic or watercolor, you take pictures in different settings with all kinds of backgrounds. Then, you download these hundreds of pictures and it can happen so that not even one is exactly as painting. We can edit pictures, sure, but the changes are global. If the device has added more strong contrast in dark areas and lightened more the light areas, there are just more abnormalities after such editing. Somebody said on their blog (I don’t think they were artist; they just teach artists) that pictures always look better than paintings and that is just not true. I have the opposite experience: paintings look better.

Acrylic painting, spring nature
Spring is very inspirational subject. I chose for these current paintings white forest anemones at tree trunk and along a creek.

Playing on emotions

So, here you have it: I don’t paint reality except for watercolor still life and some watercolor floral paintings. It isn’t abstract art also because I like my subject to be recognizable, yet, I introduce abstract areas in any painting a lot. I love color and art to impress, but it isn’t impressionism. I love precision of a few details and let go undefined other parts. I stop painting when there is nothing more to say because my art isn’t a demo of technicalities. I always want it to work on the emotional level. Therefore, I cannot say what color I have used on any part, but I can name a few colors which started the painting. I mix these few colors in all possible ways and that unites the painting in one organic bundle. Harmony and balance matter to me a lot, and I do everything in order the view had flowing lines and smooth color transitions.

Spring creek, acrylic painting

Artistic spring starts in January

Continuing my long-time tradition, I always paint spring and flowers in winter. These images were supposed to be presented in two posts, but I run out of time, and it’s one post now. I decided to show steps and reveal small painting secrets in PDFs for download. They will come, I’m just a bit too busy at the moment.

Healing art

Creativity and necessity to create something new never stop, never go away or cease. 3 things stronger than pain for my own conditions have been drawing and painting, taking care of garden, plants and room plants, as well as reading. It’s been a year we have been struggling with COVID-19, and we have the second complete lockdown here in Ontario. I don’t feel like painting masks on faces or injection needles. There’s already too much of that. The main healer for me is creating something at my own pace. Stay safe! Thanks for reading!

Art prints are available here: Many choices of my paintings