What to paint in the summertime? If you are in the countryside, traveling or live in the suburbs, I believe it’s impossible to avoid painting at least a few landscapes. What do we include in the summer landscape? Everything which speaks to us or says loudly: it’s hot, it’s wonderful, and it’s summer. My summer landscape is based on my surroundings and what I see outdoors. My private park has numerous wildflowers, and it is actually rather wild with huge old trees, various greases and plants.
We can interpret any landscape in numerous ways. Choosing certain color for wildflowers, buildings, sunny or cool color for grasses, adding trees or water, roads or fences – it depends only on artist where you want your viewer to go. I would like my viewer and art collector to feel happy about what nature provides us with, enjoy the views which might not be around forever. In that regard, I am documenting the natural beauty before we kill the Earth completely. Thee is so much beauty in the simplest summer landscape.
In my opinion, taking pictures of art and then posting them as separate images without background, literary destroys the art. I do that still because many places require to do so. Original art breathes and emits plenty of great, uplifting energy. All devices and cameras take away a lot already, and the small image you can see on the phone isn’t really my painting. It’s gone through numerous adjustments and algorithms. Regardless of that, I hope the energy within my summer landscape paintings is still visible.
These particular paintings were created between 2010 and 2021. There are many more, but one post can include only few images. I believe I already added too many pictures, but – when else to allow color to sparkle and imagination to run freely? I intend to initiate Studio 65 sale to celebrate my birthday. That’s pretty much the only celebration I will have. Most of paintings are available as originals and also as prints. Originals are available from my art studio in Ajax, Ontario, Canada. Prints – anywhere.
Bright and happy, we could use more of that, couldn’t we?
Wish me well? Maybe buy a small art print or all kinds of things with my art, including puzzles, from my Fine Art America site:
What to do during the dull and dark February days? Probably, just keep painting. Acrylic painting is a bit more difficult with heating on, but it is also very rewarding. I pick myself up and place in the middle of spring. We used to go for walks along the Highland creek which offers attractive views and many varieties of trees, wild plants, chance to watch animals, jump over rocks and rushing water. Creek is wide in the middle part and water stays quite still in some spots. This is like mental transition in time and to another place. Thus, spring landscape is born.
Central part of Highland creek flood water painting
Imaginated reality
As you know, art has no restrictions. That includes the painting subject, colors we use, parts we paint and parts we don’t. I’m usually not that worried about how realistic something looks when painted. There must be some joy and fun put into every brushstroke. I usually paint as I see something in my head. When I look at empty canvas, I can easily visualize what is going to be there, in this spring landscape for instance. Similar to when we have a piece of fabric and we can imagine how the ready outfit will look. Imagination has no borders, too.
Top part of Highland creek flood water painting
Spring landscape as painting subject
This Highland creek flood water painting was done for the private art classes. I thought spring landscape was very fitting since we can paint much less of it or add much more to any part. We can leave the distant part completely abstract. Well, my student was impatient and here and there jumped over the gradual steps which processing an acrylic painting requires. My demo steps got jumpy, too, but, nevertheless, this painting was brought to completion just a few days ago. What you are seeing, however, is not the painting, but images of it. I straggled getting all parts of it onto pictures.
See painting steps above
Getting correct colors in acrylic painting
What’s most important for me personally, is whether the mood in an artwork can move us, inspire us, make us want to be there, in that place which doesn’t actually exist in the real world. I am trying to also teach my students patience and correct use of acrylic paints. While any wet acrylic painting might look perfectly right, it will definitely dry darker. The weaker the paint we use, the darker our painting might become. I regret noticing how Liquitex heavy body professional grade paints have lost some of their quality over years. That refers to Titanium white and yellow shades.
Close-up of front part
The usual acrylic painting principles
Regardless of our artistic intention, we always work from dark to light in acrylic, always from underneath upwards, always from back to front. With heating on, acrylic paint can dry immediately, therefore, we glaze separate parts and work in small segments. The lore layers acrylic painting has, the better it will look. That especially refers to the moment when somebody sees the actual painting in person. I sometimes go over even the final layers if the paint has become too dull in some spots.
Highland creek flood water, acrylic painting 24 x 18″ or 61 x 46 cm
Place yourself in this spring landscape
I hope you love this spring landscape and its mood. I believe you’d hear birds singing and water rushing over wet rocks and grasses if you are able to forget the surroundings for a moment and be immersed in this painting. It’s in great size, not too huge, not too tiny, 24 x 18″ or 61 x 46 cm. The steep vertical format adds a good quality to this spring landscape and pushes compositionally important elements close to the viewer.
Just like always, thanks if you read my post! I intend to catch up with likes and comments.
Watercolor has been one of my most favorite painting medium options for more than 5 decades. I still have a few of my first paintings somewhere, deep in my numerous art folders. I was about 10 years old, I was drawing very well, just like I do now, but my watercolors were not sparkling. I come from a family which didn’t have any relationship with art. In the neighboring house, an artist was renting a room. Her watercolor paintings were way larger and way brighter. They had more volume and more contrast. I asked her to see her paints. She showed me the most fantastic box of watercolor paints. Back then, they were Leningrad watercolor paints which later transitioned to St. Petersburg, and then White night paints. The difference was astounding. Clarity and saturation of pigment charmed me on the spot.
Why to invest in good art supplies
Ever since I tried St. Petersburg watercolor paints, I always tried to find them and use. When I relocated to Canada 18 years ago, I had only a tiny paint box with me, but I quickly realized I will need more paints. So, I shopped the brands available in North America. Expensive they were, the artist grade paints, but they didn’t come even close to my favorite brand. Now with all the Russian issues, I’m in trouble again, but I hope to get some replacement paints. The most understated feature when learning to paint with watercolor is the quality. That refers to quality of paints and quality of watercolor paper. With bad paints and using them on a bad paper, all we can get is unsatisfactory color and contrast, plus bad paper simply cannot take layers and corrections and it buckles and warps. It is limiting.
Captures of fall using watercolor washes and fine detail
Importance of good watercolor paper
Good watercolor paper is very expensive in Canada. The 300 lb cotton cold pressed paper comes to almost $30 or more (with taxes) per 1 sheet. Sheet is approximately 29 to 30 inches x 22 to 23 inches depending on brand. The use of bad paper and weak paints might be the main reason many potential watercolor users give up. Well, I am using sometimes non-cotton papers, too, but no other paper compares to the real thing when you need to apply a wash, gradual wash and fine detail. I prefer using the large size and full-sheet paper since there’s no way to paint something meaningful on tiny size paper.
Autumn leaves and sunflower, both are 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm
Fall colors for beginner artists
Fall season is a great time to consider painting in colors because it is very simple to apply warm and cold opposites and create something great. It is easy to use more abstracted style or add definite detail when necessary. Inspiration is everywhere assuming you get a chance to be in an area which has trees and other landscape elements. Even a few leaves can create a good composition and then you can just add fence, brick wall or washes for background. It is definitely more rewarding to use real things as models for painting. Not everybody knows how to use photo, and your style will emerge sooner when you are not affected by pre-set colors and composition. You have more freedom.
Relaxing experience with watercolor paints
I usually do not participate in challenges because days are filled with numerous tasks as it is. I cannot be sure I will have enough time to paint something of decent quality every day. For me, it makes sense working when the time is right and I don’t feel rushed. People who have similar conditions to mine, frequently experience depression. It comes and goes, and can be of different severity grades. I noticed, however, a few days ago when I finished up the Fall tree on lake shore, I felt simply excellent. For me personally, painting with watercolor is an extremely relaxing and calming experience. Creating the bright color transitions makes me feeling way better than usually. I could say, using bright colors cures and soothes upset mood.
Birch path is large, 30 x 22.5 in or 76 x 57 cm
Dark colors without actual black in watercolor
I never use black color in watercolor painting, and I do not like dark watercolor paintings also. The reason is simple: black color indicates areas absent of light. If you are in a totally dark and black space no light waves are coming through. Generally speaking, I don’t like dark spaces, dark clothes and dark living environment. From the practical painting perspective, black color can make other colors muddy in watercolor painting. For extra strong values, we can use raw umber (very dark tone of brown), Payne’s grey (almost black blue), sepia (practically black with brown undertone) and mixes of dark blue, dark violet with other colors of your palette. The safest combinations in my experience are with Payne’s grey.
Art classes for adults in Ajax, Ontario
While there are many art classes, it’s so that lots of them are the paint-night type where there is no actual learning. Good painting takes time and skill. You might want to paint more abstract art, but you still need to know how your paint pigments interact and what your brush, sponge, other tools and materials, as well as paints can do on that particular paper you’re using. Every type of paper acts differently. With globalization, art classes have become part of online domain. However, I’ve never met a student who was able to paint whatever they had intended after watching online instruction videos. In reality, you need to obtain some habits which facilitate painting. My art classes are different. And I provide students with skills which root in my many-decades-long experience.
Lake tree watercolor is 24 x 18 in or 61 x 45 cm
Adult artists in and around Ajax, Ontario! You might find your passion this fall season engaging in creation of colorful watercolor art. Calming, soothing and very uplifting! Especially when the days get shorter. Thanks and have a good fall season!
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.
Birch path paintings did not have any reference. I’ve done many paintings without any references, just having some imagined concept and adding to it as I paint. Paintings with birches inspire many established artists and beginners, and birch path in early or late fall is such an inviting landscape since the viewer can walk into it. As you may know, I come originally from Latvia, and birch path and birch grove is a very characteristic view over there.
Simple composition
The composition is usually simple and leads to the focal point which might not always be very accentuated. However, some other of my paintings are just plainly depictions of colorful abstract leaves. My students always asked for birch path and birch tree paintings; therefore, I have many of them. I always paint along with students. After a while, when acrylic paint has reached its complete drying and settling moment, I’d evaluate the painting and add or remove some parts of it as required.
Stepwise approach
My process is usually simple, too. I start with application of texture by randomly creating leaf and grass patterns. After that, I prime and paint canvas. I don’t use any special acrylic primers any longer. I find that using acrylic paint which can be just leftover paint is much more beneficial to the final colors and impact. I use sometimes fairly dark grey, lighter grey, mix of burnt umber, burnt sienna and yellow ocher or cardboard color. These underpainting colors work the best with my art.
Defining the landscape
The next step is pretty much blocking in large areas on which I follow up with sponge and fan brush. When the background is set, I paint in main tree trunks. Using fan brush, I apply more layers. Any of my paintings has numerous layers, as well as switches from cool to warm colors. Camera cannot capture that, and it is painful seeing that photo can never show the fine-tuned colors I’ve used. Camera tends adding too much blue, too much yellow or green while sometimes omitting red completely. These particular paintings contain no blue color, but it might look as if they do on photos.
Birch path 1, it has the most detail, 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas
Just as always, all edges are painted and painting continues beyond the front part, Birch path 2, 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm
Achieving balance with finishing touches
My painting is finished when the flow of colors and lines is balanced and I am satisfied with the most part of a painting. Balance in my art means quite a lot, and I’m aiming for it intentionally. The birch path originals are certainly very impressive and abstract parts compliment the detailed areas. It’s such a pleasure to look at these paintings when they’re next to each other. They are similar, but also have distinctive features.
Steps of autumn, 16 x 20 in or 41 x 51 cm, acrylic painting on canvas. This has the strongest colors, at least in pictures and on my screen
Plenty of inspiration on birch path
I found my inspiration on the birch path and colors came to life. One can paint realistically imaginative landscape, or abstract trees from reality – it doesn’t matter what approach we use – to me personally, painting becomes art when it tells us something. I mean, it tells something without lengthy description. I hope you can feel the leaves under your feet, as well as more trees in the distance. Enjoy! Prints are available from Fine Art America site.
