Tag: spring landscape

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Painting without restrictions, spring landscape

Painting in progress, Highland creek landscape

Being in spring landscape

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 spring landscape painting
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 of spring landscape painting
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.

Spring landscape project, steps
Painting steps

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.

Front part of spring landscape
Front part, close-up

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, spring landscape
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.

Painting in progress, Highland creek landscape

Just like always, thanks if you read my post! I intend to catch up with likes and comments.

Private art lessons

Group art classes

Art collections by Inese Poga

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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, acrylic painting
Road to spring, 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!

My art store is not coming along swiftly as I hoped, so for prints, please, go to Fine Art America:

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Spring paintings in acrylic

Country barn, original art

Spring paintings feel like a good choice when nature awakes

When else if not now to engage in creation of spring paintings? One can tell how much I love spring by just having a look at what I have painted recently: spring flowers, spring scenery and spring landscapes. I think I feel seasonal changes on a mental level very strongly. I cannot imagine I would be painting snow right now. Still life in that regard is the most neutral subject, but I felt I needed something more impressive.

Spring road, acrylic landscape painting

My personalized realism

Most people believe I paint reality, but I do not. I use quite frequently real things, like I used real daffodils for the front part this time; however, I always beautify the reality and make any subject my personal reality. That means I give the subject my colors which I love at that moment, enhance the layout, and add extra contrasts or values, just to make everything more of what I experience at that moment.

Dogwood, acrylic painting

Nature does not always cooperate

The truth is the spring has been slow again in Ontario. We even had very winter-like weather a week ago. Therefore, to facilitate the feeling of blooming and warmth, I just paint it. I decided to mostly post one image at a time whenever possible. Most people never read posts, so, they only have a glance at the featured image and move on. That is why most paintings, advice and images which are in the article go unnoticed.

Daisies, spring

Taking pictures

Taking pictures with iphone  is very difficult. The extreme contrast is fine for any regular pictures, but not art. My solution is taking pictures with backgrounds, extra items, paints, brushes and similar. That works for the most part, but the painting area one works on, can be very messy sometimes. I mean, there are paint tubes, dirty paper towels, plates with leftover paint, brushes, sponges, jars with dirty water and all kinds of other things. Therefore, some pictures look messy by accidentally displaying some item which completely doesn’t fit the view.

New spring painting, acrylic by Inese Poga

Just imagine how it looks on my wall

My pictures still display more contrast than they should. Everything is usually well-balanced in my actual painting. I work in layers and for many hours in order to achieve the color balance. As you know, acrylic paints, at least the ones which are available in Canada, become much darker as they dry. One has to calculate that in when applying paint. It can happen so that sometimes white or yellow paint is very weak, and fixing the value imbalance requires extra work.

New spring painting, acrylic by Inese Poga

Available for purchase

Any of paintings are available from my studio. Paintings which are displayed in this post are 16 x 20 inches or 41 cm x 51 cm. I have to mention that because pictures look all the same on the internet. Anyway, enjoy the Daffodil barn and spring paintings! Daffodil barn got lots of great comments on Facebook and Fine Art America site this time, in particular, in acrylic artists’ groups. Please, see links to other posts and FAA sales site.

Register for painting classes, including private classes, from here: Registration for painting classes

Previous post about recent acrylic paintings: New acrylic paintings

Art collections by Inese Poga

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Enjoying spring nature and presence of painting subject

Nostalgia, acrylic painting by Inese Poga

Spending time with spring nature

Spring is already here. Art studio is a place which is always in bloom. Art studio has all seasons at once, and spring is presented to a high degree. Spring also means, one can take a canvas or sheet of paper and head out to be closer to the big awakening. Spring nature is an excellent subject! How much time do we really spend in nature and with it? Only with nature, without checking your phone or texting, or listening to music instead of bird songs? The research finds that it is a very insignificant amount of time compared to what we spend in a car and indoors. So, head out!

Outdoor drawing and painting

Outdoor drawing allows not only being close to the nature, but also experiencing a great presence of our subject. Many people use plants, flowers, leaves, blooms, trees, and other live natural subjects in their art. Being able to create a good reference drawing comes from observation. Outdoors is the best place to observe all growing and blossoming things and to understand how they change along with seasons.

Being close to the painting subject

Outdoor painting teaches us how to use fewer art supplies, but use them more effectively. Being in a close distance to our painting subject and having a chance to observe it is an extreme bonus. All tracing and photo editing software can never compare with direct observation. It is because of the presence. Any painting you do using real things and looking at the real painting subject will look more convincing. We can definitely feel the presence of painting subject or lack of it in the finalized art.

Direct observation and drawing

I feel that my duty is to teach other people enjoying things which are not costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty.

Daily drawing practice

We can keep our brain flexible and our cognitive function in great condition by simply drawing and sketching every single day. Just like you go to the gym, you need to engage your brain to its capacity with pleasurable things like art even when out of work and school. Observational drawing and painting is number one brain booster.

Spring nature

The best medication for mental issues

Drawing and painting are the best medication for any trouble, but especially mental issues, such as depression, grief, persistent, obtrusive thoughts and anxiety. We shouldn’t ignore the importance of new and challenging activities as brain fitness exercise. While one paints, they also completely forget about things they are addicted to: food, snacks, alcohol, drugs, smoking and devices, as well as phone. This gives us the much-deserved break from mind pollution.

Spring nature

The immediate result of painting is not the ultimate goal

It is often assumed that the only goal of drawing and painting should be the immediate result. We should not forget that here is so much to gain from the process. If you stop being concerned about the result, you will find out how rewarding the process is. Everybody achieves good results if they practice and keep painting, but certainly the process of creation is the one that deserves to be finally acknowledged and considered the main part of creativity. Along with feeling relaxed, trouble-free and happy, you will also create art that becomes better and better over time.

Picture taking

I tried to take pictures side by side, just to keep colors more relevant. My phone camera has too much contrast and my pictures come out extra bright. They have strong dark contrast which is not present in art. The real paintings are well-balanced. That is a good reason to make a trip to my art studio.

It’s not only color which is not true on photos, it’s also contrast, but especially the size. Size makes a big difference, but it is impossible to see that on the internet.  Everything from very large to very small art will seem to be the same size.

Acrylic painting, landscape, enjoying spring,
Spring, barn Nostalgia series, 24 x 20 inches, or 61 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas

Anyway, enjoy the new art, and you are welcome to attend my popular art classes.

My art products and prints of paintings on Fine Art America:

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Personalized creativity

Spring flower paintings

Personalized creativity eventually becomes our style. Creating is learning, and learning means living more intense and enjoying something new every day, our personal way.

We create us

Any creation involves saying something about us. That’s how we are telling others what our point of view is. True creativity is never copying and reproducing, but taking an idea which lives in our imagination or was just born in our mind and bringing it to life.

Reproducing versus creating

I regret seeing how plenty of art instruction is meant to teach not principles, techniques and understanding, but to reproduce a popular concept or successful image which everybody is painting or drawing. We have numerous back-lit landscapes, starry nights, tree projections in the sky, human eyes and lips. A painting subject which is already so much worn down.

Personalized creativity

Creativity is great not because we can do things that other artists have done, but because we can create everything exactly as we want, as we have intended and imagined, and it becomes our personalized creativity.

If you can draw, you can draw anything.

We can use any subject and make it our own.

If you can paint, you can paint anything.

We can use any color and make it the most important color for us or the viewer.

We have endless opportunities to express ourselves.

Learning is an ongoing activity, and it’s erroneous to assume somebody knows everything about everything. Experiment is the best teacher of all: how do we know if we never try?

The helpful mistakes

Mistakes and errors are an essential part of the learning process. It’s silly to be afraid of mistakes and do nothing. Perfectionism most likely lives inside many minds, however, but that doesn’t mean anything less than perfect has no value.

The circle of knowledge

Imagine that everything you know is within a circle. As you grow older and become smarter, the circle grows and widens, too. However, the interesting thing is that the more we know, the longer becomes the line that borders the unknown space which surrounds the circle which contains our knowledge. That’s why we just keep finding out things that we were not aware of. That is also the reason for asking more questions and finding more answers.

Creative exploration

Exploration with pencil, brush and color goes a long way. There is no end to it. The more we have learnt, the more we become aware of things we still have no idea about. It makes sense to make your style very personal from the very beginning. You do not want to be the second if you can be the first one. Therefore, copying art is not a good practice. You would not copy somebody else’s poem or song? Would you? The same is true about art.

Some of my recent watercolor paintings:

Personalized creativity
apple blossoms, watercolor
Spring flower paintings
Personalized creativity

Art blog articles versus photo blogs

I have been on and off from blogging due to personal matters, but, hopefully, I will manage to post something more during the upcoming months. Painting takes much longer than to write an article, a short poem or to snap a photo. I sometimes spend months on a single painting. I could post progress images, but when I have the momentum, I do not want to interrupt it. Sketches and drawings might take just a few hours. However, such photos need to be edited and adjusted to be visible.

Personalized creativity

Slow spring

Spring is slow in Southern Ontario, but the first blooms are already in buds. and I saw a few crocuses showing their lovely colors outside. Their colors were bright and intense. Spring rewards us with intense colors and fresh air. There is always 1 hour or a bit more to spend with beauty and colors. It isn’t even that hard to find that hour.

Part of my art for sale:  Available paintings

My artistic products on Fine Art America, and you can view them in 3 D, rotate and turn upside down, etc.:

Decorate with beautiful art for spring season!