Acrylic paint is extremely versatile and it can be applied in numerous ways and using countless techniques. It’s water-soluble, has hardly any smell. It consists of pigment particles dispersed in an acrylic polymer emulsion. When it dries, it becomes hard and changes color. Paints which contain more fillers and binders, but less pigments, become darker. However, properties of this paint make it possible to use many layers and it could be used as a glue. All these features are perfect for creating very textured art, sometimes, it can be described even as sculpted.
Textured art
I created the first textured paintings around 2007. Since then, there have been so many from very large 6 feet by 4 feet to small ones, just 12 x 10 in. They sometimes sold very swiftly. I do not have any pictures of some. I didn’t try to showcase very textured paintings on my website, too, because pictures never looked right. As you could imagine: the highest areas of textured surface capture light more and camera creates a total disbalance of colors and contrast, therefore, these pictures are always off. In reality, however, they are extremely attractive and impressive works of art.
The old tree, 14 x 11 in or 36 x 28 cm
Vintage frames for impressive art
I went through my inventory recently since I have more time before live art classes resume. I added a new protective layer, so they are as bright and neat as brand new, not to mention removing some dust from corners and frames. The vintage frames which will be visible in some pictures are really old, but they make any art look like real art. I didn’t restore them to the extent they’d lose the feel of being old. The imperfections help them look more authentic.
Pears still life, 12 x 10 in or 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Textured poppies, 12 x 10 in or 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Distinctive creative periods
As I go through all my collections and create new products for sale pages, I cannot help but notice how each creative period is distinct with the use of specific color palette or subject. I’ve had the warm, earthy color period, the many shades of grey painting chapter, vivid blue and green landscape phase, as well as passion period for white, pink and red floral art, and then there are series of still life, birches and snow scenes. Reflecting on creative path from a distance of almost 20 recent years clearly reveals how I liked or disliked some colors and subjects over time.
Welcoming change
I wouldn’t say that paintings from 2010 are better than the ones from 2015, or the recent ones are the best. They are different, and each period of my creative journey emphases the dominant vision of that particular time span. We as humans change, and imagine the boredom if we as artists wouldn’t step off the beaten path! In fact, the greater the challenge, the more I love my new creations whether that refers to techniques, materials, subject or color palette. The pictures show art created around 2008 and up to 2015.
Time-consuming, yet, gorgeous
I used to paint everything as pairs of the same subject, quite frequently. I still continue that way, not with every single artwork, but there are many “twins” in my collections. The nicest feature is they work as series right away and look extraordinary great on the wall. Textured paintings are usually abstract by nature. While I am creating the texture layer, there is no outline, color or value. These are added later with layers of paint. Colors of textured art change depending on light and its placement. Photos capture some moments in time in a light which was present, and it might be that these images are able to convey the context and thought within the actual painting.
I hope this post inspires you to paint and create, as well as there might be somebody who loves the current featured paintings. I’d like to mention, that this is the first time images of these particular paintings are published. I will add them to art deals page soon, as well:
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
Draw and paint your reality and keep memory in good shape
Why should you start drawing and painting if you are not and do not intend to be an artist? Why should your kid draw instead of scrolling through screens?
The worst part of nowadays trends is trying to achieve a wonderful result without any efforts, experience and work. When it comes to art classes, that takes away from any benefits drawing and painting provides you with.
I have listed benefits of participating in art class many times before. Some:
It is not that important actually what you draw or paint, but how you use the medium of your choice or art supplies you have. It is also very important for people who are not and do not intend to be artists, to pick up a pencil and start drawing. Do it for fun, for pleasure, do it without regard to results and just to keep your brain flexible, young and memory strong.
Realistic painting of Bell peppers on white background
How to turn simple things into awesome subject of painting
While trying to become familiar with drawing or painting, you will progress faster and create more impressive drawings and paintings if you use real things, not photos. When artists have experience and know what they are doing and what they are trying to achieve, they can use also photos because they will understand how to handle them.
Draw what you see
We can draw and paint anything. It does not have to be an extraordinary setup of extraordinary things. Anything you have on the table or in fridge is fine. Anything you see through the window is fine. Anything visible in the backyard is fine, too. Try to create abstract outlines at first and then refine every area more. Don’t worry about the result; allow yourself the freedom to be a creator. Who cares what you have drawn? The main thing is engaging our brain, eyes, mind and hand.
Photo versus reality
If your initial learning subject is already flat and two-dimensional, you will have hard times to ever adjust to drawing or painting from reality. It is even worse to trace outlines from a photo because you are missing the most crucial part of drawing and painting process which is to understand why you place things where you place them and why you use the specific artistic tools such as contrasts, shadows, overlapping, specific colors, sizes and shapes on certain areas.
Brain loves drawing and painting
Art is a very logical thing; and decisions we make are the result of communication between many brain areas which are activated while we perform some specific task. Unlike any other cognition and memory related activity, drawing process involves many areas of the brain because drawing is a multi-sensory activity and in order to create we use many brain regions:
to see and understand our painting subject;
to process its shape, outline, size and spatial relationship with anything else;
to send the signal to our hand with brush or pencil;
to recreate visual images with line, color, form, value, contrast and shadow on a paper or canvas;
to give our subject multi-dimensional look and volume on a flat paper or canvas;
to distinct between abstracted areas and definite details;
to make certain focal points stand out or point out the main area of interest.
Decision-making and personal know-how
That is a lot of decision-making! Therefore, using our brain to its full capacity more and more often, we become successful with capturing our idea or visually perceived subject and turning work on it into personal artistic experience, into our personal know-how.
Composition and values
Composition and values, as well as shapes and shadows are things we should figure out while we are creating a sketch or value drawing for a painting. That is why reality is more helpful than we think. Photo has limitations, and you will have to pretty much stick with it while reality allows for endless interpretation and adjustment.
Creation takes origin in us and our own brain
That is also my biggest argument against the idea of believing that watching how somebody else paints results in better drawing or painting for you. You simply do not know all the things the artist who demonstrates painting or drawing is considering. Artists, who demonstrate their creative process, have made countless decisions before they started to apply paint. They keep making new decisions every split second, and most often, they have also practiced on this particular piece many times.
Draw and paint and become more efficient with any mental task
If you already do not spend some calming, soothing and relaxing time with pencil or brush, please, consider it. You do not need to be an artist to start drawing or painting. However, most people need either mental or physical healing, and we definitely need to maintain our memory in a good shape. These are benefits we can count on along with creating something beautiful.
P.S. I had already written this post by Friday morning, and my mom had a stroke on Friday afternoon. See lifeschool blog for more info on that: Bad news comes always at wrong time
My mom was better today. She recognized me and was able to recall my name.
