watercolor flowers Archives - INESE'S ART STUDIO

November 30, 2022December 6, 2022

Bright and passionate colors of poinsettia

Bright colors of red poinsettia painting

Bright colors for dark days

When days turn grey and light diminishes to almost none, we turn to warmth and strong colors which brighten up not only our walls, but also mood. I’ve always loved strong and clean colors. I want color sometimes to be the main statement. It is infrequently that color is all one will notice, but there’s so much more in a vibrant flower painting.

Poinsettia, favorite winter bloom

Poinsettias are not only my favorite for this dreary and dark period which includes end of November and almost all of December. I grow a few of them, and poinsettias survive quite well even the heat of July. My model plants are still alive. Some years they have more blooms, some – less.

Composition and flow of lines

I try to keep my lines flowing and, thus, recreate the flawless perfection of the natural plant. It is easy to draw poinsettias, not always that easy to capture the balance between the shape of leaves and petals and the vibrant color. Color transitions are soft, yet, difficult to photograph. It always surprises me how impossible it is to take photos of red on painting. In my opinion, red is the most difficult color to capture on a photo.

Recurrent theme

Poinsettias are one of flowers I have painted numerous times. Sometimes, that’s due to art classes since almost everybody would love to have such painting. Sometimes, when the poinsettia plant is around, I simply cannot resist painting it. The most recent painting is done with watercolor on Saunders-Waterford archival grade cotton paper. It isn’t my most favorite paper since it’s greyish and rather too absorbing, but I had started this painting a year ago, and so I just added to it and I assume it’s done.

Time to restart promotions

Or rather, it is too late already. I don’t take anything too close to my heart. Therefore, I get through bad times and through good times unscathed. Better or worse, but somehow. The main motivation for me is the personal challenge. That means, to envision something in my own way and see how I can put it on a blank sheet of paper or white canvas. I hope you noticed not only color, but also everything else which makes art – art. This poinsettia painting will be soon available as an art print also.

I hope the next post won’t take that long. Meanwhile, all the best to you and enjoy!

Paint your own: Private art lessons

Have a look at my art prints and greeting cards at Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

July 11, 2019June 27, 2022

Summer sketchbook: easy flowers

Fill your summer sketchbook

This year, I am filling my summer sketchbook with floral art. Watercolor sketch, pen and watercolor or purely watercolor are excellent ways to paint summer scenes, summer flowers, summer landscapes and simply enjoy the outdoors and beauty. The easiest way to practice painting with watercolors is using pen and watercolor wash, that will fill your sketchbook in no time. That enables us creating great composition and not caring too much about pencil lines and perfect application of watercolor.

Summer sketchbook, poppies — Summer poppies, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Excellent technique for beginners

Pen and watercolor wash is a great technique for beginning watercolor artists. The most exciting part is adding watercolor washes, as well as more detailed areas with more concentrated paint. We can create a wonderful painting in less time this way because we do not need multi-step drawing transfer onto watercolor paper. It is also much easier to know where to use paint because the black outline clearly identifies that.

Summer sketchbook, Pink rose — The spring rose, 15 x 11 in or 38 x 28 cm

Greatness takes time

If you are new to a particular medium or absolutely new to drawing and painting, you have to remember: nothing happens right away. Every skill takes time, efforts and work to develop. It is no reason to give up painting or drawing if you are not happy with the first few drawings and sketches. You might be surprised how much better one becomes after a while.

Summer sketchbook Sunflowers — Sunflowers, pen and watercolor, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Not every painting is masterwork

Focusing on perfection right away will cause you to be disappointed. Any artist will tell you that they have damaged, and thrown out lots and lots of initial sketches, painted over initial scenes, changed the layout and composition completely, switched to a different color or tools. They have done many things before they have created the first amazing painting. Not every drawing or painting is or should be a masterwork. It should be a stepping stone on our way to better art. We use our errors as a way of discovering how to achieve what we want and have intended.

Summer sketchbook, Red poppies — Red poppies, pen and watercolor, 11 x 14 in or 28 x 36 cm

For your inspiration

Get inspired by my simple pen and watercolor sketches. This time, they are floral sketches and paintings. Go outdoors; see what you have in your backyard. Sketching is always better if you do not use any photos, but the real thing in front of you. Pen and watercolor technique allows achieving fast results, therefore, your subject will not change while you draw and sketch it.

Summer sketchbook, Clematis, pen and watercolor painting — Clematis, pen and watercolor, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Art supplies for drawing and sketching to fill your summer sketchbook

CANSON XL cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

Arches, cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

Saunders Waterford, cold press, watercolor paper in whatever weight is available and affordable, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

For pen, you can use any black pen which does not bleed with application of water. I recommend MICRON brand which contains archival ink, size from 1 to 05, test it. You can test it at the store for thickness of line before buying to see which one you like.

Graphite pencil, HB or even harder

Soft, kneaded, artist’s grade eraser, it is sold in art stores.

Paper towel, a few sheets

Set of watercolors in basic colors

All my art prints, art cards and other products on FAA:

If you’d like to sign up for my art classes, please click on link Art classes

Private art classes: Take a private art class

Art for sale: Shop Inese’s art

January 15, 2015September 6, 2021

Adding color to winter days

The warming color

Adding color to cool winter days feels right. Or a bit better than simply doing nothing. I was hoping to get done much more, but darkness is very restricting. Even though, I’m drawing and painting at electric light, that has impact also because color changes. Sensitive colors and shades change to a great extent in different light, and the only correct painting light for me is the daylight. I’m obviously experiencing shortage of it and using warm and bright colors to offset the shortage of natural light.

Colorful illusion of spring

As long as I remember myself, I never liked winter. I feel that I deserve way better than this freezing air and this wet snow or icy wind gusts from around the corner. I am not trying to get up when I should, and staying up much longer at night, that’s not helping. My productivity is down in winter and I find all kinds of excuses to justify the wasted time. It might be so that I’m completely dependent on seasonal cycles of the nature. I’m definitely a summer person, and darkness and cold are completely arguing with every living cell in my body. Well, I know, winter will pass, too, and painting in bright colors takes me to spring.

Art as a rescue medicine

My only rescue medicine is art. It’s impossible to imagine how I would survive these dark months without colors, paints, sketches, drawings, ideas and paintings! Thankfully, these things occupy my brain and mind completely taking into a meditative state of no reaction to surroundings, problems or issues. I believe art is the best way to fight these upsetting and lazy moods. The only times when I experience real flush of energy are before art classes, workshops and events. The opportunity to make canvas blossom gives me wings and I’m bursting with fresh ideas and suggestions. I’m very generous when it comes to sharing ideas and new knowledge.

Add color to your day

“Add color to your day” project is coming along, but not without a resistance. I will eventually figure out how to implement three 1.5 hour sessions during the week in order to use only watercolor paints, allowing them to flow, taking away bad emotions, and therefore these sessions will be providing people, who have similar winter moods, with positive energy and opportunity to overcome the situations they’ve stuck in. That might be health or relationships, or our own nature, it doesn’t matter what exactly. Color and art can cure everything, even people, who are unable to physically perform something difficult. New images for these sessions are on the way.

A little bit of warmth

To share with everybody a little bit of warmth, I’m attaching a few watercolors. These are layered watercolors without using masking fluid. For some images, we created pen outline drawing at first.

Winter watercolors

January watercolor in warm colors: we just kept adding different layers and glazing, and adding more and more of them. I know we should have used something like masking fluid, but there was no time to wait until everything is dry.