Peony paintings

Each year I look forward the time the peonies start to bloom.

I love Peonie’s voluminous petals and subtle scent.

I have dark pink and white peonies in my garden.
This year I thought that it would be great idea to paint them.

My color palette had been the same for quite some time and I felt like I needed a change.

They were so much fun to paint. The dark pinks were so beautiful and feminine.

Both of these paintings are available in my shop.

Peonies in my garden

Work in progress

Peony heaven

Details

“Pure joy”

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How to understand abstract art

I still remember the first time I saw abstract paintings in the museum. I believe I was 10-13 years old.
Art teacher had given us an assignment to visit art museum, view the paintings and write about them.

It was so much easier to write about the traditional art.

When it came to writing about abstract paintings, it was different. It’s like it was a different language. A language that I didn’t understand at the time.

I felt quite confused. I had so many questions. Why did they use all these colors? What were they trying to say? How am I supposed to figure out what it all means? After all it seemed to be something that breaks all the rules that people are taught about good art.

Years passed by.

I discovered many different art styles and ended up with abstract.

Throughout the years , I’ve started to understand it.

It’s like a bird song, You don’t understand it but it is beautiful. It makes you feel something.

The thing is, abstract art requires you to have an open mind.

Abstract art breaks all the rules. There is a lot of freedom that comes with it. One of the reasons why I love it so much is that I don’t have to worry about it being realistic and matching the reference photo.

One of the beautiful thing about abstract art is that we can bring our own meaning to it based on our experiences and memories.

Abstract art is an expression of something ( experience, place or emotion) through the perspective of an artist.

As an result it will evoke a feeling or thoughts in the viewer.

Abstract art lets the viewer decide what it’s about.

How my art has evolved over time

Today I realised that it’s been exactly 3 years since I started painting abstract.

It’s crazy how time flies. It feels like it was yesterday..

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that before abstract I drew portraits of people, I painted landscapes and animals. I also painted seascapes and sunset.

At some point I felt drawn towards abstract. I loved everything about it and my hands were itching to start my own abstract paintings.

I went to the art store and got everything I needed to get started.

I decided that I will start with bright colors. I wanted to create colorful paintings that would bring people happiness. Below you can see a photo of the palette that I used back then.

One thing that my current paintings and the paintings I did in 2018 had common, was gold.
I loved adding gold paint to my paintings and I still do. Now I’ve started adding golden leaf to my paintings as well because I love how it adds texture and shine.

Since art is a reflection of me and my inner world, it has evolved in time and I have started to love more earthy colors.

I love to use nature inspired colors in my work. You probably have noticed that most of the time I use greens, blues and purples in my work. Also a lot of pinks.’

There is so much beauty in nature and I love to express it in my work.’

I look forward to seeing where art takes me and how my style evolves.
Can’t wait to share the whole journey with you

2020- a year in review

The awakening series

It’s needless to say 2020 has been a year like no other.

In the beginning of 2020 I knew that I wanted to create a series of large paintings. I had had this idea for a while. I thought that at first I will paint some smaller pieces to get ideas for my series. Then pandemic happened and I wasn’t able to get large canvases from anywhere.
I continued working on smaller paintings and at some point I got so inspired and decided to work on series that was inspired by Spring. The nature had started showing first signs of Spring and I loved how it was awakening from long winter sleep. That’s where the name of The awakening came from.

I love to go for a long walks with my friends in the forest. It’s so peaceful out there. There is a reason why there’s a saying that The connection is better in the forest. I always feel so happy and full of energy and ideas when I return from long walks. I wanted to express this peace and beauty I experienced in the forest through my paintings.

I took many photos and used these for inspiration. I love to take photos of nature.
I feel like Spring awakens something in people too. They feel energized, full of hope and are cheerful. It’s like there’s some kind of lightness in the air. Everything seems so much better during Spring.

With this series I wanted to explore a little bit darker color palette. I had been feeling pull to do this for a while and I’m so happy that I went for it. It was such amazing experience.

After I finished the series I took some time off to fill my ‘creative cup’ by doing other things - worked in the garden, spent time with my friends, played the piano and just relaxed a lot.

I started working on paper paintings. I love to work on smaller pieces because they are so much fun and they are great for experimenting with new techniques and mediums.

Soon I felt like I was ready for my next series which was inspired by Summer. Summer is my favorite season and I felt so happy and excited to express all the beauty and nature through these paintings.

The colors were so much brighter and the overall mood of the series was more uplifting.

The paintings were inspired by the forest, plants and flowers in my garden and of course the beach and the sea. I love to watch the waves at the beach. The sound of the crashing waves is so calming.

Summer state of mind series

After summer series I began working on the Autumn series which had 5 paintings. It was exclusively available for my email list. I love to surprise my collectors from time to time.

I started working on my Christmas series. The series had 6 paintings in size 7,8x7,8. It was the first time I worked in such small pieces. I wanted the overall vibe to be light and cheerful so I decided to use a lot of blues and white in my work. I wanted to express the spirit of the Christmas with these paintings. I added silver leaf to each one of them. I love how they made the paintings pop.

Small Christmas paintings

This year I also wanted to do something special and different for Christmas. I have always thought about doing Christmas ornaments and this year I finally did it. It was so much fun and I fell in love with each ornament.

I made 2 collections. Porcelain ornaments and glass ornaments. Porcelain ornaments were made with acrylics and I added gold acrylic color.

The glass ornaments were made with acrylics and I decided to add gold leaf to them and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

Porcelain ornaments

Glass ornaments

I also worked on many small paintings on paper. I will add some of the paintings below.

A neverending dream and Sunshine after the rain

One with nature and Inner peace

Stronger together

2020 taught me to not take anything in life for granted. I also learned that it’s even more important than before to go out for long walks just to keep myself insane. Staying at home all the time isn’t good for my mental health. Self care is so important.


2020 gave me an opportunity to slow down and really think about all the lessons I learned. I feel like 2020 was the wake up call so that people would start to value things that really matter in life.

Happy New Year. I’m sure 2021 will be so much better.

Christmas Ornaments collection

Add some shine and color to your Christmas tree with these ornaments. Each ornament is unique and made with love

Have I mentioned how much I love Christmas decorating?

Welcome to my first ornament collection.

I’ve wanted to paint Christmas ornaments for few years and never got to actually doing it. This year I decided to do my own little hand painted Christmas ornaments collection.

The moment I started working on my first ornament, I was in love. There’s just something so magical about Christmas ornaments.

These ceramic ornaments are all unique and would make a great holiday gift for someone you love.

The ornaments will come in a beautiful gift box.

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Inspiration

I get asked a lot about what inspires my work.

I’ve always been a huge lover of nature. When I was a little child I spent a lot of time in the woods with my friends, exploring, climbing the trees, playing and admiring the beauty of all the plants and flowers. It was so much fun.

Fast forward 20 something years later I often times use all these amazing memories as an inspiration for my abstract paintings.
I’m really grateful that I get to live near the forest and river. Summers are filled with a lot of birds singing and amazing aromas from flowers. All these things play a huge part in my creative process. They inspire me and often times get me in the right mood to paint.

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“In every walk in with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

— John Muir

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I love gardening. It’s in my blood. It makes me happy and helped me a lot when I had depression. It gives me a connection to nature and just embrace it. I get to plant and take care of beautiful flowers and plants. These gorgeous flowers have inspired my abstract paintings.

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I love spending time at the beach. There’s something very calming about watching the waves come in and out. When I’m at the beach, I feel like time stops. I always leave the beach feeling inspired and fulfilled. You might have seen some of the paintings that were inspired by sea. They had beautiful blues in it.

My work is also inspired by music. It has always been a huge part of my life. I love to sing and play the piano. I often times get inspired when I sing or play something. I love to listen to happy and uplifting music when I paint. I have noticed that violin music does miracles for me. Especially Lindsey Stirling’s music. She has some really good songs. I sometimes take emotions from songs and transfer them into my paintings.

Besides music I get inspired by dreams. I have vivid dreams and often times these are very magical and I use them in my abstract paintings.

I believe inspiration is everywhere around us. We just have to be present and find it.

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The process

My process actually starts before painting.

First of all, I need to get myself in the right mindset/ mood.

How do I do that?

There are several ways. I meditate. I've learned that If I quiet my mind from all the noise and mental chatter, creative inspiration and ideas come more easily. If I don't meditate, I listen to music, sing or play the piano. You might have noticed from my stories that most of the time I'm listening to music. I've read that listening to happy music promotes more divergent thinking which is a key element of creativity. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Once I'm in the flow, the rest of the world sort of fades away. My only thought is to get the ideas on the canvas. I get so immersed in my work that sometimes I forget to eat.

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I start by selecting colors for my color palette. When I work on series then I use a selection of the same colors in each piece so that the paintings would look unified. With my paper pieces, I feel like I have more freedom to experiment with new color combinations. Probably because if it were to happen that I ruin the painting, its easier to change it. I think the thought of ruining a huge canvas just scares me. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I use different brushes and a palette knife to make my abstract pieces. I make details with small brushes. The palette knife is for adding texture.

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I love to take time to just sit in front of the painting and try to contemplate the direction I want to go with. Sometimes the knowing comes quickly, sometimes it takes a little bit longer, which is totally fine. In this case, I put the painting away and come back to it a few days later. Each painting is unique and takes a different amount of time to finish. I keep working on it until I get the gut feeling that it’s finished. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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Why abstract art

You might be wondering why abstract art.

My love story with abstract art began in 2018. I had previously tried all kinds of other different mediums. I drew people, I painted landscapes, underwater sceneries with dolphins, sunset seascapes, lions and tigers. At some point I felt that I need to try something completely different where there aren’t so many rules.

I had seen so many beautiful abstract paintings online and always wondered what it would be like to paint abstract. It took me many months to convince myself to take this huge leap of faith. I’m so glad that I made that decision.

At first it was very difficult to transfer from painting realism to painting abstract because as a person I need the feeling that I have control over things in my life and if I don’t, it causes a lot of stress and worry. I realized that I needed to let go of control. I just needed to start and trust that what needs to be born on the canvas, will. Giving up control and surrendering was actually very freeing experience for me.

When it comes to painting abstract, there is so much more freedom.. With traditional art I was always worried if I got details right and eventually I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did in the beginning. I figured that if that doesn’t bring me joy anymore then what’s the point?

Abstract art lets me express myself so much easier and communicate with a feeling. Since my paintings are inspired by nature, I try to represent the world around us through my work.

With abstract art I don’t need reference photos. I have total freedom. There are no rules. I like to use different shapes, lines, colors and texture in my work.

I love that people get to interpret my work in their own way, I always love to hear what people see in my work and how it makes them feel.

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How I became an artist

One of the main thing people ask me is how I became an artist.

It all started when I was a little child. I used to draw and paint a lot. I was very passionate about different subjects and I spent my days creating and playing.

Since I was so passionate about art, my mom signed me up to some art classes. These art classes were the highlights of each week. I always looked forward to attending them. The teacher had always planned some exciting new projects for us to do.

As I grew older, I didn’t draw and paint as much as I did before. I was very busy with my schoolwork and I spent most of my free time with my friends. I wasn’t an A student so I had to take a private teacher to pass the exams.

After I graduated high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life or who I wanted to become. Most of my classmates had everything figured out by then and had picked out an university. I decided to take some time off. I took a job as a waitress in a small cafe and worked there for about a year. After that I worked in the Sport shop. I loved the job but I wanted more. During this time it got pretty clear to me that I want to study something and get a good job.

I did my research and checked out all the universities. Finally I decided to study business and marketing.

First year everything was great and I was very happy with my choice. There were many interesting subjects and I felt like marketing was something I will be passionate about for the rest of my life.

By the end of the second year the stress had taken the toll on me. There were a lot of assignments that I had to do and I also had to find a position at the company to do my practice. The pressure was too much. I didn’t want to disappoint my parents and my health was starting to give me signs to take a break.

I remember it so clearly like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a big auditorium with my classmates. The teacher was talking and suddenly I felt sick in my stomach. My heart started to race and the only thought I had was: I have to get out of this auditorium. I ran to the bathroom. I thought I had a stomach flu.

When the same thing happened to me the second time I started to think there was something very wrong with me. I went to see the doctor and they told me that I have an anxiety.

I saw many different psychiatrists and psychologists. I was prescribed antidepressants and fell into depression.

I had to take an academic vacation from the university.

Suddenly I had so much free time. Time to think about life and everything.

One day I came across a horse drawing on Facebook and I was immediately intrigued. I decided to try and draw a horse.

It might now have been as good as I expected, but for a good moment I managed to get my mind off from my anxious thoughts and I felt like I was onto something. I felt so inspired and started to draw and paint daily.

I soon went to the art supply store and bought many canvases, paints and pencils. I explored many mediums and different subjects. I felt like there was joy and excitement in my life again.

At one point I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Back then this seemed like an unrealistic idea but I had this feeling that I would figure it out.

Fast forward 9 years later I’m painting abstract and I’m so grateful that I decided to take a risk and dive into the unknown.

It’s been a beautiful journey of exploration. Exploration of art and exploration of myself.

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