Peony and Parakeet

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Color the Emotion

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Category: Art Journaling

12 Spring Art Ideas from Over the Years

Posted on Posted in Art Journaling, Doodling, Fantasy, Flowers & Plants, Music & Literature, SceneriesTagged , , , , 8 Comments on 12 Spring Art Ideas from Over the Years

This week, I share spring-themed art from the past 10 years and give ideas for creating spring art.

12 spring art ideas from over the years by Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

There’s a variety of ideas and I hope everyone can find some that inspire to get creating!

#1 – For Beginners and Dull Moments

Doodle spring flowers with the mindset “more is more”!

Doodle easter flowers. For beginners and dull moments. See more spring art ideas!
Easter Flowers, mixed media, 2013.
See the blog post: Subconscious Art

Course recommendation: Collageland

#2 – For Self-Explorers

Express your spring energy by following this step-by-step exercise: Bursting Circle

Bursting Circle, mixed media art exercise by Peony and Parakeet
Bursting Circle I, mixed media, 2014.
See the blog post: Bursting Circle

Course recommendation: Inspirational Drawing

#3 – For Free Spirits

Splash color and let everything grow from there!

Free Spirit, acrylics on paper by Paivi Eerola, Finland. Abstract floral art.
Free Spirit, acrylics, 2015.
See the blog post: Art is Freedom

#4 – For Those Who Want to be Freer

When you want to be freer, the art of seeing is as important as the art of creating.
See the video of making “March Still Life”: Painting in Liberated Style

March Still Life, mixed media art, see more spring art ideas by Paivi Eerola.
March Still Life, mixed media, 2016.
See the blog post: Painting in Liberated Style

Course recommendations: Liberated Artist Revisited and Freely Grown

#5 – For Minimalists

Pick a small piece of watercolor paper, moisten your watercolor pans, and let water do the trick.

Easter Flowers, a simple watercolor painting.
Easter Flowers, watercolor, 2017.
See the blog post: Easter Still Lifes in Watercolor – Video Included!

#6 – For Travelers

Paint a spring panorama. More examples: Watercolor Panoramas to Express Travel Memories

Spring in Scotland, watercolor panoramas by Paivi Eerola.
Spring in Scotland, watercolor, 2018.
See the blog post: Watercolor panoramas to Express Travel Memories

Course recommendation: Watercolor Journey

#7 – For Beautiful Mess-Makers

Beautify the mess by adjusting the details: paint frilly edges and draw fine lines!

After Winter, a floral watercolor still life by Paivi Eerola, Finland.
After Winter, watercolor, 2019.
See the blog post: Freely Born Watercolor Florals

Course recommendations: Floral Fantasies and Freely Grown

#8 – For Journalers

Decorate a journal cover with your original art! See more instructions in this blog post: Painted Paper Collage

Art journal cover. See more spring art ideas!
Art journal cover, mixed media collage, 2020.
See the blog post: Painted Paper Collage – 6 Tips for Intricate and Fun Art

Course recommendations: Collageland and Decodashery

#9 – For Bird Watchers

Take this challenge to move from illustration to fine art:
Step out of your comfort zone and think about a bird shape as a canvas for expressing its surroundings.

Blackbird, oil painting, Paivi Eerola, 2021.
Blackbird, oil on canvas, 2021.
See the blog post: Pros and Cons of Becoming an Artist

Course recommendation: Floral Freedom

#10 – For Art Lovers Who Procrastinate

Reduce watching those photo-realistic colored pencil videos and start coloring freely. One heart shape can lead to many and start your flight to the world of imagination!

Illuminated Heart, spring art ideas in colored pencils. By Paivi Eerola.
Illuminated Heart, colored pencils, 2022.
See the blog post: 5 Reasons Why I Love Colored Pencils

Course recommendations: Intuitive Coloring and Fun Botanicum

#11 – For Wannabe Fantasy Artists

Find the story first, then its surroundings! A character is not only described by his face.

Magician's Tea Party, oil on canvas, 2023. By Paivi Eerola, Finland. Alice in Wonderland inspired art. Spring art ideas.
Magician’s Tea Party, oil on canvas, 2023.
See the blog post: Wonderland Art – Inspiration from Alice in Wonderland

Course recommendations: Magical Forest and Magical Inkdom

#12 For Artists at Heart

Our creativity has winter and spring too. We need each other to keep the inspiration going – to turn the winter into spring.
A challenge for you: How can you make a new start – create a new spring for your art?

Mixed media art. Liberated artist Revisited, an online course by Paivi Eerola.
“I Will Be Back”, mixed media, 2024.
See the blog post: New Beginnings in Art-Making

Course recommendations: Liberated Artist Revisited

Bonus Idea #1: Spring Art Display

Gather your art on a side table for display! Make a collection of all kinds of pieces – even the smallest drawings and collage pieces can look fun this way.

Spring art display. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet. Most of these are from her course Decodashery.
This picture is from 2020 when I was making the course Decodashery.
I have a plastic plate that is the same size as my table.
It protects my art, and it also protects the tabletop when painting in watercolor.

Bonus Idea #2: Listen to This!

I also have a music recommendation: “Kevät”

Kevät is spring in Finnish and the song was presented by a Finnish girl band Tavaramarkkinat in 1985. Here’s an English translation of the lyrics. The tone of the song is melancholic. This kind of controversy between melancholy and joy is one of the most inspiring things in spring, I think!

P.S. PostScript for Spring Art Ideas

We still have a lot of snow in Finland, and I miss spring so much! In these spring art ideas, I wanted to combine my yearning for spring and the celebration of being a full-time artist for ten years. The actual anniversary is in September, but I want to celebrate this life span the whole year of 2024.

One part of the celebration has been making the course Liberated Artist Revisited where I invite you to paint with me – to follow directions from Paivi many years ago, and then create more with the current Paivi. At the same time, you can ponder, how your art-making has changed and will change.

Liberated Artist Revisited - online art course by Paivi Eerola.

Because of the 10-year celebration and the nature of personal stories, Liberated Artist Revisited is a limited edition – only available for purchase until the end of March 2024! >> Buy Now!

5 Tips for Quick Abstract Flowers

Posted on Posted in Abstracts, Art Journaling, Flowers & PlantsTagged , 6 Comments on 5 Tips for Quick Abstract Flowers

This week, we paint quick abstract flowers freely without any references.

Quick abstract flowers in acrylics. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

I have a black Dylusions Creative Journal and make small paintings there occasionally. It is especially good when there’s still paint left on the palette at the end of the painting session. I think it makes sense to use all the paint, and not throw the leftovers in the trash.

Art journal filled with flower paintings.

I don’t use any gesso but paint directly on the page.

Quick abstract flowers in acrylics. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

When I painted pieces for the course Liberated Artist Revisited, I noticed that there had been a long break in acrylic painting and some of the tubes had started to harden.

A quick abstract floral painting. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

It motivates me to paint in the black art journal again because I don’t want those paints to go to waste. And sometimes it’s nice to paint something small quickly and see what comes out most effortlessly.

Quick Abstract Flowers – Five Tips!

I like painting abstract flowers, and thick paints are very suitable for abstract flower paintings. Here are my five tips for painting flowers quickly.

1) Start from the Old Mess

The fastest way is to start from an old painting.

I have a lot of pages in my journal where I’ve hastily painted shapes with leftover paints.

Starting to revamp an old painted page. Painting on an art journal.

Continuing the beautiful mess feels much more effortless than starting a new one from the beginning.

Abstract flowers in progress.

For example, here’s one page that still waits its turn to become a finished painting.

Abstract flowers in progress. In a black square Dylusions Creative Journal.

Most of my beginning messes are much more messy though!

2) Dark-Bright-Light

Include all three degrees of darkness in one painting.

Make color mixes and compare them in terms of darkness. By including all three – dark, bright, and light – you can achieve depth and atmosphere.

Mixing acrylic paints on a palette. You can use old lids as a palette.

Make clear larger areas so that you can point to different places in the background and say, there is dark, there is bright, and there is light.

Painting quick abstract flowers by using different color values.

Flowers can have all three – dark, bright, and light colors.

3) Forget the Real Flowers!

Don’t think too much about the real flowers.

Don’t think about what a rose looks like or what flowers you want in your painting. All that stiffens your expression.

A messy beginning of an art journal page.

Focus on the colors and let the flowers form from the brushstrokes.

Using a palette for painting quick abstract flowers.

After all, a flower is just a few colorful strokes and a line for the stem.

A small floral painting in progress.

Use your imagination when you look at your work in progress!

4) Leave Room for Spirit

Not everything needs to be defined or look like a flower.

Flowers are concrete matter, so let the colors express the spirit!

Painting flowers in an art journal. Playing between abstract and representational.

If you want to be extra quick, sharpen just one flower near the center and leave the others more abstract and vague.

Detail of a floral painting.

5) No Forced Feelings

Open yourself up to an emotional experience.

The speed of the painting depends highly on how soon you get an emotional connection with yourself and what you are doing. Let even the darkest thoughts come. For creativity, everything genuine is equally good.

Painted spread in a Dylusions Creative Journal. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

The beauty of making art is that imagination creates abundance and eternal life from almost nothing – from the leftover paint and leftover energy. And the more often you create, the more you get out of it!

Quick floral abstract from leftover paints.

Liberated Artist Revisited – Buy Now!

In Liberated Artist Revisited, we time-travel to meet the teacher – Paivi from 2015, and create new art with her.

Liberated Artist online course

This course is both for the left and right brain. The young Paivi gives systematic instructions while the older Paivi enjoys her freedom and ponders about art-making and life in general.

Paivi Eerola and quick abstract flowers in her art journal.

Liberated Artist Revisited is a limited edition – only available for purchase until the end of March 2024! >> Buy Now!

Inspiring Art Journals

Posted on Posted in Art Journaling, DoodlingTagged , , 16 Comments on Inspiring Art Journals

This week is dedicated to inspiring art journals that hopefully make you start creating right away.

Towards the end of last year, I started to really miss drawing. When I want to come up with ideas, I need a pen and paper! Or maybe I should say that I need my art journals because that’s where the ideas stay in good order.

An annual art journal spread of 2024. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

I made this spread in my colored pencil journal. 2023 is an old romantic woman that is going away and a young girl who is ready for adventure will take her place.

There are only a few pages after the previous year’s spread.

An annual art journal spread of 2023. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

I hope to make more pages in this colored pencil journal this year.

Inspiring Art Journals

This week, I picked up random art journal books and browsed them. I especially love the one in the upper left corner with the black and white drawings the most.

Inspiring art journals by Päivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

The drawings have no color but they are all full of ideas that still inspire me.

Black and white drawing from 2019. Illustration with black ink pen. By Paivi Eerola.

I now want to add ink drawings to my colored pencil journal as well.

Tiny Pages

Last year I bought a very small art journal. This is a pretty cute page!

A tiny art journal page. By Paivi Eerola.

All the reds and pinks looked very nice together.

Inspiring art journals by Paivi Eerola.

Years go by and my skills grow, but even the clumsiest covers still seem to fit with the new creations.

Doodler’s Resort

While browsing the journals, I found a spread with a transparent film in the middle. I had printed doodles on it and I still quite like the effect. This idea is from 2020, when the world stopped and I couldn’t do anything but mindless doodling.

Doodler's resort. An art journal page spread with a transparent film in the middle. Art journal ideas.

This art journal also has a lovely inside cover.

Inside cover page for an art journal.

Divide the Content!

I don’t understand why it took so long before I realized that I could add annual pages, inside covers, chapters, and other pages telling about the content of the book in art journals.

Chapter cover page for an art journal. Fun Botanicum is the name of the chapter and the online course by Peony and Parakeet.

Nowadays, I have a course called Fun Botanicum, where you make a chapter cover, themed pages, and an end page in the middle of an art journal.

Inspiring Art Journals Tell About Time

It was fun to look at old art journals and wonder how these are connected to everything that is going on now.

Inspiring art journals.

Time is a mysterious place. It is like an illuminated palace that blinds us. We can only walk away from it to the darkness. But as long as we are alive, we can start the adventure and get creative. “It takes a long time to become young,” said Pablo Picasso.

10 years of art journaling. A page made in 2014 and another made in 2024. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet. Inspiring art journals.
2014 and 2024

In my opinion, only by drawing can we know what we really think. The more you draw, the more your skills grow, and the more you will find out!

Do you agree?

Paint Beautiful Decorative Flowers!

Posted on Posted in Art Journaling, Flowers & Plants, HistoryTagged , 6 Comments on Paint Beautiful Decorative Flowers!

This week, we create stylized beauty. You will see how I painted these beautiful decorative flowers.

Beautiful decorative flowers by Paivi Eerola, Finland.

Time for Some Happy Art!

At least here in Finland, May-June is a time for parties. There are school graduations and then Midsummer at the end of June, which is celebrated not only by people but by Finnish nature too. Days are long and the deep sleeps during the dark winter are now coming into use. If different art forms had seasons, this uplifting time would be dedicated to decorative painting. Beautiful decorative flowers and other curvy motifs go well with the celebrations.

A detail of a hand-painted old chest.
A detail of a hand-painted old chest. A black and white photo from 1936. Photographer: Pietinen. From the archives of The Finnish Heritage Agency.

Decorative art is happy art for most people. Its tradition extends all over the world and it only requires a little sensitivity to beauty from the viewer.

Uplifting Art-Making

Three years ago, when the Corona lockdowns started, I buried myself in decorative painting. I made decorative collages from hand-painted papers and practiced decorative painting techniques.

Art journal cover. A collage of handpainted papers.
A decorative journal cover from handpainted collage pieces. See more: Painted Paper Collage -6 Tips for Intricate and Fun Art

These curvy forms and lines are still present in my paintings, where decorativeness is mixed with a more dynamic and abstract expression.

Menuetti - Minuet, a floral abstract oil painting by Päivi Eerola, Finland.
Menuetti – Minuet, oil on canvas, 2022.

Painting in a decorative style is fun. A few thoughtful brushstrokes create beauty, and even a beginner’s work looks great when viewed from a far enough distance. Over time, the brush mark improves and has an effect on all drawing and painting, even handwriting. And it’s the perfect style for cards and gifts!

Starting a Decorative Painting

As I watched the blossoms in apple trees, I felt like painting something small and nice to celebrate the beginning of the blooming season.

Starting a decorative painting.

I took out my black Dylusions Creative Journal and acrylic paints and painted the background very dark blue. Then I made leaves on top of each other, and so that they get lighter layer by layer.

Painting leaves in decorative style.
Dark leaves on the background, lighter ones on the top.

At the same time, I watched the videos of my course Decodashery.

Decodashery – Painting Techniques for Vintage Flowers and More

I still like this course a lot. Decodashery is beautiful, inspiring, and detailed in its instructions. It is also full of ideas. When the Corona lockdown was on, I had plenty of time to experiment with decorative painting and make more examples than usual. This course is for watercolors, gouache, and acrylic paints. You can choose what you want – most of the decorative techniques suit all of them.

>> Buy Now!

Beautiful Decorative Flowers in Two Parts

At first, I thought about making two separate paintings for this post but then decided to make one work in two parts. The first part is simple and stylized and the second part is more creative. In this first part, I used quite raw colors: mainly ultramarine blue and white. I also mixed some brown umber with them.

Painting beautiful decorative flowers - the first strokes.

To highlight the decorative theme, I painted some parts with silver acrylic paint.

Painting leaves with silver paint.

Finally, I added some Sienna brown and turquoise (manganese blue hue) to bring warmth to the details.

A decorative flower painting in progress.

Now the first part is finished. The flowers that are only partly visible give the impression of continuous space.

Beautiful Decorative Flowers – The Second Part

In the second part, I wanted to bring more depth and warmth to the work. So I spread a thin layer of yellow-green color over the painting.

Adding a wash over a painting to create depth and warmth.

I used glazing gloss as a thinner here, but you can also try to thin the paint with water.

Wiping of excess paint after adding a color wash.

Immediately after application, I removed the excess paint by rubbing the surface with a cotton cloth. The thin color wash warms the tones of the whole painting.

Beautiful decorative flowers - adjusting details.

After the color wash, the painting is a bit hazy. Next, I added more details and brought some of them back up from the lower layers. This sharpens the best parts.

Painting beautiful decorative flowers in acrylics. Dylusions Creative Journal, square, black pages.

I had lots of tubes on the table but only used a few. Decorative painting encourages making a variety of tones by adjusting the lightness and darkness of color instead of always changing the actual color.

Happy for the Artist, Happy for the Viewer

There were moments of joy that only decorative painting can give me while making the page. This style feeds gentleness and peace. And even if the pleasures of the decorative painting process are only experienced by the painter, the decorative painting leads to results that are extrovertedly joyous, ready to brighten up anyone’s day.

Beautiful decorative flowers by Paivi Eerola, Finland. A detail.

Decodashery online course – Paint vintage beauty – Buy Now!

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