Finishing Archives - Peony and Parakeet

Semi-Abstract Floral Still Life: A Painting Inspired by Dutch Masters

Päivi — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:54:42 +0000

This week, I want to show you a piece called Damask. It is a dark, semi-abstract floral painting. I often try to create lighter works because they sell faster, but if it were up to me, I would paint almost only dark pieces. There is something valuable and very private about dark tones. The painting […]

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Floral Watercolor Painting – Finding the Expression from the Details

Päivi — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:22:39 +0000

This painting, “Touched by an Angel,” is the latest in a series of three floral watercolors I’ve created for the Finnish Painters’ Union’s art sales event. I will also have two oil paintings available there, but the three watercolors were also an effort because they have a lot of details. Finding the Name It’s quite […]

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Painting Seascapes – Making The Scenery Look Bigger

Päivi — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 13:18:50 +0000

This week, we dive deeper into painting seascapes and other big sceneries. In spring, I thought my painting Atlantis was already finished, but after seeing the ship paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in May, I realized that I had made my seascape painting too simple and small-scale, and went back to working on it. […]

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Painting Small Wildflowers

Päivi — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:14:07 +0000

This week, we explore the beauty of small wildflowers and find what we can learn from nature when painting them. I had a small blank canvas that I wanted to paint on before Midsummer. I did it with acrylic instead of oil because acrylic paint dries faster and you don’t have to wait days for […]

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Revamping Watercolor Painting with Watercolor Pencils

Päivi — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:40:29 +0000

This week, I am revamping an old watercolor painting and sharing some things I have learned over the last five years. Let’s make your paintings more fantastic with five tips! The size of my example is 28.5 cm x 28.5 cm, so 11.25 inches x 11.25 inches. Revamping a Watercolor Painting – Best Candidates Here […]

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Finishing a Watercolor Painting

Päivi — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:15:57 +0000

This week, I have a video about finishing a watercolor painting. Painting Freely and The Challenge of Finishing I paint watercolors freely without models or reference photos. It’s exciting to see what appears on the paper and to examine random spots trying to find flowers and plants, which are my favorite subjects. I believe that […]

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Selling Watercolor Paintings as Gifts

Päivi — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 13:14:22 +0000

This week, I talk about making and selling watercolor paintings as gifts. At the same time, we celebrate the playfulness of watercolors. I love gift shops. My dream for a long time has been that, in addition to large oil paintings, I could sell smaller pieces as gifts. Recently, this has come true. I have […]

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How to Add Depth When Coloring Freely

Päivi — Thu, 30 May 2024 09:18:46 +0000

This week, we will color freely on a watercolor background and learn about adding depth to our colorings. I am using regular colored pencils, but you can also use watercolor pencils. My drawing is inspired by the garden and the ornamental shapes of the plants, insects, and birds. So, let’s go deep in the garden […]

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Using White as a Color in Painting and Drawing

Päivi — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 09:34:35 +0000

In this post, we explore the color white and find ideas on how we could change the way we use it in art-making. I posted this painting about a month ago, but I still had to fix it! You might not notice the difference, but it matters to me. I have changed the center of […]

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Ninety-Ninety Rule for Art-Making

Päivi — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:22:49 +0000

This week, we talk about the agony that’s associated with finishing. Last fall, I had a turning point when I started making digital art. I’m not giving up painting, though. There will be just fewer oil paintings this year. New Start This year’s first oil painting started already in October last year. First, I made […]

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Restarting a Painting

Päivi — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 12:39:09 +0000

This week, we talk about restarting an old painting or restarting creating so that we have a new confidence and freedom. This piece called “For Liberty” was been painted on the top of an old work. It was a bit challenging to photograph because it’s painted on wooden paint board – a very smooth surface […]

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Inspired by Nature – Finishing a Series of Paintings

Päivi — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 13:17:34 +0000

This week, I celebrate a big finish – the series of ten nature-inspired oil paintings that I started in July! The series has four small, four medium-sized, and two big paintings. All of them are some kind of floral landscapes. Small Paintings + Video! I worked from big to small. I like to start the […]

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