How Realistic Should Your Art Be?
In this post, I divide visual art into two parts. The division is a bit extreme, but it helps us to ponder about this: How realistic should my art be?
Realistic or Abstract?
Realistic expression emphasizes drawing, while abstract work more often emphasizes painting.
When we draw realistically, we express things through the external world.
When we paint abstract, we use shapes and colors more freely so the tools for expression come from the inner world.
Realistic art can still express the inner world and abstract art the outer world – it is more about the means than the actual content.
It’s good to alternate between the realistic and the abstract approaches, even if one of them would feel more natural. Here’s why:
Two Extremes – Same Result
First, imagine a person who only draws representational pictures.
The danger is that the longer she continues on this path, the narrower her perception of reality becomes. All the leaves are green, the roads are brown, and the flowers are red and yellow. Everything is outlined with a pen, and the outlined shapes are then colored. When she creates freely without references, her shapes become more and more similar to each other. There is only one kind of leaves and the flowers are always drawn in the same way. When she repeats the same thing long enough, the expression gets narrower and narrower.
The person wonders why drawing no longer brings excitement and joy, even though she actually draws exactly what feels most natural to her.
Second, imagine a person who only paints abstract.
The danger is that the longer she continues on this path, the narrower her perception of reality becomes. The person begins to repeat a very limited number of shapes and colors without realizing it. All the spots are vague and quite the same size. The person begins to wonder if her output is something really fine and profound or just a random mess. Her motoric skills and the use of colors fall short because she does not really have a reference point: after all, she is only painting the stream of consciousness.
The person wonders why painting no longer brings excitement and joy, even though she actually paints exactly what feels most natural to her.
Creative Block
They say that there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
The two imaginary people have the same problem: their art no longer have miracles. They have stayed in their current comfort zone for too long.
How to Move Forward?
In this photo, you can see both abstract and representational elements; there’s very little division.
Ask, what is truly real?
- How do light and shadows express the object?
- How abstract is the nature of light? Look for motifs and patterns created by light.
- How light, on the one hand, blurs the boundaries of objects and, on the other hand, highlights details?
- How multi-colored nature is? Even a piece of grass contains a huge number of tones.
- Develop your eye and hand to embrace subtle diversity! Simple leaves or circles don’t express it.
Wassily Kandinsky has said:
“The observer must learn to look at the picture as a graphic representation of a mood and not as a representation of objects. “
Learning New Things Keeps the Artist in You Alive
It’s good that, from time to time art-making involves discomfort, questioning, and wondering about reality from strange perspectives. And when art starts to take you away from yourself, that’s not a bad thing either. Once you open up to what feels silly, scary, and not allowed, you’ll find that you’re closer to yourself and to humanity than ever before.
So, how realistic should your art be?
More realistic than what you currently create.
Pablo Picasso has said:
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Wild Garden – You Can Still Hop in!
In Wild Garden, we will paint freely, intuitively, and expressively from Sept 22 to Nov 14. We will begin with floral greeting cards and gradually move forward in expression.
The course has just started but you can still hop in!
>> Sign up now!
Gentle Morning – Expression Through Watercolor
This week, I share a watercolor painting that has more expression than correct botanical details.
I created a sweet, luminous atmosphere for this delicate flower painting, where the water appears soft, refreshing, and nurturing.
>> See more pics on the Taiko online art store
The gentle water and morning light express new beginnings that are filled with hope.
Life sometimes gives us gentle mornings – wonderful new beginnings. The mere thought of them lifts the spirit.
I feel that the delicacy of watercolors enables us to express in such a lightness that it deeply touches the soul. Real flowers also have a similar kind of comforting lightness.
I love to add tiny details and surface patterning on my watercolor pieces.
I am not a flower painter in the traditional sense. My flowers can tell stories.
You can express anything with flowers when painting freely. It inspires me so much! For example, when I see a color scheme that I really like, I think: “That could make a great flower painting!” Currently, I am thinking about Gothic-style flowers and dark colors.
Wild Garden – Paint with Me!
In the upcoming course Wild Garden we will paint flowers freely, intuitively, and expressively in watercolor. Watch the video and sign up now!
Wild Garden will begin on September 22, 2025. The early-bird sale will end on August 24 (at midnight PDT). Sign up here!
Creating Menagerie
This week, I share a recent acrylic painting called Menagerie and talk about the process. This is an example of making the most of the rich visual vocabulary – the topic that I talked about in last week’s video, but now we focus more on the idea of the piece rather than the style.
Recently, I have been thinking about the news feeds and their many truths. Although things are presented in beautiful phrases and pictures, the truth is much more complicated, and there are layers behind them. The same applies to people. Even though we try to be human, we are still animals, too.
When I paint, I struggle with the same thing: should I paint a flower or a soul?
I want to create beautiful paintings, but on the other hand, a painting is like a person. If you treat the painting superficially, you don’t get to see its true beauty.
I seem to paint better if I can partly focus on something else!
My goal is to give my paintings the freedom to be themselves and this painting really revealed its heart to me.
However, my task is not only to reveal the wild nature of the painting, but also to gently train it.
Menagerie is sold already. I hope it will bring joy to its new owner.
Details of Menagerie
Here are detail pics of the finished piece. I like how the style of this painting is partly illustrative. It looks like it’s partly drawn with a brush.
I wanted to create an impression that the animals are captive but still wild and strong enough to break free.
This painting has many layers and details.
I tried to bring up the similarity between flowers and animals.
Here you can see the big flower up close. The brush strokes are loose, but still, I painted them with a lot of thought and care.
I hope this inspires you to create too!
Painting a Mystery
This week is about painting a mystery and entering another world through art-making. My paintings are in an art journal and made with a loose touch.
It All Started from a Withering Bouquet
“The Midsummer bouquet has withered. I have to throw it in the trash,” I said. “But the setting is just like those old masters’ paintings,” my husband replied unexpectedly. And so I remembered this once again.
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time, there was
and there still is a world that you can get to from anywhere.
At first, it’s dark, but you can hear a woman reading a letter to someone.
You hear a clock ticking backwards, generating more time.
Then you know that it’s time to take a brush in your hand.
Squeeze the handle firmly and hear the trees moaning as their trunks slowly sink to the ground.
First, it feels silly to paint because there’s nothing to see.
But the darkness gradually disappears, and you realize that you are not alone.
Those strange creatures are all familiar to each other and, in a strange way, to you too.
In this world, everything has been mixed up.
You are the wind that shook the flower, and in blowing the petals back, you lost your soul to it.
You are the chair for which the imagination built a room to rest.
In this world, everything is unfinished. But if you are willing to hear and feel instead of only seeing what’s expected, everything is ready enough.
Painting a Mystery – Background Story
The idea of this blog post came from that short conversation with my husband. Then I had to take a photo of the bouquet and make it in the style of old masters.
After that, I remembered taking a photo of a painting called “Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table” at the exhibition of the H’Art Museum in Amsterdam. The painting is by Frans van Mieris from 1676.
While browsing my image archive, I was drawn by another photo, taken in the same trip to Amsterdam. It was a decorative mantel clock from 1782 in the Rijksmuseum.
The clock took my thoughts to a more recent visit in Porvoo, Finland, where my husband and I went to see Johan Ludvig Runeberg‘s home. The lovely interior was from the 1860s, and there was a big painting that I really liked. I took a photo, but haven’t succeeded in finding out who painted it.
After gathering the photos, I picked up my art journal (Dylusions Creative Journal Square) and started painting. I didn’t copy the photos, but let them soak in freely. I was just inspired by the atmosphere they evoked in me.
Hopefully this blog post inspires you to paint freely without strict plans and definitions. Painting a mystery is both fun and addicting – I am already eager to create more!