Visual Voice / Style 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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Crazy about Ornaments!

Päivi — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:02:07 +0000

I believe that in every artist’s journey, there are moments when you feel you’ve hit the core—or at least, you’re getting very close. For me, many of those moments have been about ornaments. I simply love drawing and painting decorative lines. This week, I share a recent watercolor painting that is full of ornaments and […]

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Inside the Creative Process: Art, Words, and Morning Robes

Päivi — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:51:55 +0000

I often find that the bridge between painting and words is a difficult one to cross – especially when your latest work decides to speak a language of its own. Even though I’ve always loved writing, being a visual artist often brings moments inside the creative process where words simply disappear. Lately, I’ve been painting […]

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About Music and Painting

Päivi — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:08:53 +0000

This week, I share a painting that had a big goal: to achieve a similar effect to uplifting music. I think that all painters envy musicians because music can make great emotions flow in an instant. Music can make us feel that the world is expanding into the universe and at the same time, shrinking […]

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Making Florals More Modern

Päivi — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 14:36:47 +0000

This week, we are making florals more modern! So, when you want to get away from a botanical look, and draw and paint flowers that are more abstract and expressive, here are my tips for you! In my recent painting Gossamer, I have stretched my style to a modern direction. The painting was born much […]

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How Realistic Should Your Art Be?

Päivi — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:56:07 +0000

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. […]

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Maximalist or Minimalist? Style Experiments in Art Journal Pages

Päivi — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 10:27:06 +0000

This week, we experiment between maximalist and minimalist styles. Every time I open one of my art journals, I feel a sense of relaxation. It’s time for experimentation and risk-taking. In art journals, failure can also be success. Page by page, I learn to know myself better and thus, express things that can also be […]

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Creating Menagerie

Päivi — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 09:37:48 +0000

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, […]

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Develop Your Art Style Without Forcing

Päivi — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:14:28 +0000

When you want to develop your art style, you don’t have to force it. Stop feeling frustrated not being focused enough and s tart growing the visual vocabulary: learn how to create a variety of shapes and lines and find different ways to use color. Whether you want to paint abstract art or fill your […]

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Visual Vocabulary First, Style Second

Päivi — Thu, 29 May 2025 17:10:18 +0000

This week is about visual vocabulary and how to widen it. I often hear the worry about finding the style, but more rarely about widening the vocabulary. Style is a quality word, but vocabulary is more about quantity. Still, it’s as important, and you can’t find the style without growing the vocabulary! Often when we […]

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How to Discover Yourself as an Artist

Päivi — Wed, 07 May 2025 14:40:27 +0000

This week I share deep thoughts about how to discover yourself as an artist and how to get discovered. I have a video for you and also, some photos of making a recent large oil painting called “Atlantis”. When I paint, I am an introvert, but after the session, I want to connect with the […]

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Inspirational Drawing Changed My Life

Päivi — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 17:47:39 +0000

This week, I share a story about how drawing changed my life – how art can start from discovering your living line and then drawing it over and over again. Now is also the last chance to buy my course Inspirational Drawing! The course will go away on April 21st at midnight PDT. >> Buy […]

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