Abstracts Archives - Peony and Parakeet

Modernistic Style – Create Abstract Art Step by Step!

Päivi — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:52:07 +0000

This week, we take a practical dive into modernistic style. My favorite modernist painters are Birger Carlstedt (1907-1975) and Sam Vanni (1908-1992) from Finland. The most famous modernist was, of course, Pablo Picasso, who was Spanish. My piece has some figurative elements. Although it’s abstract, you can also see plants and light. With this technique, […]

The post Modernistic Style – Create Abstract Art Step by Step! appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Exploring Light and Mass When Creating Semi-Abstract Art

Päivi — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:16:43 +0000

This week, I show my latest painting and talk about creating semi-abstract art where some details are quite realistic, and others are more abstract. I also give five concrete ideas for creating semi-abstract drawings or paintings. For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on four “sisters.” They are all the same size, yet […]

The post Exploring Light and Mass When Creating Semi-Abstract Art appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Colored Pencil Tutorial “Limitless World”

Päivi — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:41:41 +0000

This week, I have a step-by-step colored pencil tutorial for you. It’s called Limitless World. We color without outlines and end up with something that is partly realistic and yet more creative and limitless than any traditional drawing. Supplies This tutorial uses regular colored pencils, but feel free to try it with watercolor pencils, watercolors, […]

The post Colored Pencil Tutorial “Limitless World” appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Video: Artist’s Life and Inner Inspiration

Päivi — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:35:55 +0000

This week, I made a video blog post where I share what I have been working on lately. This watercolor piece is one of them. In the video, I also talk about the inner inspiration – that not everything has to come from outside, but there’s a lot within our inner world already. You get […]

The post Video: Artist’s Life and Inner Inspiration appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Intuitive Abstracts with Colored Pencils

Päivi — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 13:36:22 +0000

This week, we create abstract art with colored pencils so that we let our intuition lead us. If we only draw realistic art, we miss the layer that is under it. I often call my abstracts “skeletons.” They show how my art is constructed and what its spirit is. By creating abstracts, I can adjust […]

The post Intuitive Abstracts with Colored Pencils appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Making a Creative Impact – My Words for 2025 and 2026

Päivi — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:16:24 +0000

I like to choose a word for the year that guides my actions. In 2025, it was “Release”. This year, it’s “Impact”. I think that Impact is a natural continuum of the word Release. Once you have learned to release a lot, it’s time to learn more about making a creative impact. Have You Chosen […]

The post Making a Creative Impact – My Words for 2025 and 2026 appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Building a Mystical Course with Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia

Päivi — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:26:49 +0000

Usually, after making a course, I think: never again! It takes time to get new ideas and energy. But this time, after finishing Wild Garden, I had a new idea right away, and it felt like someone was talking to me: “You must do this, Päivi. If you don’t, nobody else will.” The upcoming course […]

The post Building a Mystical Course with Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Intuitive Art Journaling

Päivi — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:02:27 +0000

Art is more than re-coloring what we already see. This week, I talk about intuitive art journaling and inspire you to follow your spirit and create more freely. Even if we continuously grow our skills as artists, the joy of art-making disappears if we use too much reasoning. It’s good to practice the technical skills, […]

The post Intuitive Art Journaling appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

Following the Inner Color

Päivi — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:37:38 +0000

Here is my latest completed oil painting “Elixir.” I start my abstract paintings with the idea that I follow an inner color. Color Chooses Color The inner color is the color I feel drawn to, so I tend to pick and mix the first colors intuitively. And then, they wish for other colors to accompany […]

The post Following the Inner Color appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

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. […]

The post How Realistic Should Your Art Be? appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

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. […]

The post Painting Seascapes – Making The Scenery Look Bigger appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.

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, […]

The post Creating Menagerie appeared first on Peony and Parakeet.