Sneak Peeks at the Watercolor Course Wild Garden
The new watercolor course Wild Garden will start next week! Exciting! I have been working on this course since the beginning of June and have tried to make it my best course ever. >> Sign up here!
I recorded the intro in various places in our garden on a sunny day last month.
There is a variety of projects, big and small, and I also share some short technique practices.
My goal is that you feel like you are sitting right beside me, and we are creating together at my home.
We will create freely so that you won’t be accurately copying my piece, but you get techniques, tips, and ideas so that your painting grows with mine.
There are practices that grow your skills for making the paintings beautiful.
We examine light, shadows, hope, and mysteries that can be found in a garden and in nature in general.
Bold strokes are combined with thin and more delicate ones.
And of course, we play with color and let water also make the blooms.
Wild Garden – Sign Up Now!
This is the watercolor course who loves nature and flowers. 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 projects are fun, and I will be there in the videos even more present than ever.
>> Sign up now!
Watch the inspiring video and sign up now!
Our Garden in Watercolor
This week, I tell about our garden and share my watercolor paintings that have been influenced by it.
We create something like this in the course Wild Garden!
We bought our current house in the fall of 2011. We had had small terraced yards before so at first, we didn’t pay much attention to the yard and mostly focused on the house.
However, the big lawn slowly turned into a garden when my husband and I started adding plants.
See how I made this!
And now when I look back at my art years later, plants slowly started to take over there too. We bought the house, but it was the surrounding yard that changed us.
See how I made this!
Big Changes
My husband really got into gardening and in 2018 he made his long-time dream come true when the front yard was transformed into a Japanese garden.
In 2023, the backyard got a bigger makeover when my husband built a pond and the boring lawn was transformed into a pergola with English-style plantings and meadows.
See how I made this!
We create something like this in the course Wild Garden!
Local Nature and Watercolor
The words “English” or “Japanese” don’t describe our garden as well as “forest” and “water.” Our garden is a mix of external influences and Finnish nature. We have pines, birches, and wild flowers too.
We create something like this in the course Wild Garden!
There is water – not only in a pond loved by small birds – but we also have a stone water bowl “tsukubai”, and an imaginary water area built of sand.
See how I made this!
Our garden has a couple of berry bushes, strawberries for birds, two apple trees and a cherry tree, but it cannot be called a vegetable garden.
See how I made this!
See how I made this!
The front yard is dominated by conifers and flowers such as a huge hydrangea and many peonies and roses. The backyard has grasses and flowering perennials.
See how I made this!
See how I made this!
Garden in Watercolor
The garden is my husband’s artwork, but for me, weeding and planting is not enough, I need brushes.
See how I made this!
By painting, the story of a place changes to a more personal story. Rather than accurately sketching the specific locations, we should let nature immerse in us, and then express its beauty freely.
Wild Garden – Paint with Me!
In the upcoming course Wild Garden we will paint flowers freely, intuitively, and expressively in watercolor. Sign up here!
Wild Garden will begin on September 22, 2025. Sign up now!
Abstract Watercolor Flower Card
This week, I invite you to paint with me. Let’s make an abstract watercolor flower card!
Abstract Watercolor Flower Card – Watch the Video!
In this video, you see me both creating and talking about abstract floral art. Watch the video and paint with me!
I hope my love for abstract florals is contagious! Here’s the finished card again.
Watercolor cards are just precious. You can never have too many, and there’s always someone you gan give one to. That’s why the new course Wild Garden has many card projects.
Wild Garden – Paint with Me!
In the upcoming course Wild Garden we will paint flowers freely, intuitively, and expressively in watercolor. Sign up here!
Wild Garden will begin on September 22, 2025. Sign up now!
Half-Empty Art Journals I Should Fill Up
Last month, I went through my art supplies and wrote a post about the supplies I shouldn’t use anymore. After the post, I gave most of those useless-to-me supplies away. Now I have reviewed my art journals and have come to the conclusion that I have too many half-empty ones. I should fill these up and at the same time, end one era in my artistic journey.
I don’t mean I shouldn’t have any art journals or sketchbooks anymore, but I think I could do well with only one or two. I have grown my skills by drawing a lot, but now I feel I am more of a painter. Most of my creative energy nowadays goes into painting, and I mostly make either watercolor or canvas paintings. So, the books don’t serve me as much as they have in the early years.
Ten of my art journals are half-empty. I don’t think it’s realistic to fill them in a short time. On the other hand, I have small pieces and hand-drawn motifs that I could attach to the pages and make collage art. Anyway, I wanted to share my inventory. Time will tell how quickly these will be filled!
Art Journal #1 – Smash Book
Who remembers the Smash Books by K&Company? I have several, but only one of them is unfinished. This one has the best cover as I have attached my fabric drawing to it.
This journal has all kinds of pages, but I want to show you the spread that has slow stitching. I have just glued the hand-embroidered fabrics on the pages.
Maybe I could continue this journal with the fabric theme and search for other hand-embroidered pieces from my needlework stash?
Art Journal #2 – Accordion Book
This art journal is really fancy. It’s an accordion book with a separate casing. The paper holds watercolor well but it’s smooth enough for drawing and coloring too. I have got this as a gift from a student of my courses.
This journal has quite a many filled pages, but as it’s an accordion book, I could fill the rest of the pages with a watercolor painting that would continue from one page to another.
Art Journal #3 – Spiral Bound Sketchbook
I shared the process of making the collage cover in this blog post from 2020.
When I start making a new course, I often buy a new sketchbook, and that’s what happened here too. This book has mostly portrait drawings. They were drawn when practicing and gathering ideas for the course Innovative Portraits. Some portraits are very abstract like the one below.
This book has still many empty pages. Here, I could gather other face drawings that I have made over the years. I think that at some point, every artist wants to draw faces.
Art Journal #4 – Small Sketchbook
Most of my art journals are filled with colorful art and contain fairly little writing or black-and-white sketches. This little sketchbook has some interesting ideas and it’s more like a notebook about art-making.
This sketchbook is almost full, and could be filled very quickly with the ideas for the upcoming paintings and courses.
Art Journal #5 – Colored Pencil Diary
This journal is an Archer & Olive Notebook that I call my colored pencil diary. I have filled many pages already. For example, see the blog post about coloring without limits!
My favorite part of the book is the chapter that has fun plant-themed pages. I made them for the course Fun Botanicum.
Even if this journal has many filled pages, it still has a lot of blank pages. However, I feel the journal is ready to be called finished. Should I remove the blank pages? What do you suggest?
Art Journal #6 – Bullet Journal
I love bullet journals but don’t usually draw in them. However, in 2018-2019 I bought a dot-grid journal just for small drawings. These became inspiration pieces for the course Animal Inkdom.
The drawings leave room for writing, and there are many empty pages left. I think I should remove this journal from my art journal shelf and use it for bullet journaling once my current bullet journal gets full.
Art Journal # 7 – Tiny Sketchbook
My smallest art journal is still quite empty. It has some lovely drawings, though!
Should I continue this, or just take out the pages and glue them on another art journal? When I carry a journal with me, I prefer a bigger one.
Art Journal #8 – Dylusions Creative Journal Square with Black Pages
Dylusions Creative Journals are sturdy and their paper is quite thick. I like to practice painting by filling their page. Black is a nice background, especially when I use leftover paints from the palette.
This is the kind of journal I still want and need. It will get filled over the years and there’s no pressure to do it right away.
Art Journal #9 – Moleskine Watercolor Notebook
Moleskine watercolor notebook is a small journal, but it has lovely panorama spreads and nice paper. See this blog post for more inspiration!
I am going to continue this one, for sure!
Art Journal #10 – Dylusions Creative Journal Square with Cream Pages
Dylusions Creative Journal with cream-colored pages is my favorite art journal. This journal works well with colored pencils, for example, see this drawing tutorial of Vermeer Girl!
The inside cover is colored freely with felt-tipped pens. I used thin marker paper for the drawing and then glued the paper on the cover.
I started this journal about five years ago, and have almost filled it. But I like to keep working on the older pages, making them more beautiful. Like with the black journal, leftover paints find their way here.
The paper holds water fairly well, and I use watercolors, acrylics, and oils there. I only wish that the paper would be bright white, not cream-colored. When the journal is full, I will record a flip-through video of it.
Half-Empty Art Journals – Question!
I have a shelf that has many full art journals. I have now put the half-empty ones on the right, so that they don’t get mixed with the full ones.
How many half-empty art journals do you have? Leave a comment!
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. Sign up here!