Self-Talk Archives - Peony and Parakeet

Autumn Watercolor Flowers

Posted on October 10, 2024October 10, 2024Posted in Flowers & Plants, History, Self-TalkTagged watercolors16 Comments

This week I share an autumnal painting and talk about how dreams and everyday events get mixed in my art.

"Satokauden kuulas" - autumn watercolor flowers by Paivi Eerola, Finland. — “Satokauden kuulas” – watercolor, size: A3

In this project, I made the autumn watercolor flowers freely like in the course Freely Grown.
The title “Satokauden kuulas” is a bit difficult to translate, but I explained it in the last paragraph.
This piece is for sale at the online art store Taiko.art!

Autumn Moments

Although I usually aim for a grandiose atmosphere, my art is a lot about insignificant everyday moments.

For example, when I …

… gathered apples from our apple trees
… walked in a rainy storm with the dogs
… admired autumn colors from the car window.

Painting flowers and leaves in watercolor.

Or when I smiled at the hopefulness of the roses in the front yard and promised to give them a home from a painting before winter would surprise them.

Floral Watercolor Dreams

When I paint in my small studio, my mind tells me that I am a flower painter in 17th or 18th century Holland. I imagine lovely high windows, old costumes, and the clatter of shoes on the street. I imagine the flower market and how I will assemble a bouquet from the best finds.

Admiring Flemish flower painters. Painting a dark background in watercolor.

But in reality, I’m just an ordinary Finn whose everyday life pushes through the brush.

Autumn flowers. Adding a color wash in watercolor.

There is a huge gulf between me and the master painter of the 18th century and yet I still jump into it again and again. Every once in a while, I decide to stop painting flowers because there’s so much more to paint. And yes, if I look at my oil paintings, my favorites don’t have many flowers. Nevertheless, the flowerless period never lasts very long.

When I go to the garden, the Flemish master is waiting for me there. He says: “It’s time to practice again, Päivi” I answer: “Yes,” and then assure him: “One day I will master this art of painting flowers.”

Painting autumn watercolor flowers freely without references. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

Still, I know that life can be far too short and far too mundane for me to ever reach that level. But like a rose facing winter, I take out my button and wet the paper again.

Adjusting an apple in an autumnal floral watercolor painting. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

This piece was painted on Arches Hot Press watercolor paper. It has a very smooth surface so it’s great for a detailed painting, but I also find it a bit challenging because every stroke shows!

What’s Behind the Title?

Even if I painted autumn watercolor flowers, can you also spot the apples?

This piece is called “Satokauden kuulas” and I think it’s a beautiful title in Finnish but a bit complicated to translate. “Satokausi” means harvest time and “kuulas” is a romantic word for translucent. But there’s more. “Valkea kuulas” is an apple variety that is called White Transparent in English. So I think that the suitable English name is “Harvest’s Transparent” even if it doesn’t quite have the same romantic sound as the Finnish version.

A detail of "Satokauden kuulas" - autumn watercolor flowers by Paivi Eerola, Finland.

This piece has a strong autumnal feel: bright colors meet more muted tones on a dark background.

Does the weather also appear in your art?

End of Summer – Freely with Watercolor Pencils

Posted on August 22, 2024Posted in Flowers & Plants, Sceneries, Self-TalkTagged watercolor pencils6 Comments

This week is about coloring freely with watercolor pencils. Let’s ponder about the change of season and how to process it through art-making!

End of Summer, watercolor pencil art by Paivi Eerola, Finland — End of Summer, watercolor pencils, size: A4.

New Season – New Colors Are Calling!

Even though the weather has been warm, I find that my thoughts are already turning to fall.

Coloring the bottom layer with raw umber. Using watercolor pencils for layering. — I started the piece by dividing the paper with a ruler and coloring mindlessly with raw umber.

When I open the box of watercolor pencils, my eyes immediately go to the brown shades.

Coloring freely. Using watercolor pencils for layering. — After filling the paper, I added new layers with brighter colors.

In the summer everything is bright and clear, the fall is darker and curlier.

Adding water to a watercolor pencil drawing. Doodling with a brush. — The water mixes the colors and creates new patterns. The brown bottom layer makes the brights more neutral and muted.

When Coloring Freely, Art Can Be Your Friend

10 years ago, I started as a full-time artist. At that time, art was a queen who I placed on a pedestal and looked up to. Today, art is not only my colleague but also my friend. We look at each other eye to eye and smile like-mindedly.

Coloring details. Watercolor pencils art in progress. — Abstract patterns are the best food for imagination!

“It’s such a sad feeling when summer is coming to an end. There is only a dark autumn and a cold winter ahead” I told her last week. “Don’t worry” she said, we have recorded the summer and there are many wonderful things in the fall too.

Drawing details with watercolor pencils.

Indeed, summer is recorded. In July, I started working on the course Joyful Coloring. Now when I edit videos, I devour them like comfort food. The sun really shines there. Happiness can be heard in my speech and can also be seen on paper.

A small project from the course Joyful Coloring in progress.

Everything indicates that I want others to have art as a friend too, not just on a pedestal.

Seasonal, But Freely with Watercolor Pencils

The watercolor pencils I bought in June (Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle) are already very dear. Because the color can be spread quickly with water, time is saved for details.

Using a brush to spread the color in the details.

It is important for me to keep not only painting but also drawing. By drawing freely, we create a bridge between the outer and inner worlds. We can break the glass and travel between what we see and think.

Using Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils for creating art. Creating freely with watercolor pencils.

I gave this piece the title “End of Summer.”

Watercolor pencil artist and her art. Paivi Eerola, Finland.

When I look at it, I get the feeling that an end can also be a new beginning. A joyful thought!

Joyful Coloring – Sign Up Now!

Start with blank paper and create freely with watercolor pencils!

Joyful Coloring - coloring freely with watercolor pencils, online art course

The new online course Joyful Coloring will begin on Sept 16, 2024.
>> Sign up Now!

New Beginnings in Art-Making

Posted on February 22, 2024February 22, 2024Posted in Abstracts, Artistic Identity, Self-TalkTagged acrylic paints, colored pencils, watercolors4 Comments

Let’s think about new beginnings and give one to our art-making!

One example of the course Liberated Artist Revisited - being wild and free in the beginning and more focused in the end. By Paivi Eerola, Finland.

In recent months, I have felt that a new era has begun in my life. It has been surprising. I have thought that I am already too old for anything new – that the new beginnings in life have already been experienced, at least in terms of working life. But it just so happened that my work as an artist has a new beginning thanks to the grant for creating digital art.

At the same time, I have gained a new perspective on the past and my artistic development. Now, it feels that life with its changes is full of new beginnings, and art, too, is full of them! There are big beginnings and then smaller beginnings within them.

Valuing Randomness and Intuition

I developed the latest course Liberated Artist Revisited, because I wanted to relive the idea of the old course Liberated Artist. I wanted to relive that time in 2015 when a new beginning meant letting go of excessive control and surrendering to happy accidents and intuition. Because isn’t it the case that whenever a new era begins, we need faith in chance and intuition – so, the art of letting go!

Paivi and her art. Read more about her new beginnings.

At the current new beginning, I have been thinking about what I have to give up. Because, couldn’t you say that life with its changes is full of not only beginnings, but endings, and ask if the same applies to art? While making the course Liberated Artist Revisited, I listened to Paivi from 2015.

Liberated Artist - Banner from 2015. — Old banner from 2015.

Younger Paivi was very prompt: Step A and Step B and so on. If I compare her and I, I am partly different and partly similar. I would do some things differently now but in many ways., I am still quite the same artist. The new course Liberated Artist Revisited is a dialogue between the old and the new. You could also say that I have changed as an instructor a bit. Nowadays, I want to open up your artistic thinking, not so much to exclude options.

Mixed media art-making in progress. New beginnings can include randomness and happy accidents.

Life is so grand that everything that once had a beginning, stays in our hearts for a long time, even if it has ended. It’s the same in art. I can smile at Päivi after more than eight years, but not ironically, but warmly. “It’s wonderful to create something new with you again,” I say to young Päivi, and it’s also wonderful to invite you all to a new course again!

Liberated Artist Revisited – Buy Now!

Liberated Artist Revisited is a limited edition – only available for purchase until the end of March 2024! >> Buy Now!

The Joy of Drawing Paper Dolls

Posted on January 5, 2023January 5, 2023Posted in Digital, Fantasy, Paper Collage, Portraits & Faces, Self-TalkTagged colored pencils2 Comments

This week is about drawing paper dolls. At the same time, we celebrate the social nature of hand-drawn paper dolls.

For an artist, the difference between a doll and a human is that the doll opens the door to a fantasy. Thus, drawing paper dolls is very different from painting portraits. But if I have to pick from the two, I would say that paper dolls make you more of an artist.

Paper doll as a nature's spirit. A digital collage of hand-drawn art. By Päivi Eerola, Finland. — A digital collage of hand-drawn art.

Compared to a human, only a doll can be a creature of the imagination – for example, a plant and a spirit at the same time.

Dream Wardrobe

Only a doll can have a wardrobe where every piece is organized.

Drawing paper dolls. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

Only a doll can get out of the box and go where ever the imagination takes her.

Only a doll can wear a butterfly as a wig and rose leaves as a bodice.

Flower fairies and beyond. Drawing paper dolls with colored pencils.

To be a fashion designer for a doll is the play we can’t resist.

Unspoken Secrets

Only a doll can hold the secrets that every artist has.

Because isn’t it so that no matter how close we are, there are dreams that we can’t tell anybody? Dreams that would perhaps sound silly, too grand, or too selfish. Dreams that make you an artist.

True Friends

Only for a doll a true friend is easy to find.

With paper dolls, I examine the social aspect of an artist’s life – how we can feel less lonely when creating and how the result can be a bridge between all the art that we have created. And when we give or share a picture of a doll, it also invites other people to play and connect with themselves and others.

Doll World – Drawing Paper Dolls

Come to draw adorable dolls and their dresses with me!

Doll World - an online art class for drawing paper dolls and their clothing.

Doll World lasts from January to May. When you sign up, you will get the published lesson right away. >> Sign up Now!

Color the Emotion

Category: Self-Talk