EXPLORER
Today I am an
I love to paint and I love paint!
ElenaArtPages.com is a place where I share my passion for watercolor art and mixed media. As a Calgary-based artist I create unique and original whimsical paintings in mixed media and watercolor! I love painting cute characters, animals and florals.
Watercolor is a medium that invites spontaneity, play, and freedom. There's a beautiful unpredictability in the way water carries pigment across paper, letting colors bloom and blend in unexpected ways. This sense of letting go of control and perfection makes watercolor deeply freeing for artists at any level.
When you introduce handmade granulating watercolor paints into the mix, the experience becomes even more rich and textural. These paints, often crafted with natural minerals and pigments, create a fascinating effect where the particles settle into the paper's texture, giving a subtle, organic granule-like appearance. No two brushstrokes are ever quite the same.
Using handmade granulating watercolors is like collaborating with the earth itself each pigment tells its
own story, separating and shifting on the page in ways that feel alive.
I love to paint like a little child I once was. With freedom and no boundaries! This type of fun painting is a huge part of me. When I paint I try to see the world through a child's eyes. No inhibitions, no rules, just paint. That's a wonderful excuse to make beautiful art. It doesn't even have to be art - just fun stuff, playing with art supplies and colors, and seeing what happens in the process.
Whether you're sketching loosely, layering washes, or experimenting with abstract textures, granulating watercolors invite you to slow down and embrace imperfection. They encourage you to feel your way through a painting rather than force an outcome, making every piece truly one of a kind.
Let me ask you this: when was last time when you did a fun, explorative, care-free painting?
I hope I can help you forget about being an adult (just for a moment) - come with me into a magical world of whimsical art and paint like a child, like you were once...
Love, Elena
ABOUT ELENA'S HANDMADE WATERCOLORS
Besides painting with my beloved medium - watercolors - I make my own watercolor paints. I use premium quality artist pigments and micas. The process takes a long time, a few weeks, even months. After grinding the pigment and introducing the binder to it, I mull it by hand. I use no fillers, just pure pigment, emollient and binder. Some colors may contain honey and are a bit more "liquid". I use pure 100% Canadian honey.
The pans are filled 1/3 at a time. To fill the whole pan it takes 4-6 fills, each with drying time of 1-3 weeks in between. Some cracking of the paints is natural (it doesn't affect the quality of the paints. Most of the time I make small custom sets, and since some of the pigments are hard to come by, they are sold in limited quantities.
Please sign up to my mailing list if you are interested in being notified when the colours become available.
You can also contact me with custom requests. Depending on what I have in stock, I can create a custom palette for you.
With love, Elena
