Travel with My Art #54: Maslinica bay, island Hvar Croatia

Hello dear readers and welcome to my 54th Travel art post! In this post, I'll share another seascape painting created for my 'Travel With My Art' series (one of the most fun series on my blog if I may say so myself). This time I'll take you to Maslinica bay in Stari Grad (island Hvar, Croatia). The medium for this painting is acrylics paints on canvas. I used one of my own videos as a reference. I have been working on this Maslinica seascape for six months if not more. Yes, it really took me that long! The reasons why this painting took such a long time to finish are numerous.

First of all, I was working with different art supplies than I'm used to. So, I spent a lot of time trying to get the feel of these different paints and canvases. I tend to do all my art shopping in Michelangelo gallery in Mostar, so this was a change for sure, and I had to wing many things. There isn't a really specialized art supplies shop on island Hvar (at least that I know of). I moved a lot last year because finding accommodation here is a real struggle, and I didn't feel like ordering it online. Secondly, I could just not get to a point where I was happy with this seascape. I painted over the sea so many times. I really wanted to capture the light, the reflections of the sea and so on. The sky, the hills and the background- it all was a lot of work. Thirdly, it is a complex painting. There are a lot of elements to this seascape. Fourthly, I might have let my perfectionism get to me. Finally, I had to take long breaks from painting this seascape because life got busy, and this resulted in the feeling I'm always starting anew. I worked on this painting for such a long time that I might have changed my painting style through the painting process. It was a challenge for sure. To be completely honest, I'm not sure the challenge is over. I might find more things to fix. Perfectionism can be tricky that way. Perhaps the best solution is to part with this painting and get some rest. :)

If Thousands of Brush Strokes Were a Painting!
Maslinica Bay on island Hvar, 2026

At some point, this painting almost started to feel like a toxic relationship, one I'm staying in because I invested too much time already. I wanted to move on, but I kept coming back to it. I know people love to hear how relaxing painting is, but I can't say that is my experience. Painting feels like work to me. Of course, nobody is forcing me to do it. I'm painting because I want to. It's work I choose myself.

However, it is not always easy. I think applies to everything really. If you want to get better, you need to put in the work. Of course, perfectionism is not always a good thing. Sometimes it pushes us behind the breaking point. On the other hand, sometimes perfectionism pushes us to actually get better, to learn something new, to improve our skills and so on. Finding balance is not easy, but then again nothing is.

I think it is good to talk about the energy that goes into creative work, because it often gets romanticized. People build up this romantic idea of art needing to be very relaxing and 'feel good', and when they try it and discover it is not always so, they give up because they think it means they are not artists at heart or that they don't have what it takes. Art is hard for everyone, and at different levels it is hard in different ways. Just like any other skills. If you try art and struggle with it, that's normal. If you've been doing art for a long time, and you struggle with it, that's normal as well.

A lot of people think art is something that happens magically or that you need to be born for it. Art does not really work that way, and I'm going to write about it. Art, whether you do it as a hobby or you take it a bit more seriously, will get frustrating at least occasionally. I'm going to write about many things in this post. About how you can take art seriously, but still not choose it as your main occupation. About how you can get better at anything if you put in the work. This is not meaning that you have to get better at everything. There is only as much as everyone of us can do, and there are only 24 hours in each day. However, everyone has some spear time, even if it is a couple of minutes. What we do with that time matters. Not because we need to be hyper productive, but because there might be something our soul really needs. Hyper-productivity that is imposed upon us by the modern society can be a really bad thing, but so can overconsumption, doomscrolling, being a couch potato and the other end of the spectrum (sometimes defined as curling into a ball), that is, when we don't do anything outside of our work hours. Balance is always needed, and it is something we have to figure out ourselves. There cannot be no replacement for actually using our head. Sometimes it will make sense to just get an extra hour of sleep. Sometimes it will make sense to get up early or stay up late to work on a painting or a project that is meaningful to you for whatever reason. There is no rule set in stone that will help you deal with a particular situation in your life, it is always an improvisation of some sort.

Details, details, detailed...I enjoyed working on the grass here. The contrast between the dry and the green grass leaves is interesting.

This post will likely turn into a long meditation at some point. Meditation about life, identity, hobbies, and how beliefs can shape our reality. The funny thing is that those beliefs are sometimes not even our own beliefs, just something we picked up along the ways. I'm going to write about how being unbothered in certain things actually helped me. How not expecting success helped me. How not believing that this world is a store where we picked items for helped me. How not expecting reward for everything I did helped me. How understanding that just because I'm not immediately paid for something does not mean that I'm not getting better at it or that it is not worth time invested in.

Some things are valuable at themselves. Art is valuable in itself. If for nothing else, because it tells a genuine story. Art is valuable in itself for all the reasons that AI art is not valuable. AI art is actually a contradiction in terms. There is no such as art made by a software. Elephants can make art. Other highly evolved animals like apes, dolphins and so on can make art. Humans can make art. That's it. Just humans and a handful of animals. AI can't make art.

People have many different ideas about art. In one sense, this kind of makes sense because it is sort of true that art can mean different things and even be different things. However, there are also some rules in art. It is like a language you need to become fluent in. It takes time and effort, but it can be done, any many have done it. Many have become fluent and proficient in the language of art. Just like with language learning, there isn't a single way to do to it. This does not mean that just anything goes. There are rules in art. There are also exception to rules. But you sort of have to learn the rules to break them. You also need to know exceptions.

People sometimes (perhaps more often in some countries than in others) think they need to give up everything to do art. Is this assumption founded in reality? It does not seem to be, as we can witness that millions if not billions of people make art. So, it is not just my opinion. It is something that is in our human nature. Most people who do art do not live solely of art. Even those who do art full time, often have to spend just as much time if not more, managing their art business and promoting it, then making art. Honestly, I don't even know would I like to be a full time artist. It sounds exhausting, even if you have help with many aspects of it. I never imagined being an artist as something easy, and I think I was always right about that. Artists who do art full time often have to do ten jobs at once. Of course, those who do art while doing other jobs have to make a lot of sacrifices, too. Still, it can be done. Every job is difficult in its own way. Art can be approaches as both. It is alright to do art as hobby. It is alright to do art as more than a hobby. I mean shouldn't it be the case of- whatever works for you.

Sometimes we also equal our pay, our job title and our worth. We equal how much we make with the value of what we do. However, one can get better at one's craft without making any money from it. Moreover, one can get worse at one's craft while making a lot of money from it. Of course, we should not run from the topic of money. Financial literacy is important. We all have a responsibility towards our financial situation, that is, we should do what we can to avoid running into debt, overspending and so on. Our professional life is usually the way we acquire our funds. Still, perhaps we are identifying too much with it. Just because we're not making money when doing something does not mean that something is not meaningful or important.

Reaching for those fine brushes to get those final details!

For example, recently we had a talk about some actors, where I concluded how someone can actually get worse at their job with time. In their youth, the actors we talked about were amazing talented. However, since they left Croatia for Hollywood, it is like their talent, craft and their very soul was sucked out of them. They had some of the best performances I have ever seen in their youth, only to be reduced to playing the same old Slavic villain part in Hollywood. Not surprisingly, their acting skills got worse, not better with time. They made millions for their films, but those films are garbage. Don't get me wrong, I don't judge them and that's not the point because everyone is free to choose. Most people would choose financial security over artistic liberty. However, is it really impossible not to have both?

I think this is something where we sometimes get it wrong. Creative work is hard, it takes dedication and a certain amount of vulnerability, any many people just give up. For example, these actors, if they really cared about their craft, they could have worked on it or did some independent productions. They got lazy, and their skills were lost. It happens. Maybe they also had something going on in their lives. There is nothing wrong in choosing a job that is well-paid. Still, if that job does not challenge a particular set of skills you have, you'll lose that set of skills. Some people get lazy and loose their skills. Is it because they get too comfortable once world proclaims them successful? It could be, I really don't know. Maybe it means they never had the drive in the first place, or that they were motivated by something else, or that they lost it along the way. Having a lot of money does not equal happiness and success, even if can obviously make our lives less stressful.

What I want to stress here is that success can be a layered and complex thing. People can get lost along the way, and lose all the artistic skills they had. If they are ok with that, I guess that's alright. However, not everyone will be alright with losing their skills or giving up something they were great at. So, the question is why we need to give it up in the first place. There is this big pressure to make money of everything we do nowadays, and if you really think about this, this can be very problematic. We really ought to think a bit about what constituted our success and what really matters to us.

I'm not saying that those who managed to get paid for their job are sell outs. That's actually a very bad thing to think, and more often than not it comes out of jealousy. When people complain that some actor, influencer or artist is a sell out or too commercial just because there are not struggling financially is criticism that often comes from a place of envy and jealousy. If someone keeps creating great stuff or producing great content, how are they are sell out? The point of my post is the complete opposite of that kind of thinking. My point is that we are responsible for our definition of success and the decisions we make in the process. If we define success as something superficial, well that is on us, isn't it? If we just mindlessly accept society's definition's of success, well that is also on us. We complain a lot about society, but often we are the ones who are so desperate to fit in, and we're afraid to looking within to see what our soul really craves. You cannot blame society and the pressure of modern life for everything. We can, however, examine what societal pressures can directly or subconsciously influence us, often without us being aware of it.

Just me holding my canvas (almost finished at this point)
Sustainable fashion files: The blue hippie dress with long sleeves and lace details (second hand) & the metallic sandals

The messages society send can be as confusing as it is contradictory. This is especially the case when it comes to creative hobbies and jobs. For some reason, creative work seems to be under a lot of scrutiny. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. If you do art as a hobby, you must get the maximum of relaxation from it because apparently nowadays we must be productive even when relaxing. If you art as something between an art and a hobby, for example you make a bit of money with it but do something else for a living- well, then you're just not ambitious. Apparently, today we also must be productive in our hobbies. If you do art professionally, well then you're too commercial and a sell out. It seems that artists can't win. It is not just artists. The modern world is full of these kind of unspoken expectations that can suck out the joy of living. That is why it is good to take some time to think about it. About how value is not determined by how much money we make. About how there is nothing wrong with making decent money with something you love doing- it does not automatically make you a sell out. On the other hand, not making money on something you love also does not make you a failure. At the end of the day, you have your own motivations, goals and so on. If you don't, you should. It is tempting sometimes to just live on the autopilot, but it never ends well. We simply have to think and use our heads.

I've lived long enough to see the job market change. Regular jobs can be just as insecure and challenging as anything else, doing art full time included. At different times in my life, I had too much work, at times I couldn't find enough work. Having a degree or even two does not automatically mean you'll get your dream job. The job market can be unpredictable. I washed dishes in a restaurant while holding a Master's degree. These things happen. The world does not wait for you, it moves according to its own rhythms. Usually, we are the ones who have to adapt. I spent many years on this planet and I came to realize that job titles and the societal definitions of success don't necessarily mean much. The definition of success can be terribly elusive, and if live your life according to what is currently in to believe, you'll find yourself in a lot of trouble.

wip: working in progress, painting bay Maslinica outdoors (but in another bay - bay Torac)

I never daydream about being an artist. I do art and I struggle with it. I like it, but I struggle. The same with my day job, that at the moment happens to be a position I'm actually qualified for. Language teaching work is demanding and time-consuming, but it is also rewarding. Working in school is harder than giving private classes, but I do both, and both can be equally rewarding. I think I would miss the social interaction and the social aspect of my job, if all I did was stand behind a canvas and paint all day. I mean I think there is even value in having a boring day time job. It could fulfill your need for social interaction without draining all your energy. Everything has its pros and cons. Just because you have a day time job does not mean you cannot do art. You don't always have to choose. Sometimes you can do both.

I've been told many things about art and doing art over the years, and I'm honestly glad I took almost none of it to heart, because honestly most of the art advice I got from people was misplaced, even if it came from the right place. I had some good advice, too, and mostly from people who are artists themselves. So, what are some things I've told? One thing I find interesting is that there are people who think that you'll automatically go bankrupt if you do art. I mean how is developing a skill get you broke? It does not add up. Sure, art supplies are not cheap, but as you get better with your art, you'll probably sell something sooner or later. One good sale can make up for a month of art supplies. It is also possible to do art with cheaper art supplies. Or just charge the art supplies with the painting. Even if you gift your art, sometimes people will want to repay you in some way. Art is valuable in itself, even if it does not pay off immediately. Another interesting thing is how people are obsessed with telling you how art is not worth the effort or that it does not pay off. My reply to that is- and spending countless hours scrolling through Netflix does? I think developing any skill pays off, especially if it is something you actually have affinity for. There are also those who get very upset on your account because your art is not appreciated. What makes art appreciated anyway and why should we get upset about it?

outdoor painting in bay Torac, inspired by Jelsa (on the left) and bay Maslinica( on the right)

No matter how good your art skills are, when you look at the old masters, you will probably feel humbled. They did not complain about being underappreciated, they worked on their art. I think we should all do that. It makes more sense just to work on our skills, then to obsessed about instant rewards and gratification. You're allowed not to overthink things and not to listen to everyone's opinion about everything. Take a deep breath and think about what you want and why? Is it something you're happy with? Where does this desire comes from? Does it make sense to pursue it? What is stopping you? Is it a genuine concern or just a belief you picked up along the way?

For example, at the moment I just want to get better at my art. I don't want to promote it. I don't care if anyone else likes it. I don't care if I sell it, or if someone thinks it's good or not. I just wanted to take it to a new level and that's it. At the moment, I want to be happy with it. I'll plan my next step when I get to my next step. I actually turned down some commissions, because I know I don't have a time to realistically finish them within a year with the hours I'm working and all. I cannot commit to a big time consuming commission right now because of work, but I can still do art- and I will.

Well, this turned out into a rather long meditation about art. I've been typing away for hours now. Let us get back to the subject of this painting of Maslinica. As I mentioned, I worked on this Maslinica seascape for months, and I actually have a number of videos that have documented that process. Let us have a look. A number of cats appears in these videos, and I want to thank them for their support in the painting process. I have no idea why cats like watching someone paint, but apparently they do like to support the artists, so thanks for that.

The first cat is Felix (also known as Bella and Frankie). He used to hang out in front of my apartment all the time last year and I wrote about him a number of times. I mistook him for a stray, but he was never one, or so it seems. Following the death of his owner, has found his home at multiple places. Anyhow, Felix really liked this paintings, it seems.

One of the challenges I had was as I said art supplies. This painting was actually mostly painted with the cheapest art supplies imaginable. The acrylic paints were an euro each, and the canvas a few hours as well. It was the only art supplies I could find. With them being cheap and all, the pigmentation of these acrylic paints was really bad. Some of them were even more weird and would not blend with others. The canvas was also terrible. I couldn't find any gesso, so I just had to layer and layer the paint. I also did not have the right brushes.

Do you know what I did at one moment? I actually cut out my own hair and taped it to make a fine brush so I could paint the details. I kid you not. You can actually see that brush in the video below where I'm showing how I painted the grass.

The cheap acrylic paints were often a nightmare to work with, because their texture was not consistent, but I also enjoyed how these paints challenged me. I think it is good to change art supplies or art mediums occasionally. It is also a good reminded, that it is artists and not the tool. I can paint a decent seascape with the cheapest of art supplies. I can even improvise a brush when I need to.

So, while the cheap art supplies were a challenge, they were not the most difficult thing about this painting. The difficulty was in achieving the depth I wanted. The difficulty was adding thousands of details. In other words, the difficulty was the painting itself. However, I don't want to be too negative so I also want to talk about the good things.

The good thing being that I'm very grateful to live on the possibly most beautiful island on the world. The good thing is being able to be inspired by all this beauty. The good thing is being able to work en plein air. Now, I did not work en plein air on the exact scene as there was construction going on in this bay. Most of the land here was bought by the French and they're building a resort in bay Maslinica. So, I couldn't paint on the spot. I did use a video reference as I explained, and a video I shot myself. However, climate being what it is, I was able to paint outdoors, on the patio, or the terrace of the places I was staying in. As you can see, I even enjoyed the company of cats.

I'm very grateful to be surrounded by the most amazing nature pretty much since I open my eyes until I close them. It's something I'm very appreciative off. This kind of beauty should not be taken for granted. I'm also grateful that I have the opportunity to try to capture this beauty.

Felix: 'Don't worry, Ivana! I'll guard your art with my life.' Or maybe he just enjoys the spot.

You know, I think having to make long pauses while working on this painting perhaps set me off my track a couple of times, but I think it also taught me some things. I made some mistakes while working on this painting and I corrected them. Sometimes I pushed myself working on this one only to mess it up and having to repaint the whole thing. So, yeah. Sometimes you need to just rest and let that canvas alone.

I don't know why I was so seized by perfectionism in this painting. It is not like I haven't painted seascapes before. I suppose I just really wanted to see visible progress and that got to me, perhaps taking away some of the joy of painting. Nevertheless, this painting taught me that sometimes you have to plan things through. Still, what is the worst thing that can happen if you don't? You just paint over your mistake.

As I said, most of this painting is actually painted with the cheapest of art supplies (both the canvas & acrylics). I did pick up my fancy Kolibri fine brushes towards the end, but for the most part I used a really cheap brush...and then also the one I made from my hair.

Am I happy with the final product? I'm still not certain it is truly finished. However, let's talk a bit about this place. The latest post in my Travel Art Series was actually also about Stari Grad. Now, that I think of it, Stari Grad has appeared in a number of my art travel blogs.

This particular bay is located right next to the ferry? So, what do I do when I get there early? I go for a walk to this bay. I always loved this bay, ever since I visited it for the first time. I still remember when there was hardly a walkable path to it. You had to go through the forest to reach it. Nowadays, there is a whole resort being built so there is a wide path leading to it. It is still a beautiful bay, though. Painting things that actually mean something to you just hits different, doesn't it? Sorry for using Gen Z slang, but it does hit different. That's the whole idea of this series. To capture places that truly mean something to me. Well, Maslinica Bay means a lot to me. It is a little oasis for me, and I think I'll always remember it that way, even if it changes. BTW there are a couple of places named Maslinica in Croatia, and even in some neighbouring countries. Maslina means olive in Croatian (and some other Slavic languages). Maslinica would mean a little olive. Surely enough, there are some olive trees in this bay. There are also a lot of pine trees. I painted them. I tried to do them justice. I tried to do all of it justice. The sky. The hills in the background. The impossibly gorgeous sea glittering in a thousand shades of blue, green, golden and silver. The dry grass that is white and gold, depending on how and where it captures the light. The little green patches of grass that hasn't dried. The little yellow flowers. The stones raising from the sea, enclosed by gentle waves. The light caught in the bush. The cute lonely house that captures the eye with its whiteness and the red orange roof.