Towards Bliss

Towards Bliss is a short animation, which is originally based on my artwork called Bliss (2017). It is not intended to tell a full story, rather, it reveals a short glimpse of atmosphere of the original work. The animation is about letting go, focusing to bring yourself in that stage where all the worries and happiness are the same. There’s no difference between feelings. You are just floating in that moment, you might even call it meditation.

I’m really excited about this piece and also excited about the music I composed. This is one of my first composition in years and I’m pretty pleased with the outcome. Please have a look and let me know what you think.

You may view the original artwork, Bliss, on my art shop.

 

Prayers Of Childhood

In memory of loving Grandma who continued her journey one year ago. Thinking of her and feeling so lucky & grateful that she was my Grand Mother (Mummi in Finnish).

My artwork, Prayer of Childhood is very personal to me as it illustrates my early experiences from my childhood when my mummi taught me gratitude and forgiveness in a form of prayer. Over the time, the prayer got a shape of a path in my mind. In this path every family member, relative, friends or even a pet had its own place. When I prayed I followed the path and made sure that all above mentioned were included. Now, the prayer travels through the path and finally it gets released and the energy continues spreading around us.  Below you may view a video on the artwork. It illustrates the path of Prayer and hopefully gives a deeper insight of the artwork. Please have a look and enjoy!

Little bit more about background of the artwork. Prayers of childhood is an outcome of a quite long journey of research on depicting invisible phenomenon, where music has been a big inspirational source and tool in my practice.  The piece is part of a little series called the Mind’s Patterns. I started my journey to find ways of illustrating music, where I have now moved on to depict everyday events. That is to say, I am transforming some patterns I have created over the time in my mind; For instance, how I see a week, it has a certain kind of shape. You may view more of works from the Mind’s Patterns series here. Also, the original artworks are for sale on my shop

Finnish Sauna -project

As you may know, as a Finnish person I loooove sauna, hehe. Here in UK it’s been a bit of a struggle to find a nice sauna. For instanc, most of the time saunas in gyms are electric heated and temperature is controlled; steam is always very less and air is too dry, that is, not at all what sauna supposed to be. Of course heat is still there and you get relaxed but if you have ever experienced sauna with a wood-burner there’s no going back to electric ones. Löyly, (=steam) in wood-burner Saunas is so gentle and moist, which gives you totally different feeling as if the whole sauna is giving you a warm and gentle hug.

After introducing Finnish sauna to my hubby during our first trip to Finland we couldn’t stop dreaming of our own one. And, as my husband is super handy and creative he suggested why don’t we build it in our shed. Obviously neither did he or I have built sauna before, but after research and consultation from my family and friends we decided to go for it. We ordered sauna kiuas (=wood burner) and stones from Finland and rest of the materials we purchased in UK.

It took us about six months to complete the work. All the credits goes to my husband, who designed and executed the project. He had always some extra energy to jump into the project in the evening after his actual work. My role was to give my approvals on designs and workmanship, and of course take care of our little one who was at that time veeeeery little <3.

Now, when it is already over one year since we started the project, I couldn’t be happier about the outcome and I’m consider us so lucky that we have this luxury to have our own sauna. It gives such a deep relaxation and revives energy levels. Also, it is amazing remedy for skin as steam opens pores and makes it feel soft. These days we have launched Sunday Day Sauna, which is all about preparing to take sauna together. That is, bringing wood inside the sauna, filling up the water bucket, light the fire in the burner and steer it while sauna is getting warm, let alone enjoying amazing fragrance, which is floating around the sauna room. It is like beautiful ritual one can experience. Then after sauna enjoying aftersauna feeling with some beverages and light food. It is amazing. On top of that, as it is handmade by my husband it has certain energy and feeling when entering to the sauna. It’s like an artwork.

The video above is made by my hubby. Please have a look and enjoy! If you have any questions regarding sauna, please do not hesitate to ask. I would be more than happy to have some conversation around it.

Polar Bear in Spring

Spring is the time when nature wakes up. Sunlight becomes stronger and days are getting longer and warmer. It is a big change for all of us. It is not only time for new beginning but can also be a threat. With my work I am expressing my concern towards fragile nature by composing a Polar Bear laying on ice while strong sun rays are melting his living territories.  Evaporating organic shapes of water gives its last shimmer in bright colors. Partially violent outlines of the bear in black and orange create contrast and illustrates distressed state of nature, last moments of Polar Bear.

This animation is the very first, of which I have ever created. It’s already 3 years old but I never publish it, I guess I felt too shy. It is based on my similar painting, which you can view here. My attention was to make the artwork alive, show a little glimpse of Polar Bears last moments. The theme of this artwork is quite sad but unfortunately that is the reality of Polar bears at the moment. You can read more about them here.

Man of Steel

I’m sure you all have heard of Captain Tom Moore, who raised money for NHS’ battle against Covid19 by walking in his garden. His aim to raise £1000 is already turned £ 32million, which is absolutely amazing and unbelievable! As he turned to 100 years 30th April, I would like to congratulate him, Happy Birthday Man of Steel!

Captain Tom Moore, Man of Steel

My inspiration to draw this piece of art derived from, when I first saw a picture of Captain Moore sitting on his motorbike and he poses with trophies in civilian clothing. I noticed his clothes were creased, and a fancy tie gave me an impression of a gentleman with brave and persistence character, which is why I named the work as Man of Steel. This art represents his gentleman soul and achievements he gained with his favourite hobby.

Pencil and Pitt Pens on 150g paper, A4.

Spring II

Below work is an order from a client who was atracted to my former artwork piece called SpringThey found fascinating the idea of life under soil. We had some interesting discussion around the work during the creative process; how to plant some seeds of flowers or vegetables in autumn and imagine what is happening underground during the winter season;  how seeds would look like,  how they would develop and create a network of roots and branches, what kinds of obstacles plants would face, how water would move trough subterranean pathways and how all the activities would connect to each other.

 

Media: Watercolor, fiber-tip pen on 300g paper, 50×70 cm

Cardigan Bird & Aurora Borealis

 

Below artwork is part of the I used To Be…-concept (see also Cardigan Bird).  As I’m not living in Finland at the moment, I have regognized that when I’m working on the concept my mind tends to fly back to my home country quite often. I think the idea of the concept suits quite well into Finnish environment, both, from nature and  from Finnish mindset point of view. Perhaps it is also my way of long for my homeland and make it more nostalgic in my mind; create a fairytale environment where snow is always brighter and shining, and because of kaamos (=the polar night) sky reveals different shades of blue which also change the color of entire nature.

 

 

Media: Watercolor and pigment ink on 300g paper, 33×28.5 cm

How Rainbows Are Born?

Below illustration is requested by a parent, he wanted an artwork for his daughter when she turned to 4 years old.  Quite often I take inspiration from nature. I love to imagine/illustrate things what we can’t really see but are important part of the different natural processes. So this was also the case in the theme of the work, though with a little sprinkle of fairytale. We all have been taught that rainbows are born when sun rays hit the raindrops and the white light is broke down to color spectrum (raindrop works like prism). But what if that is not the whole truth?  The work zooms into this event imaging Raindrop-Girls who are creating the rainbow.

Below you may see different stages of the illustration from the drafts to finalised piece.

           

 

              

 





Watercolour, gesso and fibertip pen on 300g paper, A3

Waiting for the snow

“Autumn is definitely my favourite season. What I love about it are colors of the nature and the quality of crisp air when the weather gets colder. It makes me feel calm and save.  Later, just before the first snow covers the ground, I can sense the stillness of the nature, it tells me that everything is fine and it is ready for winter.”

 

 

Watercolour, Gesso and Fibre-tip pen on 200g paper, A3

 

Nature and Lines

The first thoughts of making the below piece were to cherish the beauty of nature; point out the beautiful colors and shapes and note that eventually we all are part of it, as unfortunately we tend to forget it.  Later, working on the painting further, I noticed that the method I draw lines became equally important theme in the work. This was my first time I was working on with a fiber-tip pen on a heavy structured surface. That is, it was almost impossible to draw straight lines when using black pen. Instead of forcing the lines, this learning made me emphasise the beauty of structured surface and follow the material when forming lines; I wanted that lines can float freely. I found, it also supported the actual theme (cherish beauty of nature) as lines made the painting more lively and nature-like when I couldn’t completely control the outcome.


 

Work in Progress:

 

 

 


 

Finalised work

Watercolor, gesso and pen on 300g paper, size 68×98 cm