Suomenlinna, Finland, with two techniques.

I love Suomenlinna Fortress, situated on islands in front of Helsinki, Finland! Here are two versions, drawn on the very same place on the first island. Uppermost was drawn with ordinary pencil (I prefer HB), the lower with calligraphy felt-tip pens (I apply sizes from 1 to 3 mm). I had certain difficulties with the clouds in upper drawing - today I may draw them differently. I like to add some birds - thank you for the tip, Henrik Tikkanen!

Workshop of old colour pen drawings!

Quiet winter nights of Muuratsalo are excellent for silent work with drawings. I do not paint with oils in our home (poor ventilation, limited space etc.) but drawing on the kitchen table...that is great and very much therapeutic. Like some kind of meditation?

I have several drawings from past years which were not finished. Main reason for this situation is too careful working: what more should be done, what not...?

I follow the guidelines of educational art books and start with light colours which can the be deepened by new colours (this is the opposite way to oil painting where highlights will be set at the end). It is always possible to draw darker lines with pencils but all additions of white is impossible. This is why I always start with light shades.

There are still many dark nights left during this winter time. I love them.

Sunbathing in B&W?

This old charcoal drawing is all B&W. Does it need some colours? What do you think?

R.I.P., "Music Center" Rantala.

RANTALA was an active site for our rock band on 60's and 70's. It was an old, wooden house with two floors in Joutseno, Finland, on the shore of Lake Saimaa. We have spent several evenings, even some nights, there by playing blues and rock. The bands we respected most (and whose recordings were originally published in those years!) were THE CREAM, JOHN MAYALL, KING CRIMSON, ELP, COLOSSEUM, LED ZEPPELIN..."Those were the days", indeed!

This building has been demolished for years ago. Still missing it......

Violet and green....

Christmas time is now over, and I will wish a very good new year 2015 to every one!

The period before Christmas was relatively depressed in our family and I think that the reason was the total lack of snow! What I now wish is more that white stuff, please!

I noticed this combination of colours when checking my photos: GREEN and VIOLET!

The idea to use these two colours was not exceptionally conscious when I started to paint "Grandma's Green Tablecloth". It was a surprise to observe the very same colours on me myself! Mmmm....interesting combination or a total mistake? What do you think?

Minor Winter Exhibition by KOPRU.

A cozy new gallery called GALLERIA KOSKI was opened recently by three members of KOPRU art society, who also have their ateliers there. Eight KOPRU members have installed some of their works on this exhibition area yesterday. Some art and several art postcards are also for sale.

The address of the gallery is Savonmäentie 3, Vaajakoski, Finland. It is open weekly from Wednesday to Sunday, 13:00 - 17:00. Welcome!

- More photos soon in this blog......

Portrait of "Blink Blink Girl".

Night-time is absolutely the best time to focus on new things. Portraits have, honestly to say, not been "my business" but I started to train them last night (I am living during night-time because the darkness of Finnish late autumn - I tend to sleep during day-time).

After drawing landscapes and buildings already over 20 years, I am not afraid to seek the shapes of faces. What is difficult are the shadows and tones.

I tried to finish the shadowed areas by using a heavy pencil hand and then lighten the shadows with an eraser. This technique works but may result an uneven shadow (ref. the left-side cheek of the girl). Very thin lines may be a better solution?

I told my wife this morning that "I have spent my time with commercial girls: they have all the time of the world and they do not get angry if the final drawing isn't good".

Next I try my color pencil. Let's see....

"A Day in Wyborg".

You may recall my post about the familiar yard in the old town of Wyborg?

After finishing this drawing I went to my framing company in Jyväskylä city (Flyktman Ltd., I strongly recommend it!). My wife prefers relatively strong-colored passepartout, and she was right!

I think that the value of this work is hidden in its details.

As you know, Finland has lost this ancient Hansa town to "CCCP" after WW II. Very many specialists in Finland think, however, that this event actually saved the old, fine buildings of Wyborg center - no "carton box architecture" like big hypermarkets but the old houses are still there! Not in the best conditions, maybe, but some of them are fixed up in recent years (The Library by Alvar Aalto is the best example).

My wife said: "There is a feeling in this drawing", and she is (again) right. I think that I have put something in the details of this, otherwise relatively humble, drawing.

Late spring on the shore of Ala-Kintaus Lake.

This is an example of those rapid drawings which I preferred to do some ten years ago. When travelling, one has not too much time to prepare his/her piece of art (if not taking a photo and continue afterwards with time).

The horizon is really over there: it is the opposite shore on the left side of the drawing. The shoreline of the cape and vegetation on the lake are NOT horizontally installed; they actually followed the reality. They have, therefore, some odd, confusing effect - but I still let them be like they are. Nature not always follows our orders....

Technique was simple: just drawing with calligraphy felt-tip pens and color pencils. I tried to express some feelings of Finnish spring (1.5.2006) when there were no leaves yet, water was icy and everything was waiting warmer days of early summer.

FUTURE LADY

Sometimes I found old drawings as photocopies. It is, of course, a wise way to do experiments with copies, not with originals.

In this case I scanned an old drawing (2006) and modified it with the very same scanning program, SYSTWEAK PHOTO STUDIO, which was an appendix for the scanning program itself. I have ordered these programs from Internet, with a relatively low price, and I am satisfied with them.

The red version will (I wish that it really will!) show an active, young lady - maybe slightly faceless - looking towards her future. Red background gives some energy to her.

"A Day in Wyborg" and tiny, green tomatoes!

Now is the color pen work "A Day in Wyborg" finished!

It shows a view of a city yard on the eldest area of Wyborg, Russia (actually the 2nd biggest Finnish city before WW 2).  There was no life (except the birch, growing on the wall of the left-side building) to be seen, so I decided to add a sitting girl and the front of a car (Soviet make, called LADA in western countries).

This peaceful scene will be multiplied very soon in the form of postcards.

The small, green tomatoes are from our own harvest. For some reason, very many of my friends have also got greenish ones - because the very odd summer, I think. I try to ripen them in our kitchen but they tend, in opposite, to rip before they turn to red! Very odd... X Files?

New box for drawing tools!

I have found a most practical thing from the bargain sale of local artists' shop in Jyväskylä. This wooden box actually has an easel on its upper deck and is spacious enough to store all color pencils, inks etc. needed for drawing. Painting tools would need a much bigger bag, of course, but this very box (British make)  fulfills the needs of a travelling drawer.

This is the night site for my drawing activity during wintertime: our quiet kitchen. The table stays by the window and I can watch the nearly-dark view towards the neighbors below (we live in the middle of a hillside). Traffic is almost stopped during winter nights which also helps to focus on drawing.

BLACK & WHITE RULES?

I think that I shall do some selecting and mapping of my old photos. There are so many of them, and in addition, I have saved their copies several times on my hard discs! How can I find them and delete those  which only lead to the lack of free disc space?

Sometimes, in the middle of this busy (and, honestly to say) not so nice job I can find something interesting like this one among all unimportant staff: a smoggy, quiet city morning in Jyväskylä, Finland, some 6 - 7 years ago.

My next question will be: shall I try to transfer this view on a paper/canvas or thrust on its strength as a photo? All the shades of grey should be visible in the final piece of art. Graphical style should be stored, but how? "B&W Rules"?

- I continue to think. Sometimes, however, it would be better to leave things like they are. But...?

Narrow streets in the old town of Viipuri.

After spending several days in busy St. Petersburg (over 7 million citizens) I was very pleased to stay some hours in a much older and smaller town, called Vyborg (in Finnish: Viipuri) which population is roughly 80 000.

Limited period didn't allow any drawing or painting and I therefore spent my time taking photos of old buildings. This small, beautiful and restful town has belonged to Sweden, Russia, Finland, Soviet Union and - today - to Russia again but the period in the beginning of 20th century was very intensive for Finns because Vyborg was a most international town with economical activities (2nd biggest city in Finland after our Capital city Helsinki).

Photos help to make drawings and paintings but I am looking forward to spend some time in the real sites of this town, maybe already in next autumn.

Minimalist Art with Camera

A walk in the early morning on the shore of a Finnish lake...

Sometimes it will be a better alternative to take a photo than to paint  the view?

Weekend art school by KARSKU, Karlstad, in 2004!

Summer 2004 was warm and beautiful in Karlstad, Sweden, where we lived for my job tasks in local SE / Research Centre. We found out that there were also free-time activities - Finnish Cultural Society KARSKU (Karlstadin Suomalainen Kulttuuriseura) for "sing along" and arts.

KARSKU arranged a week-end art school in the countryside, and relatively many members joined this event.

Here am I sitting with an "impressionist hat" showing a scetch of my "high level" painting. The original is situated on over 900 m level from the sea in Norway, on the wall of our friends' "water-free toilet" ("PuuCee in Finnish).

I will send best greetings to Karlstad and Oslo! I wish that we will meet on some day!

Complete Lady - and Half of Her!

For some reason, our home will take in more paper than it will send out. This mesh of paper consists of newspapers and magazines, advertising efforts of companies and salesmen and, of course, colossal piles of A4's. I tend to wait and let them rest all over our home until my wife asks in a very polite way (typical for her): "Do you think that we have a lot of paper here?".

After such an occasion I started to invent my papers and what I found: A Complete Lady and Half A Lady! These ink drawings were made in winter 2006 when I joined a course of living model drawing in the center of our city. I am not sure what has happened to the upper half of the lady, 2nd in row - maybe I was not satisfied with it or I needed her face for other purposes.

It is always nice to find something which has been lost a long time ago. Like now!

Old drawing from my student times!

I was very pleased when, during cleaning of my old papers (and there are really lost of them!), I found this old drawing, dated 25.3.1975. I was living in Viikki, Helsinki, Finland on those days, studying microbiology / limnology / chemistry in HU. My student home was situated in a walking distance from university, in the middle of forests and fields. This area is fulfilled with institutes and other houses today - only the fields are mainly left untouched for the use of agricultural trials and training by the university.

I shall fix this old drawing to avoid further degradation of it. It has value for myself because it seems to be the first drawing after my school years. - Maybe frames, too?

An old drawing - who knows this site?

I have started to invent my old drawings. Here is an example of calligraphy felt-tip pen technique.

Who knows this site? I will help: it is situated in Finland...

Rapid sketches of landscapes with fountain pen

A fountain pen is a nib pen that, unlike its predecessor the dip pen, contains an internal reservoir of water-based liquid ink. The pen draws ink from the reservoir through a feed to the nib and deposits it on paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action. (WIKIPEDIA)

 FIGURE 1. Lake Capern, Sweden, 2004.

FIGURE 2. Central London, England, 1998. 

FIGURE 3. Yorkshire, England, 1998. 

FIGURE 4. Juva, Finland, 1998.

These four sketches are examples of fountain pen drawings. I tend to carry this tool and a small (10.5 x 15 cm) sketch pad with me when travelling in Finland or foreign countries, either for duty or during vacations, since 1996.

This medium is very suitable in situations when the time limitations allow only rapid sketches (FIG. 1 and 2) as well as when focusing on the landscape or object without hurry (FIG. 3 and 4). No pencil is needed for sketching if the main horizontal and vertical lines can be found. Details will come later with ink, and no rubber is needed at all. This is the way I make sketches with permanent ink, either with fountain pen or calligraphy felt-tip pens.

I recommend all to try the fountain pen! It is easy to carry and contains usually ink enough for several sketches.

The only occasion when fountain pen caused me problems was when travelling back from my business trip to Shenzhen, China, some years ago. I have bought an inexpensive pen, filled with ink, and carried it in the pocket of my shirt. The left front side of my shirt was all black after the flight, obviously because the air pressure alterations and their effect on the soft (!) ink container of my pen...

"Stillleben" - a mushroom meal.

"Mushroom meal", a "Stillleben" painting by me, bases on a delicious meal, made by my wife in our summer cottage. She likes to benefit all products of the surrounding nature: fishes, mushrooms, beers...This painting will be presented, among others finished during winter season 2013 - 2014, in the exhibition of our art school in Wanha Pesula, Lehtissaari, Jyväskylä 27.4.2014 12:00-16:00 p.m. - Welcome!

Spring evening on the shore of River Vuoksi, Finland

This is an old picture, made some 20 years ago in Imatra, where I lived on those days. It shows a view to River Vuoksi which is running towards the power plant of Imatrankoski (the greatest water-driven power plant in Finland). The light blue sky refers to the light evenings of Finnish spring. - Technique: PC with drawing program "Paint".

My new "selfie" with my brand new linen shirt!

This is my "selfie" which presents my brand new, Carelian-style linen shirt, made by my friend Mariina! I like it very much because it is both beautiful and easy to wear. - The portrait of my wife was painted by me with acryl colours, and it is based on a photograph taken on Norwegian mountain, beneath the summer cottage by our friends Liisa and Peer.