Some photos from 00's!

In the beginning of this century I have spent nine months in Sweden when working for my previous company SE Oyj in Research Centre Karlstad, Värmland. The summer was fine! The "culture club" KARSKU (Karlstadin Suomalainen Kulttuuriseura) constructed an art weekend near Karlstad where we could use different methods for drawing and painting. I have made an acrylic sketch of a small Norwegian mountain brook, situated some 1 000 m over sea level (I call it my "peak painting").

The final painting was made with common wall paints on the inner wall of a toilet, owned by our Norwegian friends Liisa and Peer. I wish that my "peak painting" will resist the harsh winter weather over there!

These photos, by the way, were taken with the universally most sold SLR camera, ZENIT, made in USSR!Over 12 000 000 cameras in all world! I still use it relatively frequently, especially for landscape photography.

Art Exhibition "Pieni Piirustusnäyttely" in Säynätsalo Library, 16.11. - 18.12.2015

"Pieni Piirustusnäyttely" ("A Tiny Drawing Exhibition") is now opened in Säynätsalo Library, Jyväskylä!

The site of this exhibition is a great one: the famous Säynätsalon Kunnantalo (Säynätsalo Town Hall) by Alvar Aalto (photo: www.rakennusperintö.fi):

I had two assistants in the construction session: my wife Sanni (left) and our library official Tiiu (right):

I will thank both ladies!

More photos in next posts....

Greetings to all Future Ladies!

There lives a small feminist in every man! I will therefore dedicate this drawing to all ladies, no matter how old they are, who are brave enough to look into the coming days, no matter the situation in our world is far from peaceful today.

Open the door! It's summer!

Actually it's the end of September just now but I will recall summer 2008! You can see my wife sitting on the door of our summer cottage in Central Finland in this colour-pen drawing. The door is not broken (it was only my imagination) but we had a feeling that it was a real summer, in the beginning of June, and we were extraordinary happy!

This summer (2015) began not so tempting because the cold and rainy weather. It continues with a dry late July - beginning of August which caused us a lack of mushrooms.  

There are still two days left to visit my exhibition in Petäjävesi Library. Be hurry! Next exhibition will be hung 1.10.2015!

"More drawing", says everybody!

Very many friends have encouraged me to continue drawing, and I agree!

I have now tried several techniques from pencils to oil (not water colors - I was frightening them already during my school years!) and I think that it is time to focus on pencils. "Life is too short to learn painting". Maybe I will have an opposite opinion later, but just now....

I will thank my friends for their comments - especially Liisa! We went to my exhibition in Petäjävesi and she wrote in the guest book: "Draw, Juha, Draw"!

Water-soluble colour pencils are a novel method for me and I start practicing with them. I'll send some results here soon....

"Colour My World!" sang PETULA CLARK on sixties! I am listening her and still miss colours....

Some harmful defects in drawings.

Harmful errors and accidents can spoil your drawings - be careful!

The drawing on the left side was drawn by me in the middle of sixties, during my art class in Imatran Yhteislyseo (Imatra High School). We went to the Imatrankoski Rapids (beneath Imatrankoski Power Plant, the waters of rapids are therefore dammed). Marker felt pens were a novel tool on those days, and I used two of them, both black, when doing this work.

But! After 50 years it seems that another dye has got a new, brownish appearance! I really do not know if it is a bad or good transformation, but originally it was intended to be all B&W! 

Be careful, use only one pencil!

The right drawing has got an absolutely bad treatment by a leak of some kind diluting agent. The passepartout can be replaced but the corrections of the drawing are very hard to perform. 

Be careful when using diluting agents! 

More photos of my exhibition in Petäjävesi Library, September 2015

Photo 1. Three techniques: colour pencils, acrylic colours and oil colours.

Photo 2. B&W drawings made with calligraphy felt-tip pens (1,2 and 3 mm). Upper work: The Old Church of Petäjävesi, an UNESCO Heritage target.

Photo 3. Calligraphy felt-tip pens with colour pencils.

Photo 4. Works with acrylic colours. The landscape on the right bases on a photo from the island of Karpathos, Greece, and shows the oldest building which I have ever visited!

Photo 5. Entrance of Petäjävesi Library.

Art Exhibition in Petäjävesi Library, Vol. 2: Two ladies helping to install the works!

Thank You, Sanni (first photo, 1.9.-15) and Arja (second photo, 2.9.2015)! All your advices helped significantly. Special tanks to Arja who removed old soft tapes from the wall!

More photos soon in new posts.

Art Exhibition in Petäjävesi Library, Central Finland, Vol. 1!

You are Very Welcome to my first private exhibition in Petäjävesi, Central Finland (some 40 km from Jyväskylä towards the city of Keuruu)! Opening times 1.-30.Sept.2015: Mon,Tue&Thu 12-19, Wed&Fri 11-16. 

More photos & experiences from the exhibition in next posts!

Nearly one thousand visitors in KOPRU summer exhibition!

Summer 2015 has been relatively busy: staying on the countryside out of the reach of "modern civilization" (= Internet) has prevnted the updating of this blog! Gardening is, however, a perfect alternative for spending time with PC in the city.

Sorry to say: I have been very inactive in arts from May to August. But the construction of the annual KOPRU exhibition woke me to select five works of my own, one of them even from the year 2000!

Wanha Woimala ("Old Power Plant") served as our exhibition hall again. I cannot image a better site for our works - silent, big windows, not too hot or cool - and all the environment on the Vaajakoski channel area is most interesting.

Hanging of the paintings and drawings usually lasts only 2..3 hours. First to find the works which fit together, then hanging them in the right positions - and that's all. We used numbered stickers beneath the works which refer the printed lists available; this method is easier than to add all information on the works themselves. Thank you, Maija, for this invention!

This Friday, 28.8.2015, was the last day of the exhibition. Well over 900 visitors during August made us very happy. It seems that it isn't too complicated for pedestrians and bikers to step some stairs downwards to the 1st floor of Wanha Woimala and see our works!

- Next, very soon: the retrospective exhibition in Petäjävesi library in September! See you soon...

Cheap framing, cheap exhibitions!

Framing of small drawings (and there are a lot of them on my shelves!) may be relatively expensive when asking the assistance of an art store. Framing prices of these kind of minor pieces of art may cost several tens of euros per drawing.

But there is an alternative! Indeed! All three frames of the drawings above have costed 4:50 € together! I give a hint! You must take cartonboard sheets, comparable with the original drawings, with you when visiting FLEA MARKETS! The prices of empty frames / frames with a printed picture or photo cost, ususally, only 0:50...2:00 €.

I am currently planning an minor exhibition of my drawings from 1996 to 2014 in one of four alternatives available. Three of the sites are all free, so I tend to prefer them. You are very welcome to visit the exhibition when the site and date are chosen!

- The photos included represent two techniques: charcoal (uppermost drawing of the old Petäjävesi Church, UNESCO target) and felt-tip calligraphy pens with colour pens (two drawings below: left a winter view to Lappeenranta Harbour, right a moment in a Slovenian cafe).

Results of art course's winter period 2014-2015!

SPRING EXHIBITION of our art group has been held on last Sunday, 19.4.2015, at Lehtisaari School, Säynätsalo. Members of this course have worked for years together, first in "Vanha Pesula" building and, from 2014 on, at Lehtisaari School. 

Our weekly meetings consist of painting, drawing, free discussions and coffee breaks. Very nice for such an retired amateur like myself!

Our teacher Minna (sorry, no photo of Minna!) has influenced us in a very positive way. All techniques and their combinations are free to chose. Painting with oil colours is new for me; I started just one and half years ago. I am originally a drawer (pencils, colour pencils, ink) and this period of oil painting has been very educative for me. Not so much details as a drawer would like to present; chosing the right colours (and finding the very same shades after one weeks period to continue!) etc. are all new tasks for me.

I hope that some knowledge of oil painting is already adopted by me. 

But, during next summer, I like to draw!

The last step of the annual period is the Spring Exhibition! We share it with other artists of Säynätsalo (these stoneware sculptures are no ours) and will meet them for a short period of some hours which the exhibition will be open.

This last photo does not indicate the response of a guest on the art; my dear wife is telling some interesting story to my fellow painter!

You are welcome to our next exhibition in Spring 2016 - and before that, also to the Annual Exhibition of Art Society KOPRU, which will be held in August 2015, in "Wanha Woimala" (an old power station) in Vaajakoski! More information: www.kopru.fi.

KARPATHOS, 16.6.2005

The target of my first trip to Mediterranean was Karpathos, and I really liked it!

This island is situated in the southeastern corner of Greece. Relatively few tourists have been travelled over there (at least, on those days). We first rented a small car, then a scooter (my wife was afraid to sit on it) and, at last, a small four-wheeler (called "mönkijä" in Finnish) to see the whole island which is not a big one.

I spent several moments by drawing and writing short travel diary-type texts about the regions and feelings. Photos were also taken by us, but sitting comfortable with pens and paper was the best moments during our stay on Karpathos!

A most inexpensive method for Do-Your-Self Framing!

Night-time is very good time to catch ideas! When the rest of the family (wife and dog) are sleeping, one has excellent chances to find solutions to problems.

I had several "not-so-very-important" drawings which I still want to store somewhere - in this case, on the wall of our toilet!

Commercial framing is reasonably expensive and restricted for the best works (I try to live economically). I tend to visit my art shop in the center of Jyväskylä to have good framing for bigger paintings and colour drawings. Some smaller drawings can be framed myself. Here is my method:

1. Visit some flea market / 2nd Hand Shop to find cheap, printed pictures with frames (this one costed only 2 €). Take the cartonboard sheets, cut in the sizes of your works, with you - it's much faster to compare the sizes of the potential frames and your works by using them than by measuring the sizes of the frames!

2. When arrived back home, check your empty canned food tin cans (or open one and eat it first), then remove the opener, included in it, carefully. Now you have a hanger for your framing.

3. Remove the printed photo/picture from the frame (carefully! The glass could be broken) and install your own work into the frame, under the class cover.

4. Find a piece of strong tape and attach the tin can opener on the backside of the framing.

5. Ask your wife/husband/dog, where you can hang your work!

That's all. Easy, isn't it?

Three views of Santorini, Greece!

The drawing from Santorini, Greece, is finished - at last!

As I told in my last posting, I have spoiled the sky over the island Santorini and decided to prepare a "mixed technique" work by setting the island on blue papers. Thank you, my Facebook friends, for the "Pop-Up Art Discussion" meeting! The final combination of three separate papers was made yesterday, with the aid of my art school teacher Minna.

The man in photos number 2 and 3 is really me. The original drawing was made from the viewpoint of the "James Bond Style" man (me) in 2nd photo, high above (over 500 meters) over the Mediterranean Sea. Last photo shows that an elder, "not in so good condition" man should not try to climb on the top of Santorini Kaldera when temperature is some +30 oC. There is very sad - and true - story  about the famous glass artist and art teacher KAJ FRANCK who would climb the stairs from the shore to the top of the Santorini mountain and met his death during that trip. - Be careful, don't take risks when having holidays on the warm islands of Greece!

Some issues about cut & paste, perfectionism and friends!

I had most interesting days in the middle of this week! I finally decided to correct one of my Santorini drawings (uppermost) by first cutting away the spoiled sky (2nd photo). After that, I was in wondering: how shall I continue? There were four (4) background colours to serve as bottom of the final work (three blue tones and white), several combinations of these tones to present the sea and the sky (means at least ten alternatives together), several levels of horizon (if any)...A problem for a perfectionist of some sort (two examples in 3rd and 4th photos)!

I am a lucky person, however: I have friends who can help me in artistic questions! A "pop-up FaceBook Art Group" was easy to open by just wondering these alternatives in my own FB profile. Soon there were friends like Arja, Hannele, Irmeli, Leena, Liisa, Marju, Petteri, Riitta, Sanna, Tarmo and Ville helping me withe their comments!

The final decision is depending on myself, of course - but those hints, given by my friends, were really "refreshing"! Thank you all for your assistance! Friends are most valuable asset in everyones life!

OFFICE Powerpoint - a tool for preparing photos of drawings.

I use to take photos of my drawings - even, if they are not finished (like this one, showing an old museum floodgate in Suonenjoki, Finland). The dark days here in Finland prevent working out of doors and artificial light is difficult when tones of colour pencil works shall be reproduced. In addition to SYSTWEAK PHOTO STUDIO (a simple, inexpensive scanning program) I tend to use MS OFFICE POWERPOINT which also helps to correct the white balance. The difference between original (upper) and corrected (lower) photos is easy to see. All shades are not correct in the photo (especially the tones of green!) but the result is still satisfying.

The best practice, of course, would be to carry the drawings on the yard and to continue there but it is often impossible because the bad weather, which we have here on these days. POWERPOINT is familiar to me because I have used it in my job since it has been published to create illustrations for my research reports and educational material - so I still use it, no matter I am already retired from my original profession as a microbiologist. Microphotographs of bacteria, by the way, were easy to apply to reports after finishing them with PP and transporting them to WORD.

I actually began mys studies in the beginning of 70's when only common B&W cameras, connected to microscope tubus, were available. We usually DRAW the bacteria, seen in the microscope field, on paper with colour pencils - this is true! It was easy if one can watch the field with one eye and the drawing with another - it was funny!