Happenings in the life of a young crow, Part 1.

Please let me introduce you the young crow! He is going to school, as you can see.

He prefers to spend his summer holiday by travelling (here on the top of Koli, Northern Carelia, Finland)...

....and wonder the Finnish nature!

But then came the gray, rainy autumn. Here is he heading to the school. 

He must be brave enough to fly over the big lake - the school is on the opposite shore...

- More about the life of the young crow later...

Techniques: ink (with an old-style pen, loaded from a ink bottle), colour pencils and MS Office Power Point. Photos were taken in Central Finland.

Features of "kaamos" and importance of librarians. - Kaamos Exhibition by KOPRU is now erected!

"Kaamos", annual period of polar night, affects strongly human beings in northern countries (by the way, a similar period can be found also on southern hemisphere but is not so much discussed because the small number of people suffering of it). Severe "kaamos depression" symptoms will wake up ideas to sleep all the winter, avoid all activities etc.

That is the reason for the KOPRU Kaamos Exhibition (see photo above). In much smaller scale as annual Summer Exhibition in Wanha Woimala (see photo below) but it helps against depression. At least, we think so.

Humble "kaamos exhibitions" could also be held privately. And now it is time to mention the Librarians, those kind professionals who will help you to construct a small-scale exhibition in your local libraries! This kind of "pop up" exhibition took place one year ago in Säynätsalo Library (situated in the famous "Säynätsalon Kunnantalo" by Alvar Aalto - photo below).

It was a happy coincidence that our exhibition was risen on the very same day when the reconstructed Vaajakoski Library was opened and I met our previous Säynätsalo Librarian Tiiu when visiting the Vaajakoski facilities just before closing time  (my wife Sanni (l) and Tiiu (r) during the Säynätsalo exhibition in the photo below)

Only three works per society member were hang on the walls of the minor gallery. One of mine is the small acrylic colours/colour pencils artefact "Juureva Astraalityttö" ("Astral Girl With Roots", photo below).

Welcome to "Kaamosnäyttely" by KOPRU in Vaajakoski!

A new technique adopted - accidentally!

We work ourselves as voluntary supervisors in KOPRU Summer Exhibition. I prefer the longest shifts, six hours, because I will then have time to sit, read and draw whenever no visitors are present. 

I started to draw this corner of our exhibition hall with traditional ink pen. You may guess what happened: I dropped a lot of ink from the pen onto the drawing! I got an idea to wash it away with a moist brush but found out that the ink will be spreading in a beautiful way on the paper! 

"Why not", was my reaction. Those grey shades were easy to create.

Finally I added some colours with colour pens on the mosaic floor (I have seen many coloured drawings by the Swedish artist Carl Larsson). Then I was all satisfied.

This will be my new method to produce coloured ink drawings. I start practising immediately!

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 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.

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).

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!

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!