A very small exhibition in Vesanka Library, Jyväskylä.

A "very small exhibition" of my works will be held 1. -30.9.2016 in Vesanka Library, westward from Jyväskylä city. Both the count and the size of the works included were optimized by taking into account the limited room (excellent glass shelf) for the exhibition. I tried to find different techniques to be shown to the visitors, especially to the children from the neighboring school. - The personnel of the library was very kind!  Thank you for the chance to have an exhibition in your facilities as well as for your helping hands when installing the works!

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!

4.8.2016 was a most busy day!

It seems that I will leave all important things to be done just before "deadline". I finished an old colour pencil drawing just two hours before the construction of our art exhibition started (photo below).

As far I have joined our art society KOPRU, summer exhibitions have always been held in Wanha Woimala, Vaajakoski (photo below).

Our society has been named referring a poem by EINO LEINO, where he calls the furious turbulence of a waterfall as "kopru" (photo below: some "koprus" beneath our exhibition hall, an old power plant).

This is my traditional "corner". It is very optimal for me because majority of my works are relatively tiny (photo above).

The "most healthy breakfast" by our Grand Old Man, excellent landscape painter Kake!

More "good news" from Wanha Woimala" soon....

KOPRU Exhibition 5. - 26.8.2016 in Wanha Woimala, Vaajakoski, Finland!

After a relatively long period of artistic inactivity I will start again! Next step is the annual summer exhibition of our art society KOPRU (means turbulent flow of water in a rapid or waterfall, invented by the famous Finnish poet Eino Leino).

My drawings and paintings are mainly old ones (because I have done absolutely nothing during the last winter period) but I still try do some framing of colour pencil works before Thursday evening (which comes very soon!).

If you like to visit this exhibition, remember: open on every day of the week but NOT on Saturdays because wedding events in the restaurant of the building. But! Next Saturday is an exception - we will have a childrens' workshop (see photo above - some drawings of our young visitors from 2015).

Welcome! Välkommen! Willkommen! Tervetuloa! Presentations in all languages mentioned before at least on Monday 8.8. and Friday 12.8.!

Progressive steps of painting: "Sortavala Cathedral"

Drawing is always my starting point - also when painting. I am basically a drawer, not a painter. I will paint drawings - so simple it really is.

The idea to paint Sortavala Cathedral (situated in Russian Carelia, on the shore of the great lake Ladoga / Laatokka, not far away from the border between Russia and Finland) originally arose when discussing with Maria, a student of Orthodox church music, whose father serves  Sortavala Orthodox parish as its Senior Father. I have received some photos of the cathedral from Sortavala and, after some problems with the perspective, I finally got an satisfying result where the vertical lines and shapes of the building matched (as every photographer knows, it is not an easy task because the straightening of the lines will also affect the basic forms of the walls).

Now I have reached the first step: to draw the sketch of the cathedral:

Then I started to fill the shapes with acrylic colours. That is true: I chose the shades which matched to the colours of the photo - like working with a childrens' colouring booklet. The lines of ink still stayded visible.

Hours of active painting...Acrylic colours were much better than oil colours because they dried faster and corrections were could be done very soon when needed. In addition, they gave no odors into my kitchen...

After several nights' work the final step was reached: the drying of the complete, modest piece of art.

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....