MON HERBIER

Leaves flying in the wind, the first rain drops drizzling after many sunny autumn days. Frost appearing on some mornings, Northern lights dancing on some nights.

Mon herbier, a botanical guide and a herbarium available now from Rustica éditions. Text by Michel Luchesi, illustrations by me, edited by Julie Parpaillon and design by Caroline Soulères. A box with all the tools to make your own herbarium: a botanical guide and a notebook to collect your leaves. The nomadic botanical guide explains many things about the trees and the forest life: the shape of their leaves, their host animals, the fruit and flowers, and gives interesting hints about activities and discoveries. A spiral notebook allows you to paste all the leaves from your walks. Text in French.

Hopefully you enjoy collecting and learning about leaves!

IN SHADOWS OF TREES

Under tree shadows, on forest paths, on city streets with Canadian jugglers, swimming and reading.

Helmenkantaja by Marja-Leena Mikkola is a sweet but adventurous story about a girl and her journey under summery shiny waters. Cover illustration by me, design by Päivi Puustinen, published by Otava in Finnish. So grateful to illustrate this cover for my own childhood favourite author.

Tickling sun beams!

----

Heippa!

"Klassikko tekijän suloinen mutta jännittävä saturomaani ammentaa taitavasti vanhasta suomalaisesta tarinaperinteestä.

Eräänä aamuna Reetta näkee kesäpaikan rannassa suuren pyrstön välähdyksen vedessä. Hän saa viimein varmistuksen sille minkä on aavistanut aina: veden pinnan alla on kokonainen toinen todellisuus salaisuuksineen, aarteineen ja vaaroineen.

Veden väki on ahdingossa. Joku on vienyt Veden emännän kauniin pienokaisen. Reetan on aika täyttää oma osuutensa ikivanhasta ennustuksesta."  Otava

Oman lapsuudensuosikkini Marja-Leena Mikkolan Helmenkantaja-kirja kuvittamallani kannella on ilmestynyt! Design: Päivi Puustinen, julkaisija: Otava.

Leppoisia hellepäiviä!

AND THEN THE WINTER CAME

Winter finally arrived. Frost sharply biting nose and cheeks, colouring them red. After snow the sun came. So orange, shining still so low. The sky so blue. 

The snow making a new melody and rhythm. Balcony windows frozen, today I drew a small window to the frozen garden.

A small book published last year with poems by Anna-Mari Kaskinen and my illustrations.

Moonshines, starry nights!

——

Heippa! Vuoden lopulla julkaistiin Anna-Mari Kaskisen runokirja kuvituksillani, Lohdutuksen polulla.

Kuutamoita ja tähtösiä!

L'OURS ET LE SOLEIL, A BOOK ABOUT A WINTER ADVENTURE

Hello December! Winter is here and the landscape is covered in whiteness, softness and silence. Children play and here and there snowmen appear. Snowmen or snow animals. Small lights appear on windows early afternoon as the darkness arrives. Chimneys on the roofs of houses blow narrow breaths of smoke from warming and glowing bonfires.

It is my pleasure to show you my second illustrated book. L'Ours et Le Soleil is a book about siblings Sigrid and Peter and their winter adventure through forests and mountains. The story is an adapted version of L'ours qui avait pris le soleil by Paul-Jacques Bonzon. The book includes also a cd with the story as a musical fairy tale performed by Domitille and Amaury de Crayencour. Published together by naïve and Jacadi in French.

Secrets of forests in the snow.

A long journey with new friends.

The wintery landscape and the sun shining so low, until it disappears completely. A few festive dresses by Jacadi.

A story for the small and a bit older too. The book is available through Amazon and here too. Hopefully you enjoy it!

What a lovely weekend it has been with friends. Takk ♥ to everyone around! Last night a winter storm was knocking on the windows and this morning many trees seemed to be fallen. Wishing that the weather freezes the ground quickly so the trees with their roots can manage through the strong winter winds.

Happy December playing in the snow, stay warm!


(The design of the book cover by Jacadi & naïve, the 4th and 5th photo by Jacadi & naïve.)

CASA DI FIABA, HOUSE OF FABLE

Home is where your heart is. Or your heart is where your home is. Fire burns where your home is, so your home is also where the fire burns. Home is filled with dreams and magic. Home is where it is nice to leave from, but even better to get back to. Sometimes a home is carried with you. A home on wheels.

It is my pleasure to show the first children's book that I illustrated: a poem about homes and different kinds of houses by Giovanna Zopoli, published by lovely Topipittori.

Home, hem, hjem, heim, Haus, casa, kodu, koti, domicile. All so different, but protecting and comforting. Such a big sorrow to loose a home. Such a force to build a new one. All the history of one house and its tenants. Our nests.

Maybe not such a big surprise anymore which kind is my dream home. Friends know it best: "You indeed would be a high and narrow, wooden one!" What kind of house you would like to be?

Thank you, grazie, Giovanna and Paolo for this wonderful journey through homes! 

The book, in Italian, is available here. Hopefully you enjoy!

Sunday, jazz playing in my radio. Sunny rain shower caressing windows. Candles burning, no hurry anywhere. Autumn favourite, pea soup boiling. Home is today filled with a light that has the hues of autumn. Brush strokes with the colour of warm orange and book reading moments on the sofa, wrapped in wool.

Calm autumn coloured Sunday wishes!

P.s. Almost one year ago.

WHITE PAGES

Books that were bound by hand, carried many thousand kilometres. Accompanied on park benches and in trains. Always open on the table.

Inside: stories, calendars, envelopes, notes, measurements, chances and memories.

The first ideas and the originals.

Walks that were collected and pressed.

Houses, always houses. Homes.

Pages that were ripped away and taped back again. Adventures, flora.

The moments when brushing teeth, humming and washing dishes. The moments when the humming echoes from the dish shelves. Dummies, scraps of this and that. Conversations. Secrets. Dreams.

More of my sketchbook stories at Design*Sponge, a series that I had the honour to begin.

Three new prints in the small online shop. Thank you so much once again for your orders!

It is warm and sunny here. What about bicycling to fetch an apple and an ice-cream for a late afternoon break?

SUNDAY DETAILS WITH BLUES

Sunset time with pink and blue. February is making its way here, with colder days. The light is softer, more yellow. Aquarius birthdays to celebrate for the whole month, first ones last night inside frosted windows. A long breakfast with a friend to think about the next ones, and some spring adventures.

Kristen made an interview with me. Her world of names is very interesting.

There is an exhibition with a few of my paintings in Vuojoki mansion in Eurajoki. Till the 28th of February.

Sunday evenings are for music, for reading and for a long walk (and pinched red cheeks).

Have a warm entrance to the new week!

.........

Heippa! Kevättalven retkikohde: Vuojoen kartanolla, Eurajoella, on Kuvittajat ry:n Metsän tuhat tarinaa -näyttely. Siellä on myös muutama minun maalaukseni, 28.2.2012 asti.

Lämpöisiä ajatuksia!

LIGHT DISAPPEARING, COMFORT INCREASING

Mornings are long, turning my head to see behind the lake once in a while if the day arises soon. The summer room (also known as a balcony) has been changed to a winter room. Spruce branches, moss accompanied with loud singers on the lake, winged ones. They have some new friends and I guess it is just about drawing their lines in the water to show the borders of homes of each of them.

Autumnal book Fridays continue. Yesterday after a slightly rainy bicycle trip with a warmer jacket and a woolen scarf wrapped around, a postman gave me a book, Illustrators Unlimited by Gestalten (, have you seen their space?). Back at home after hanging all those warmer clothes to dry and with a cup of tea in hand, the book took me to many new worlds. Always so much to learn and observe. Pages filled with adventures. First autumnal book Friday here. This Friday continues with binding a new sketchbook, making a new calendar behind it.

Have a good and warm weekend with apple and cinnamon scents.

(Book cover illustration in the first photo by Irana Douer. Paintings in the pictures: Apple Blossom Meadow, Meadow Picnic, Claude Monique, Sipping The Sea Of Green Tea, Garden House, At Pyhäjärvi Lake, Tea For Five, In Feather Islands, Balance, Hairstorm, Dreaming. Some of them are still available as original paintings, Apple Blossom Meadow also as a print in my shop, three prints left.)

MADE WITH LOVE, MADE WITH HANDS

Last week a beautiful book was waiting in the post office, on a sunny day, bicycling. The book is The New Artisans by Olivier Dupon, published by Thames & Hudson. It is a collection of artists that do with their hands what they love. So honored to be part of it. Susie Cowie, Siba Sahabi, just to make a curtsey to a few of my favorites on the same pages.

A train ticket in my pocket, going to heat sauna and bake pizza for the weekend. Strong winds, they warn. Have a safe and calm weekend! Hearts to your sweet words!

(The book cover image in the first photo by Puddin'head. Picture in the third photo on the left upper corner by Atsuko Ishii.)

SPRING MAIL, AUTUMN BALCONY

Happy mail days continue. Letters, paintings, prints, emails. So sweet from all of you. Thank you so much. Also some greetings from the last spring while I was painting a boy, a boat and seagulls on an adventure.

Kaukana omalta maalta, (Far Away from Own Land), a book by Sisko Latvus with my painting on the cover. So well written, I read the script four times. A sad story with a little bit of magic about old times. About Paavo who was exiled with his family from Ingria at the age of 13. But on the way he meets someone called Mare... Published by WSOY.

Afternoon break, knitting while thinking. On my painting table, on the balcony table. Scratching cardboard for a printmaking class. A breakfast wrapped in wool on the balcony table, inside mist. Autumn light is taking over. Music has more piano melodies, like raindrops. Or crispy yellow and red leaves flying in wind. Branches from a forest of lingonberries. Sea-buckthorns from a square market, blueberry (soya) yoghurt and seeds. Rye bread with pesto of cashews, basilica, garlic, olive oil. Two pots of green tea. Candle light. Always dreaming of breakfasts.

Have a calm new week, wrapped in wool!

Hearts.

ICE FULL OF LEAVES

After the noon news, I lay my brushes and pens, papers and scissors away, hop into my boots and go outside to check if the postman was busy for me today. Yesterday he was, with a book Vieläkö kukkivat omenapuut? (Are the apple trees still blooming?) which cover I illustrated last spring. It is a book about the history of North Ingria by Helena Miettinen. It is filled with images of old houses and people, their memories about leaving home and finding a new one where ever they were allowed to stay. Written in Finnish. Where old homes used to be, there are now dense forests, but there might still be old apple trees, blooming during springs and dropping apples on the ground during autumns.

A small plate for my cat that I did maybe 15 years ago, or even longer. For Kisse Karvinen. A cat that slept in an onion basket and middle of the lilacs bushes, the warmest and best scented places.

A small ice rink just next to my home. If there was a machine to move a huge brush, I would try to paint that ice full of leaves. And those winter trees wearing white, I would melt small dots of dark wood with fingers.

♡

P.s. Thank you so much for your orders, they surprised me! Thank you so much! Also for your comments and emails, once again!

MORNINGS OF COLOR COPPER

Early sunrises with mystical mist. It hides everything, the world ends behind the balcony if being early enough, tiptoeing to wake up with the mist. One can imagine that the balcony is a boat, drifting on an open sea, in an unknown world. Where would it crash?

Stretching while tea water boils. Breakfast of blueberries, raspberries, apples from an apple garden next to a yellow house, and seeds. Bread of my mother. Stretching a bit more and then eating with a huge newspaper on the floor. Mailman is very kind, I never ordered the newspaper.

Painting. Packing books. Having tea in the square market café when dropping the parcels to the post office. Talking about the pollen of bees with a bearded man selling honey in another square market. Another tea in the market hall with a lingonberry-lover-boy and his mother to prolong the visit in the town. The sun shines lower than a few weeks ago and turns everything in copper. Streets filled with chatter again, is it the new season making people happy?

Old work published in a book, finally arrived. A letter from a dear friend is read many many times. Can you see the crocodile under the bear? Hugs to dear both of you U & V, a letter will arrive to you soon.

Hugs to everyone else too, have a happy Tuesday!

FOREST TEAROOM

Good morning dear all of you,

Wind is making somersaults and blowing in cold whispers. Light has vanished from early mornings. The first layer of yellow leaves is softening steps on afternoon walks. Evenings come with a candle light.

My book, Proof of Winter is added to the shop. “I started to battle against winter because I wanted to be friends with it. ...As preparation I cut a wind-proof haircut. Wherever it would blow from now, my hair would not be on my face.” More pictures of the book in my Flickr.

Have a small walk in the forest and find to my small tearoom. Have a cup of tea and enjoy the landscape and the warmth of firewood with me. Have a good September, have a happy weekend!