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?

BOWS, HERE AND THERE

Radio playing silent songs. Snow, more on every glance outdoors. Someone brushing it away behind windows. Small secrets here and there, wrapped and hidden, sent away. Afternoon break, light disappearing. The moment when the coffee starts to sing with steam.

Tea for Five in Sekret Firmy magazine.

Have a sweet, warm new week!

BLUE WINTER, HELLO

Powdery snow. Green tea with orange scent. Pancake parties and long walks. The sweet neighbour gentleman making all the snow work, mailboxes always so well cleaned. Just a bit more than one week and the sun starts to rise again. Mid winter and blue light, so beautiful. In sounds, on cheeks, on nose, inside warm woollen socks. Pine tree scent on my balcony. Winter flower blooming inside, purple flower, like the sunsets on wintery cloudy afternoons.

Still time to order gifts from my shop or Garden of A Moon Gazer from here.

A small interview in Beijing Youth Weekly magazine.

Winter shoes calling me for a long walk, sauna heating up. Warm soup and candle light.

Have a sweet calm week!

SUNDAY, SNOW, SWANS

Hello sweet December, hello sweet you!

The weekend covered everything in cold air and a lot of snow. Windy winter city to explore. Exhibitions, ballet, theatre. Snow blowing from behind corners. Tiny shiny snowflakes dancing. 

This morning frozen, slightly sunny light blue sky, when 14 swans in a formation flew over our heads as me and my Mother were drinking hot coffee in -12 °C outside, queueing for a pancake that were baked in a bonfire.

1. It was pink winter food.

2. The most beautiful painting in an exhibition, someone playing guitar on the background.

3. Bike Caravan featured in Sekret Firmy magazine, winter light, candles.

Sunday evening to hide a bit under a wool blanket, to read and to pack orders. Please remember to order early enough if you want something delivered for the Christmas!

Sweet melodies, carrot cake scents, have a calm new week!

THUNDER MELODIES

Bicycling with adventure books in a bag. Small meadows of wild strawberries on the way to swim. Thunder melodies continue. Picnics continue. Radio on for the sea forecasts, continuous melodies of different wind speeds.


In the newest Kuvittaja-magazine (by The Association of Finnish Illustrators), Apple Blossom Meadow featured in an article about an exhibition of forest illustrations that is probably taking place now somewhere in Estonia.


Happy August dear all of you!

DINNER PICNIC BY SUMMER LAKE

A windy Sunday dinner picnic by the other big lake of this city. Cucumber-melissa-salad, couscous with red lentils, peas and tomatoes seasoned with lovage. Strawberry juice and a chocolate cookie.


A small interview about my work in the latest Frankie Magazine, issue 48. Featuring Winter Sea, Apple Blossom Meadow, Snowhouse and Tree House -paintings. Available as prints in my small shop.


"We still have two hours to spend together!" 
"We can do anything that we want to!" 
A little happy conversation of two little girls in the shop by the ice cream containers on the way home. Two hours is indeed enough for pretty much anything.


Gentle summer rain caressing the landscape after a sunny day. Sunday for old Finnish music. Sunday for summer tunes.


Have a sweet beginning for the new week!




Edit: Work of mine earlier in Frankie Magazine here.

BLUE FORESTS

Happy last day of April,

Late Sunday night in the balcony listening to birds with their lullabies when the sun is still giving a few rays of light over the trees. Good night stories read from the reflections in the waves of the small lake. Dark shadows growing, calm water taking over them. Later, reading a book about the Trans-Siberian train, dreaming. Violets planted on the balcony. Bees flying.

1. Apple Blossom Meadow -print (no. 11) in the South Korean Marie Claire Maison -magazine (March issue). Thank you for the photo Isabelle Kim!

2. Sunday bike ride with a friend to the hill with wooden houses to have an afternoon tea. Blue forests of Kidneywort. 

Helene of Auprès de Mon Arbre won the giveaway, congratulations. Thank you so much for writing all those precious things!

Have a beautiful jump over the entrance of May!

(The first photo is by Isabelle Kim.) 

HEART OF WINTER

Sydäntalvi, heart of winter, midwinter. This morning it was −26°C, a good moment to collect all the carpets, blankets and pillows outdoors to get some fresh air.

The cold air makes people look so cozy. So soft inside all the clothes. A neighbor gentleman looked like a snowman wrapped in all his woolen things when he jumped on his bike and cycled down the hill. A neighbor girl did not see me and I did not see her from behind all the carpets, blankets and pillows and her own scarf and hat in the stairs. It became a long laughter to pass each others.

A few spreads of paintings and a small interview in Taiwanese Dpi magazine, vol. 151. Beautiful letters in their language, very figurative, filled with stories in one character.

How old are you?

For a lovely Saturday, long walks, reading, keeping painting brushes busy. Enjoying the yellow spring light.

Take good care of yourself.

Stay warm in the heart of winter!

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.)

SUMMER ORANGE, BLUE AND LAVENDER

There was a small spring storm here. White peaks of waves in the lake, why the water changes the color so rapidly. Bicycling was possible inside a small forest where the trees were covering as walls. Glad about their long and strong roots. For a moment there was no asphalt as fallen branches had taken it all over. A lavender was bicycled from the town from smiling eyes.

Jalouse, a French magazine has a small post about the picnic of Sessun with my illustration in it. Thank you dearly Maikki, who saw it and kindly sent the magazine to me! The Meadow Picnic -painting is available also as a bag and a shirt.

Everything is calm again as quickly as the wind also rose. Night sky of light blue and orange. Summer sky is coloring my dreams.

Sleep tight!

P.s. One and two new prints in my shop. More about them soon!