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!

DANDELION FIELDS COLLECTION

The end of August brings new winds. Layers of wool, hot cups in hands, some slight oranges, yellows and reds here and there in trees. Moments to light a candle in darkening evenings, to embrace the calmness of the nights. 

Dandelion Fields Collection, a stationary collection published by Chronicle Books, is to celebrate the autumn and colder air. To remember the dearest and to write a few warming thoughts down on flower fielded lines.

The Notebook Collection consists of three different Notebooks with hand drawn lines.

Foiled covers, sewn with a thread. The three Notebooks are tied together with a turquoise thread.

The Notecards come in a box with envelopes. Sixteen cards, four different kinds, blank inside. 

Ready to be sent with some warm whispers to someone far.

The Box of Labels, to decorate and label jars, parcels, books, notebooks, those boxes on your shelf that are filled with sewings, summer memories and all the baking ingredients and the things you were not sure about.

This sketchbook belongs to me.

Edit: Those of you who want to buy the items in Euros, please find them through Book Depository. All the items are also available through Amazon.

Dandelion Wishes Journal (pictured in the first photo up right) is also still available.

Hopefully you enjoy this small Dandelion Fields Collection with my illustrations!

Warming Wednesday whispers ♥

STILL BLOOMING

Summer continues to bloom on my balcony.

Happy weekend!

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!

NUMBERS: THREE, MELODY OF THE RAIN

The spring rain arrived. The frozen lake became a huge mirror with a layer of water on the ice. Little streams here and there, puddles. First snowdrops. 

On Friday my small company turned three years old. Thank you everyone for your words, commissions, orders, greetings. The third year brought so many new ideas, lovely people, exhibitions, so kind words. A humble curtsey! Numbers: Two and Numbers: One. 

Sunday, radio plays mellow songs and rattles once in a while in the middle. The eagerness of springtime and all the plants to arrive one by one.

Have a sweet start for the new week!

TIPTOEING

The spring is on its tiptoes. Full moon. Ice crackling under steps. The city filled with daffodils.

Castles, knights, towers, a forest dressing room and more tiptoeing for a brochure for the magical ballet Raymonda in a huge opera house Teatro alla Scala in Milano. 

Did you ever dance ballet? For a while I was a little ballerina in a sea turquoise dress. Still when I can smell one specific soap, my ballet teacher comes to my mind and my posture gets a little bit straighter. Her red long hair while dancing, were wild.

Blue-skied greetings!

PEARLS AND PARCELS

Muscari, helmililja, pearl lily, grape hyacinth. Filling the air with its mysterious and sweet scent.

Warming parcels from South-East and South-West. Thank you so much dear ones!

New snow landing, sketch book open, tea water boiling, the grape hyacinth bowing towards windows.

Wishing you a good Monday.

WINTER RAINBOW

Sunny days, snowy days. Skating days, rainbow in the middle of a frozen lake -days. Long walks and baking. And many brush strokes. Days when birds have started to sing outdoors again. The sun is warming, or at least I try to imagine so. Late winter, spring-winter, kevättalvi.

A spring rainbow.

Only a few greeting card sets in the small online shop left. 

Hello to the new visitors through Design*Sponge 1 & 2!

Calm afternoon tea break greetings!

ONE WINTER NIGHT

Forest Cuckoo -print

12 Greeting Cards

Blossom Sailing -print

It can happen sometimes, at 23:02, just when you are brushing your teeth and have just switched on your reading lamp by your bed and are eager to get in between fresh clean sheets on a cold first winter night, that you get the idea that you were searching for for the whole day. Then it naturally happens that your reading lamp shines lonely and you find yourself toothbrush still in mouth sketching fourty-five minutes later. 

Written on my sketchbook last week with drawings of trees, birds and snowfall.

Two new prints, Forest Cuckoo and Blossom Sailing plus some new greeting cards in my online shop. Hopefully you enjoy them!

Silently the first snow came, silently it also disappeared other night. Thank you for the comments in the last post, it became such a nice dictionary of the word "snow". Rain on the calendar with hints of sun rays.

Have a good last day of October, welcome November! Warm evening greetings with dark cloud silhouettes on the sunset sky!

ASPEN YELLOW

Black landscape to bicycle in the evening to a summerhouse. Rain looked in the light of my bicycle like snow. Long white lines from the sky. In the morning all the tones of yellow in aspen trees. Light playing and colouring them in neon, in earth and transparent tones. A morning swim of a moose calf, passing the dock and vanishing behind the lake tule.

Raking a bit, colouring the landscape back to green from all the yellows. This morning the rain greeted and the ground was yellow again. Nature likes its own order better. I like it too. First small dots of yellow all over, then a thick carpet.

Have a sweet new week!

GREETINGS FROM A PAINTING TABLE

Hello from my painting table. 

Turquoise, clover red, puffy dandelion white and forests of greens are filling this table. A small clinging sound as the brush is cleaned in an empty jam jar and comforting melodies of boiling water, as a teapot is filled. Today, Sakura green tea and adventures of drawing small wooden houses. The colder air of autumn makes this spot at home even more precious.

Blossom Sailing. A small boat ready for an afternoon trip on a lake. Sun glimmering, nearby meadow sending greetings as flying leaves and flowers. Water in the lake is perfect for a small swim. 

Sweet Kate from BSDA asked me to join her art show of original artworks. There are six pieces for sale for six weeks. You can find all the works here with some more pictures. The two paintings in this post are included. There is also a small interview. You can find BSDA also here. Hopefully you enjoy them!

Wild Strawberries. Clovers, Forget-Me-Nots and Cow Vetches are covering small white flowers of wild strawberries on a clearing. Still need to wait a bit for the sun-kissed, red-cheeked berries to come.

All the works are from this year and signed and sent by me from Finland. On soft cotton paper, by watercolors and some small drops of white acrylic paint. With a lot of love, many long walks and thoughts and many pots of tea.

Thank you so much Kate for this opportunity!

Today is one of those mornings when the small lake behind my window is completely silent and reflects the same colors and forms than above the horizon. Pine trees, trees of a city garden, a corner of a field. Towers of this city. A perfect beginning for new stories to happen. A perfect morning for anything.

Warm smiles and happy last days of August! Thank yo so much for your visits and kind words!

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!

ON BRANCHES

There are birds, squirrels, wind and fog. On branches, small green beginnings of a new summer as buds. Raindrops hanging, with the dinner scent of neighbors baking from an open window. Curling. Cones, a lost mitten, best of all is lichen. Branches holding many things. 


A family tree and its branches growing. Editorial illustrations about traditions, and if they should be passed or not to the next generation. For Kaksplus magazine (issue 5/2012). (The handwritten text is a Finnish saying. Not that bad that there is not something good in it too.)


A few days still to play along with the giveaway. It has become such a beautiful chapter to read and appreciate everything that you have written.


The ice has melt from the small lake, the seagulls sing their evening songs. Small waves of a grey cloudy day. Time for a late dinner, a big plate of spring salad.


Bon appétit! 

APRIL STORM

Somewhere the spring went. And sent us a greeting of a very big cloud of snow. Momentarily feeling lost on the way to the post office. Sharp flakes from every direction. The path on the way back was already blown away.

The evening watching more snow flakes arriving. Painting with the strongest girl in the world. Sharp papers.

Today the snow is dropping from the roof in size of giants, the sun shines. Will more snow arrive?

April snowy greetings.

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!