SUNSET WAVES

Summer nights. Thunder storms and the scent of rain on dry asphalt. More sunny and warm days. Train trips, dear friends, sailing boats, parks, cafés by the sea, sunsets. Gazing the sun to rise above the city lights.

A few rain drops today make the summer to scent more magical. Birch trees.

Sweet Tuesday greetings!

DAYS OF SUMMER

Misty mornings at the summerhouse. White curtains so thick, sounds from the other side. Cold hands of the mist around everything, tree branches with drops like rain. Slowly the first sun rays arrive to glimmer on the lake waves. The curtains open, the show begins.

Every day more green, here and there. Yellow and blue flowers. Sleeping inside forests, their melodies. 

Night time swimming. Swans dancing and singing.

Darling friends, ice-cream, ladybirds ♥

Small spontaneous expeditions, many talks.

Almost blooming lily-of-the-valleys, the scent is already here. Fragile, the most refined.

Summer.

Have sweet expeditions!

(1st, 4th and 5th photos by photographer and cinematographer J.V.)

PINE NEEDLES, HAPPY 2013

Blue skies, star lights, dreamy clouds, peeking golden sun. 

Smiles, warmth, hugs, and happiness to your New Year!

Happy January!

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!

ONE FOREST STORY

One day the one that whistled in a tree, early in the morning, was found behind a window in the afternoon.

Forest walk, tummies full of berries after a cold dip in a lake. Sun shined and the moss looked warm and soft. Pillows, I saw, and mattresses, sofas and armchairs. Handfuls of berries to reach, to drink and eat. There would be everything. Dense pine branches as a roof, the hill to see the first sun rays and wave good bye to the last disappearing ones.

Trumpet orchestra of the forest hummed a slow windy song all around. 

Trees, small and tall. Some smaller, but denser ones were tickling curiosity forming a nice beginning of a path. The blue sky would not be visible under those branches.

A tree to hang your beard into. Or a tree to borrow a beard from to dress up for a royal forest dinner.

The waves rushed to the shore, the clouds to the left. Crackling fire was waiting inside with a blueberry pie. Turning bike and bicycling back home on a sunny autumn forest road. Pebbles making a nice rhyme under tires.

Warm cloudy morning greetings!

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!

SUMMER NIGHTS

After rain, sunset. Bicycling while other people too get out again after a heavy rain fall.


For today, more rain. But not quite yet. Hopping to my bicycle saddle. Is there enough of time for a late morning tea by one of the harbors?


Have a calm beginning for the new week!

ROWING BEFORE THE RAIN CAME

Before other trip greetings, some lake scented moments from yesterday.


Rowing around small islands. Birds catching fish, bright yellow fields in the distance. Gazing the thunder clouds going around, swimming in rain.


Happy new week!

SUNSET, SUNRISE ON MIDSUMMER NIGHT

With music and friends watching sunset by a lake on Midsummer's night. Small garden ferry floating with a bonfire on the lake. Guitars, ukuleles playing. Singing. 


Bicycling up the hills and down again. On the other side of the city, by another lake with a small lighthouse, watching the sun rising again.


Seven flowers of last year. Bonfire last year.


Sunday for listening to the rain by a third lake, the small one behind my windows. Two swans are my new neighbors.


Have a good last week of June, filled with fresh tastes and sun kissed cheeks!

EMERALD GREEN

Today the lake behind windows is the same color as the sky, just a horizon of emerald green trees in between. Silent rain does not matter seagulls. Pile of unread newspapers on the balcony with cups of fresh mint tea while watercolors dry.


At home a few weeks ago, small waves.


Happy Midsummer week!

ISLAND

A long weekend at my parents with baking (peach and lemon pie), reading and watching squirrels on the yard. Sauna in the summerhouse smelled like summer already. Crocuses and anemones slowly rising, turning their heads towards the sun. Daylight lasts so long, the full moon was like an orange of an exotic sky.

The first Scandinavian illustration festival, Helsinki Illustration Festival 2012, from 13th to 15th of April in Designmuseo. A few of my paintings can be seen there. Full program here.

Island painting for the new album by Holmes. 13th of April Burning Bridges will be released, you can find it here.

Tomorrow a small train trip back to home.

Afternoon coffee time greetings (with piece of that peach and lemon pie) from Eastern Finland!

...

Heippa!

Pohjoismaiden ensimmäinen kuvitusfestivaali, Kuvita! Helsinki Illustration Festival 2012, 13-15.4. Designmuseossa. Siellä on esillä muutama maalaukseni. Koko ohjelma löytyy täältä.

THEN EVERYTHING FROZE

Good morning, good evening,

On Sunday morning, when waking up, there was something different in the air. The waves of the lake were frozen. Under foot steps the sound was new. The frost had painted the landscape in shiny sparkles, in brittle sounds.

I started to battle against winter because I wanted to be friends with it. Winter was a friend of no-one, it did not ask whether people liked it to blow on their face or from behind their back. I knew winter was around me, and it was just a matter of being a part of it. From my book Proof of Winter.

Have a good warm week, with candle lights.

THANK YOU TO POSTMAN

Stretching while a green layer of turquoise watercolor is drying.

"Thank you to postman!", wrote dear L. to that letter. With a photo by Pyhäjärvi lake while she was here, sent from St. Petersburg. (It is a good addition to my rowing boat collection.) We had glasses of good cold apple lemonade when the weather was still very warm, a promenade and talks about bicycling in a city, of radio programs and libraries.

Evening sun, coloring the sky to a drama. Towers of this city grow twice in height on a specific calmness of the lake. While I keep on solving mysteries on pages of a book.

Thank you to all, so much, who have ordered the Tree House print, or any other, or asked about original paintings or bought them. Everything will be packed and shipped during the next week!

Good-bye summer, was a pleasure to have you here so warm and so sunny. Welcome autumn of yellow, orange, red and violet. I have missed you with the wind, fresh air and sounds of raindrops. Please keep us gently in your arms.

P.s. The postman usually comes very late, irregularly, on Fridays very early. Has long hair and writes nice notes if the letter or parcel does not fit into the mailbox. With a bright blue pen. Obviously against his hand as the note is always wrinkled. Has the same name of one of my dearest friends.