LITTLE WINTERY SUNSHINES

So golden the light when it appears.

So sweet the little people on the covers of Babee Magazine of Korea. With my paintings on the backgrounds. (14th anniversary issue of October with Forest Cuckoo, November issue with Under Ice detail and September issue with In Meadows.)

It has been some stormy nights, and a few rainy days, but mainly the weather is a non-weather. All stays silent and grey. The peeks of sun today here are very shy, but still they colour everything they reach to colour gold. For a little moment.

The weather has been somewhere else. Thinking how much is lost in the Philippines.

Little smiles!

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!

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.) 

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! 

SHE COMES WITH A LITTLE BIT OF DRAMA

Spring comes with a little bit of drama. Sharp edges on her light and shadows. Strong wind. Dribbles of clouds with bright sun. Long breakfasts, walks and many movies in a film festival with friends. Beautiful scenes, long talks. One lighthouse, a bit of snow, a lot of sunshine. Unread newspapers, many lists to remember.

Five flora illustrations for Oh Comely magazine (issue 9) for an article about Thomas Pausz.

Secrets from the 90´s were hiding in a pocket of an old jacket. Two 10 pennies coins from 1991 with beautiful pictures of lily of the valley.

Windy but warmest Monday afternoon 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!

CHOCOLATE DELIVERY SYSTEM

A little while ago I was dreaming of a company that would deliver daily amounts of chocolate right to a doorstep. Just a daily amount as it seems that chocolate is something that is just vanishing. Yesterday it became true for a moment. Thank you dear L! Opening a parcel like that is almost like traveling to another country. Feeling of different kind of paper, text and taste. And something handmade, so precious.

On a holiday is also the mother in these illustrations that I painted for Kaksplus magazine (1/2012). An article about having free with and without children.

Under Ice available now as a limited edition print.

Thank you to all of you for your kind words in comments and emails. Sending you some gentle snowflakes from behind my windows.

Winter hearts.

RAINDROP NOTES

The wind and rain outdoors play the most magical instruments. Anything they touch becomes a small echo. Anything they pass, becomes a small note. A cup of tea in left hand, a sketching pen in right one. Light is disappearing, candle flame dances inside shadows. These gray days the colors sleep.

Tiger In A Jar made this beautiful video of a cozy place to spent time, a dinner table. With the first issue of Kinfolk magazine with my painting. Music by Oliver Blank. I think he collects raindrops for his music too.

Silent songs and a little more of apples and that darkest chocolate.

P.s. A small edition of greeting cards is in my shop. A pack of 7 different cards with white envelopes.

(Screenshots from a movie by Tiger In A Jar.)

TEA FOR FIVE

Morning tea with stretching. The sun rising slowly. Colder air through windows, it really is August when the warmer moments have left for the night, but come later in the morning. The color green is accompanied with still shyly hiding yellow. Fruits in rowan trees are turning from yellow to brighter orange, to red. Rose hips too. Evening walks are slowly turned off to darker landscapes. Birds go to bed early.

Tea for Five, an illustration for Kinfolk magazine. Words by Catherine Searle Williams. Thank you everyone for having me. Thank you everyone who have come here through Kinfolk, and written to me.

Morning train is passing by somewhere far. The town is waking up slowly. Time for another cup.

Have a good Thursday.

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!

TINY TICKLES

Layer of snow landed this morning. Ate breakfast in candlelight watching snowflakes dancing, roofs of the small allotment houses were soon white. Smiling to yesterday. What a humble and kind man.

They are small but itchy, still harmless. The louse and pinworms. Itchy illustrations for Kaksplus 11/2010, magazine for parents of small children.

Going to bicycle around the small lake. A small house to be seen on the way with a lake sight and towers of the town. Could it become a new roof for my paintings and myself?

Fluffy cold colored clouds travel over the sun, lights on, lights off.

Warmest smiling weekend greetings,

Anna Emilia

FEATHER ISLANDS, LAND OF DREAMS

Is it a tail of a lion which colors all these mornings golden? As quickly as it comes just after the sun reaches above the tree tops, as quickly it also turns to a more colder and brighter color. Just moments. All those yellow polka dots in the trees I would like to protect from the asphalt and a rake with a piece of tape. To make them hang and sway through the winter.

The article that I illustrated tells about sleeping and good dreams. "Sleeping is not about being lazy, but a responsibility." Enough, but not too much while being in the feather islands.

Michael and Neil sent me a wonderful postcard, an original painting by them. Thank you so much!

Lunchtime. Clinking and clanking while a parsnip soup boils,

Anna Emilia

P.s. Edit: The first image was forgotten.

SCENT OF HARVEST

Postwoman has been ringing my doorbell with parcels this week. The first one came over the seas and oceans from Kerstin. Books and a soft treasure to keep company for my teapot. Thank you! Second one came from Sweden, a Finnish magazine Maalaisunelma (Nr 7 2010) featured my sprout paintings (1 & 2).

Balcony door stays closed, yellow leaves cannot be counted anymore. Birds are flying more, practicing for longer journeys. Singing of jackdaws is back, loving it as afternoon surprises. After summer´s bicycle trips, now walking is the nicest way to reach tea, markets, post office and this evening maybe a concert, the last outdoor movie and an exhibition. Clouds covering the sky, walking makes the world visible only piece by piece, more concentrated, more comforting.

Tomorrow a train trip to the strawberry fields. The season is over, but hopefully there are lingonberries in the forests around. Continuing to knit a huge pile of black wool, reading a book. But before that, an unfinished painting is waiting.

Forest scent weekend wishes to you, thank you for stopping by!

With paintbrush strokes,

Anna Emilia

(Photo in the third picture by Shari Altman.)

TEATIME AT MY NEIGHBORS

Tea water was boiling, the doorbell rang. It was greetings all the way from poplar wool covered Moscow as a big parcel. It brought the published illustrations that I painted when there were still snow and northern lights in the sky for architecture and design magazine Interni Russia.

The brewed tea I poured to a thermos bottle, wrapped a few dark chocolate cashew nuts in a paper bag, put all in a bigger bag and walked for a very long tea break to the allotment garden´s windy bench. Lilacs fill the air with their scent everywhere.

The magazine is about architecture of the future with new technologies, materials, ecology and zero-emission houses. There are two versions, a usual magazine and The Mook, a perfect bound book. They both come with two supplements. The first one is about watches and the second one is about significant people, objects and buildings from 1910 to 2010. There are six illustrations that I did. Unfortunately my Russian is limited still to understand only a few alphabets, but this surely makes me to want to study the beautiful language more.

Thank you kindly dear Yulia & everyone else at Interni for this opportunity. Smiling greetings back to Moscow!

Greetings also to you, love and warm tea scents for your weekend!

P.s. Works number 1, 2 and 3 for Interni.

Edit: P.s. 2. Look how cute is she!

A VERY LATE COFFEE BREAK THINKING OF YOU

I got my long thought rain on Saturday night while walking in the town. It was the most gentle thing. It takes always a while to understand it really rains with those fragile drops.

Today I have everything around me. Right tones of watercolors, good brushes, clean water, strawberry juice and tea, a plan, a few blooming plants, piano music, a good book and a magazine and lots of soft cotton paper. Mr. Crow singing on the birch tree behind the balcony and you all there behind your screens.

It is a good beginning for March. I wish the same for you.