COUNTING TREES, A GIFT LIST OF DECEMBER

These streets and views in different weather became very familiar to me during November, a month in a residency in Reykjavík. My Travelogue grew in wind, in snowy days and in sunshine and frost pinching nose. With dear new friends and so many shared teacups and cakes, songs of ravens. The lighthouse was twinkling, the Aurora Borealis danced on the sky. Swimming water was warm, the mountains snowy. The paintings were done with the support from Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

If you are looking something to give to your dearest, these are some items available with my illustrations:
Breathe and Be, A Book About Mindfulness Poems illustrated book, also available here
Blue Skies umbrella
Red Cap Cards stationary
In Flight temporary tattoos
Mon Herbier herbarium book
Casa di fiaba illustrated book
L'ours et le soleil illustrated book
Spring Allotment poster
Garden of A Moon Gazer poster
Dandelion Fields Box of Labels
Dandelion Fields Notecards

Kisses, warmth, long walks and snowy peaks!

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!

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!

NOVEMBER WINDS

Hello November and the disappearing peeks of sun rays! Hello Monday and grey weather with the warmth of the weekend of jazz concerts still caressing. Hello end of the year with still so many possibilities, chances. 

A calendar for the coming year is published by Frankie Magazine, month of October with my Morning Frost Meadow.

The new issue 56 of Frankie includes The Scribble Club to keep hands busy. Five pretty much grown-up illustrations to colour-in. Strawberry Path next to a wild person's portrait by Irana Douer, happy to be in the same publication with her again.

The cover image of little lullabying cat in the girl's arms is by Anke. Loving it so much. ♥

Some days the little lake behind my windows has forest islands floating across after very blowy nights. The other days they are gone. Today they are gone.

The small online shop is updated with some copies of the Casa di Fiaba book, a few postcard sets and prints.

Sweet melodies of raindrops!


(In the second photo illustration on the left is by Ilana Douer, on the third photo the magazine cover illustration is by Anke Weckmann.)

MY MOTHER, MINUN ÄITINI, MAMMA MÍN

Many flowers to my mother and grandmothers. A little bit late.

Happy Mother's Day! 

♥

P.s. Earlier: 2012, 2011, 2010

IN GARDENS, ON WAVES, AND IN FOREST PATHS

Darling friends, I have the pleasure to invite you to my small exhibition about posters made of my paintings to a lovely boutique Design Boulevard here in Tampere. From the 18th of February until the 16th of March, 2013. Welcome! 

Thank you so much sweet Karita for this possibility!

Have a beautiful Valentine's Day! Thank you all friends near and far for the moments together (in Finland Valentine's Day is celebrated more as a day for friendship)!

.....

Rakkaat ystävät, tervetuloa pieneen näyttelyyni Tampereen Design Boulevardille, jossa on esillä ja myynnissä maalauksistani tehtyjä julisteita. 18.2.-16.3.2013. Tervetuloa!

Kiitos suloinen Karita!

Lempeää ystävänpäivää ja kiitos kaikille ystäville lähellä ja kaukana yhteisistä hetkistä!

(Exhibition flyer design by Karita.)

SUNDAY SWIMMINGS

In the pool, while swimming, the sun rays were glimmering. Outside snow was sparkling. The sun warmed through windows and the water was turquoise.

Surprise visitors from behind a sea, beautiful music and long breakfasts. Many smiles.

Happy February! Helmikuu, Pearl Month. Helmikuu helistää, February rattles. February is the coldest month in Finland. Pearls appear on tree branches as the sun starts to shine more, it warms and melts the snow to raindrops and the evening cold freezes them again. Ice pearls are hanging on all tree branches.

Have a sweet beginning for the new week!

WHITE WINTER FOREST WISHES

Warm winter wishes to everyone! 

Thank you so much for your sweetness this year, through your comments, emails and even letters and postcards, they have made me so happy!

Greetings from very white and frosty landscapes in Eastern Finland. Have beautiful and calm days enjoying!

STORY OF A PORTRAIT

It has been such a long mild autumn taking space from the winter, even the first snow already was here and left as silently as it came in one night. The lake is reflecting the morning colour of the sky, today some pale grey with little bumps of waves. A little wind waving the last rowen berries. Everyday routine, four to six Common Pheasants walking sneakingly around behind windows, usually queuing behind each others. From bush to bush, a nap in between under pine trees.

Last night sweet Freya sent me a story about her boyfriend´s birthday gift. It was the portrait of the two of them that I painted last month. The story made me so happy, including some coincidences in the middle of Amsterdam, but also a lot of warm feelings. Thank you Freya for telling the story and for the photo!

A hint of light blue on the sky, bicycle ride greetings!

(The second image is by Freya.)

AFTERNOON BREAK GREETINGS

Milky sky and yellow leaves. The air is standing, is it the calmness before rain´s hum. Paper piles and someone walking on the roof. Whistling a happy melody in the staircase while hammering. Thank you for the new roof you happy workers!

There might be something almost finished on my floor. Is it really two years already. In those two fitted a lot of things, forgotten piles and many other paintings.

New brush strokes and black narrow lines, cinnamon buns and dreams of the small train trip tomorrow. 

Have a calm weekend, stay warm!

Happy birthday Mom ♥ 

FIRST SILVER FROST

First glittering frost over roofs and grass early this morning. Many beautiful starry nights to wonder what are there behind our stars. Trying to learn new constellations. Hundreds of years ago, how did it feel to sail in the sea and navigate towards the North Star, to home.

Greetings from my painting table. A sketch from the summer and a detail of a painting to it. Many orders packed too, thank you so much! They will be sent today.

Have a warm and calm weekend!

ON AN ADVENTURE

An easy way to travel is to look up to the sky. To see the clouds chasing each others, to see the stars to blink even they are stone and gas up in the space, far away. To see airplanes flying and the flapping wings of birds. Dragonflies, so many these days, with their glimmering bronze wings in the sun. Lost balloons and a yellow leaf of this autumn whirling in the wind.

Two photos through my windows of these yellow autumn days, one photo (detail) of a painting Adventure on A Windy Day, available at BSDA.

Warm golden moments, happy September!

GARDEN OF A MOON GAZER

It makes to feel so small sometimes when thinking as big thoughts as the distances between the Sun and our beautiful planet Earth. And that, here very early tomorrow morning, we see Venus passing in between these two. 


How things could happen as they are now, that we have here a summer, in Sydney it is autumn. That we all can jump and we all drop down to the ground, no one getting lost in to the space. That there are such things as dark winter nights and nightless Northern summer nights. And how the Moon is such a good companion, always following us, showing his face to us so secretly. Full or half, a crescent. Sometimes hiding. That we see the Venus as a small black dot in front of the sun. Distances that are too long to think.


A garden for a night sky watcher, and shooting star finder. Garden for night time scents and blue flowers. A small tent hut also for a gazer of the transit of Venus. Garden of A Moon Gazer available as an original painting from me and as different sized prints from L’Affiche Moderne. Thank you so much Mélanie for this opportunity! 


Is it possible to see the journey of Venus from your place? Will you see it? (Please, remember to protect your eyes!) Let´s see if the weather is fine here tomorrow morning. Today it shines through puffy sheep-formed clouds.


Greetings to Venus, to Moon and to you.

TO MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHERS

Leaves in every tree are growing so fast. The morning and the evening sizes grow from a little finger to thumb size. The spring rain caresses. Last night they grew also in my dream, to sizes of mountains. The rain made some leaves to grow also here in the blog (do you see them?) and also to the small online shop.


Mother's Day cards on my table. Tomorrow a small train trip with a flower bouquet. Maybe the first swim after the winter ice has gone from the summer house lake.


Happy Mother's Day on Sunday to all beloved mothers! 


(Mother's Day cards previously, 1 & 2.)

LINNEA PATH, A GIVEAWAY

There have been days to use an umbrella, a day when things get lost, a day when those favorite things are found again, appreciated even more. A day to use two layers of long sleeves. Days of crane, swan, goose wedges on blue sky. On cloud-grey sky. Small birds that hide under pine branches from the rain. During the weekend the first outdoor coffees will be drank in the harbor.

Today, while painting, a mellow and comforting sound of a lady is speaking me some foreign language. Will I learn some too? Languages are like music and some of them would be nice to keep unknown that the melodies of them never fade away. One of the things that I enjoy the most.

What kind of things you have appreciated lately? What do you enjoy in these moments of April? With your answer and your email address you can play along. For one of you this small painting Linnea Path is sent. Open till Sunday evening, Finnish time, 29th of April. This is my small way to thank you for being here. You are all so kind.

Happy and calm outdoor weekend!

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.

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.

SWINGING ON A BRANCH

Mornings, so silent, waking up with the light. Noons listening how the ice starts to melt again for once again. Breaking under steps, melting away. Streams around pebbles. A squirrel waits next to a mailbox. It must be the time when they roll their soft tails around new baby squirrels. Nests in fir tree branches swinging in the drama of the spring. (A song about a squirrel, take 1 & 2.)

Afternoons listening to new languages through radios. Reading new finds from the library shelves. Holding that black teacup once again, not always sure which of the green teas would be perfect for this moment. Choosing one called Limão. Taste of a sunny place, where the sun turns skin warm and brown. There is a bit of sleepiness in the air, the lemon taste makes the day fresh again.

Packing orders and a commissioned private painting of two siblings to their mother. Thank you to everyone for being here with me!

Evening for a concert of a favorite trumpet player, a few friends, a nice meal. A good welcome for the weekend.

Warmest thoughts to your weekend, make it a calm one!

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.

PATTERNS FOR SPRING WINTER

Patterns for skiing, skating, walking. For days with fox and bunny steps in the snow. For days with Great Grey Shrikes swinging on branches, hiding behind their black masks. For days when the sun makes everything to glimmer, stretches with its long yellow beam whiskers everywhere.

This week it seems to be snowy, but the sun remains above the clouds.

In January we started something new with Holmes. They will bring the spring.

Warm whispers in shape of hearts!