Painting as a Diary

I like something what Picasso said. He suggested that painting was merely one way of keeping a diary. I have noticed that my feeling greatly effects the results. Depending the day, of course!

Art lovers

ART LOVERS - THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE!

Being an artist is quite a task since one is his own secretary, marketer, producer, publicist, PR person and so on - endlessly. I can easily forget people who actually love art and its makers. I had an opurtunity to have an exhibition in a small gallery of Liisa Ekquist this year. It raelly is a small one but the more lovely, too.

Liisa and Juhani are wonderful, warm-hearted art lovers. There are not many like them. The place they have chosen is an old house near the center of Noormarkku. A small town that few go to see an exhibition. People visiting the place are mostly local and for this very reason people like them are so important. There would be nothing without them! This is like offering people free peak to the world of art. No cost there.

I suppose this used to be the way of early art lovers all over the World. Showing images and works of art to their friends, colleagues and even to the normal people sorrounding them. Not being selfish, these people try to share their passion to others and convince the overall public of the value of art. This, of course, mostly on their own cost and freetime.

Thank you Liisa and Juhani that there are people like you around! Thank you a lot!

Living In Siam Studio

I f someone wonders why I like to stay in Thailand, there is a simple explanation to it. Namely the worth of my money. As a 'poor' artist I have to count what's left after a painting period and how can I eat and enjoy my life. Eat & Enjoy? Yep. Even we artists need to do these two things. Personally I think it's a shallow lie that best art is done in poor circumstances. Nobody expects - let's say - violinist to become world known playing on the streets and living in shack. I believe if ones poverty is of that magnitude there is little room for creativity.

Here in the Land Of Smile, my euro buys five times more than I could ever afford in Europe (Finland). The materials are the same, made by the same companies, under same product brands and so on. And what is best is that one can have roomy studio apartment where to enjoy ones life. Now I have lovely 2nd floor apartment about 70 square meter and they clean it every other day, bring me new water bottles and change for the linen. There is cable TV and everything is new. I pay as much 14.000 Baht a month (=about 300 euro). Where I come from I could probably get a garage with that money. No heating of course...

Here we have some work in progress pics...

Four Graphic Prints

These prints were created for my exhibition in Helsinki. They were a series of prints related to poetry of Eeva-Liisa Manner. One of my favorite poets. I don't know whether she has ever been published in English but doubt it since her poetry is quite attached to Finnish language and rather difficult if not impossible to translate into a full extent.

First I painted these images in the old fashion oil colors and later started to work as redrawing them for screen. I like this kind of transformation since it gives me time to change things I don't like and take time to take the work a bit further. So they may look works that were done in a short time but actually achieving the feeling that I wanted, it took more than two weeks just to draw the films I needed for the screen.

I hope people see them as flexible and sort of dream of an alternative World - just like poetry suggests...

Beginning of Art Talk...

I have contemplated quite a while to open a blog to show some of my own images and say a word or two about artist's profession.
I am a professional artist working at the moment in Thailand. Originally I am from Finland and go back there every now and then to showcase my work.

I feel that art has a lot to offer to our World, especially at the times when economy is faulting. People tend to think too much about money-related issues and much less about things that really matter - at least to me.

I hope You - as reader will enjoy my blog and if I wake up some thoughts the better.

This first pic is from the year 2000. It is from a series of gouache paintings where I combined gouache and silk screen. The Holiday Inn chain purchased quite a few of these artworks to their hotel in Salmisaari, Helsinki. They are there at display on the corridors and rooms.

I have tried to explore different materials and printing options since new and exciting always makes me see the huge potential in art.
I hope this kicks in my blog.