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A linocut of the Pispala ridge will now be paired with the linocut of the elm. If there was the elm full of small branches, details, then it's the same exact thing with this linocut. There are so many houses and details in the picture that I had to make a sketch directly on the lino with a marker. There are dozens of houses, two wooden stairs, vegetable plots, a couple of boats on the beach and a big job of carving ahead. Let´s get to work!
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Galleria Saskia has another interesting exhibition. I've never seen technology like this before. Raija Jokinen's (b.1960) textile works are made of linen fiber, dyed, shaped as if drawing figures and surfaces with the fiber and starched flat. Some of the works are attached to the wall with long nails and the light casts shadows that make the figures three-dimensional. Most of these textile sculptures are human figures. Linen fibers form like blood vessels, roots or branches. The details are amazing, like straight from nature, piles of sticks or moss.
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"SUMMER CONTINUES, SUMMER" reads the sign on Tahmela's beach. Well, at least it says so in this linocut of mine. That name is a quote from Lauri Viita's poem. The elm (Ulmus laevis) on Tahmela beach is the most beautiful tree I know. In this linocut, the tree is without leaves, even though summer continues. And the carving of the branches was quite a long-term job, one branch at a time. The size of the picture is 30 x 40 cm, and my intention is to continue this landscape to the left with a lino drawing of the same size from the ridge of Pispala.
Toivottavasti kissalla on oikeus edes olla tällä työpaikalla. Valokuvaaja on ruotsalainen Thomas Wester.
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A little cat is in the tightest corner of the desk. The expression is a bit: "Sorry, I'm here." It is clearly about the workplace desk, not any remote work in the Covid era. Is the man's workplace a hospital or a laboratory, because he wears an all-white work outfit?
I hope the cat even has the right to be in this workplace. The photo was taken by Swedish Thomas Wester.
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The first test print of a linocut is always exciting. Is the picture at all what was imagined when carving the linocut. It looks promising to me, a little fixing is still needed. There still seem to be a couple of places in the branches of the tree where carving has been forgotten.
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It took more time to carve this elm on Tahmela beach than to carve any previous lino plate. I was at one point losing faith that this would ever be completed. Well, on the other hand, this kind of slow carving is very meditative. You can only focus on that, let your thoughts take their time and see how the image that was the goal is gradually completed.
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This elm is so full of details that I had to use a marker to draw a sketch on the lino plate, which I normally don't do that accurately. The lino plate is Japanese vinyl 30 x 40 cm. The plate is double-sided, blue and green. I don't know why I mostly use the green side. The trace of the engraving is perhaps better visible here, although misleadingly engraved part is darker when it is white when printed. And that mirror image, you also have to think that the letters come out the right way round (that is, the wrong way round when engraving). A sign on the beach reads: "SUMMER CONTINUES. SUMMER".
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An old tree growing on the shore of Tahmela beach is used as a model for the linocut. A few pictures with a mobile phone were taken in winter when there are no leaves on the tree, and I use them as a model. What fascinates me when making this linocut are the twists of the elm, the bare branches and the big figure of the whole tree. It seems that there will be carving here for a while. I usually don't make such a detailed sketch on a lino plate, but now there are so many tree branches that a more detailed sketch is in order. Well, slowly along with this one.
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It was summer when I started this rather slow linocut. I sketched the combination of two A4-sized linocuts into a wider picture. On one side would be Pispala ridge and on the other side would be the great tree on the shore of Tahmela, an old elm. At the pier of the summer cottage, a small wind rustled the reeds and seagulls screamed in the sky. Is this too slow to do with my character?
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Three Siamese cats have been interrupted in the middle of playing, and they look a little dazed. On the top step, the cat is playing with a mouse. The little cat in the middle step has some white balls and maybe a drinking glass, I can't even guess what to do with those. A cat loitering on the beautiful doormat pokes a small ball. The patterns of wood and Persian carpets are beautifully painted. The artist of the painting is Mimi Van Olsen, an American painter of animal portraits.
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The calendar for 2024 is now printed from my linocuts with a pastel sky or water. I like this calendar size, which is quite large, 42 x 21 cm, printed at Printtaamo, or A-Print, in Tampere. I think the print quality is good, which is always a bit of a puzzle when making files from images - do the colors and tones repeat correctly when printed. Twelve months, twelve pages and 12 old Finnish proverbs (in Finnish), which my husband Timo chose as usual. You can buy this calendar in my Etsy shop, with postage 24 euros each to Finland and 28 euros abroad. If you want more copies, place the order via Etsy message or email, additional copies 10 euros/piece.
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Sometimes it's really nice to carve small linocuts, black and white, without colors. Usually these have been cats, but now a dog was born. This is probably some small greyhound breed, maybe a wippet. I started the engraving of this work in Iittala on the Finnish painting day in July. But things didn't really progress there, there was a lot of interesting conversations with the visitors to the exhibition. But now the dog has been carved with all its whiskers. The big eyes are wide open and the dog wonders "What is it?" The size of this is only 15 x 10 cm, i.e. A6.
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I place small linocuts of birds on the pastel sky, actually like stamps. They should be put upside down, i.e. the way they are pressed when they are printed, otherwise the birds will fly in the wrong direction. These birds fly here and there screeching, past and over the moon. It is still raining and thundering in the horizon.
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Kikka Nyrén's (b. 1951 )Naïve art painting "Cat's dream about seahorses" has a lot of patterns. Swirling green aquatic plants in the background. Seahorses have many kinds of tufts and spots, humps, fins and feet. The cat is deliciously speckled, like a cheetah. The softness and hairiness of the fur is nicely painted. In the middle of the painting, the attention is stolen by the big green eye of the cat.
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Now a rather dark thundercloud appeared in the London sky. But a lighter horizon peeks out from under it. This lightning and heavy rain will pass quickly. I predict that linocut birds will fly next to the sky drawn with soft pastel crayons.
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I previously made one linocut & pastel work with the theme of London calling, and then this work moved to a new home. The subject still tickled my mind and I wanted to make a new version. I started planning again a pastel sky to a linocut of London rooftops. Of course, an orange big linocut moon appeared in the sky. Next, the pastel sky.
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One linocut of a cat still ended up on a monoprint. The cat is curled up in a basket and the cat and the basket are printed with the zigzag technique. I dabbed a little color on the background with a sponge and stamped floral patterns with yellow and hearts with red with small lino stamps. The size of the picture is about 20 x 20 cm.
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In Galleria Saskia, the textile art works of Kaiju Haanpää (b. 1948) from Vihti are amazing. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Some of the works are big, like patchwork quilts, and they are full of details, patterned pieces of fabric, ribbons, glitter and a million sewing machine stitches. The subjects seem to spring from the East and history, India, Egypt, Persia. You can see a lot of birds, fish and flowers. You have to look closely at these textiles, and then you will be surprised for example to notice the handles of an Ikea bag. Now it's pointless to ponder all the time spent on the work, because clearly Haanpää has done exactly what she wants and for which she sees the purpose and is able to visualize the end result and not care about the required time .
