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I started a new rather large 50 x 60 cm mixed media work. I'm going to place four flying linocut cats in this sky, one small one without wings and three newer ones and slightly bigger cats with wings. At the bottom are two silly looking cats in a tree. The reddish sun is a linocut.
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"Captain and First Mate" is the title of this painting by Canadian-English illustrator Janice Thompson. So the cat and the pig are shipwrecked and floating in the ocean on a wooden raft. They don't look too alarmed though. The pig looks at a fish peeking out of the water, which might not be a shark after all. The cat has raised an American flag on its tail. The waves and the sky are depicted naively, I also like the stripes on the cat's fur and the spots on the pig. If you look more closely at the picture, the beach on the left is not very far and a big ship seems to be approaching on the horizon. Yes, this couple will probably be saved from their distress at sea!
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The third butterfly cat is engraved. The size of this linocut is 15 x 15 cm. Here, too, I cut the sketch into pieces and placed it in a slightly more flying position before gluing. The cat has also raised its front paws in the air, because now we are flying.
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Again the cat took off with butterfly wings on its back. The cat is striped and I'm going to color the wings variegated, maybe orange and yellow. This linocut is 18 x 13 cm in size.
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A pretty big tag was made on the wall of the train shelter of Iittala's naive art train station. At the same time, the electrical cabinet and the ticket machine were marked. The station canopy was realized a few years ago in a joint project of the Naivistit Iittalassa foundation and Hämeenlinna City with perforated Corten steel from two of my lino drawings. Backlit at night, the pictures are best seen. Now I wonder how that Corten can be cleaned, when it has a beautiful rust patina.
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Another linocut of a flying cat is a cat with a violin. The cat has butterfly wings and a violin in her lap. Can cats play the violin? The size of the lino drawing is 16 x 16 cm.
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This painting by Englishman William Henry Trood (1859-1899) is a slightly different Victorian work. In general, cat and dog paintings of that time have a large dose of cuteness, the animals pose as kind and beautiful. These Victorian paintings are often called chocolate box paintings, because they often decorated the lids of candy boxes. This picture has a rather surprising distribution of color areas, more than half of the picture is a white tablecloth. And kittens! They are quite wild, climbing up the tablecloth. In a minute, the tablecloth is on the floor, and the mother cat watching behind the table can testify quite the mayhem.
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The linocut of a flying angel cat is printed. I'm not going to color this linocut by hand, I think it works best in black and white. The size of the cat is 18 x 15 cm. It would be tempting to make a background for the cat as a monoprint or pastel, approx. 20 x 20 cm. At least I plan to use this angel cat as part of larger pastel/lino mixed media works.
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I carved an angel cat as a linocut. My intention was to make a series of butterfly cats that I could combine with larger mixed media works. Well, this turned out to be a winged cat after all. I wanted more of a flying pose for the cat, so I cut my sketch into pieces and put them back together.
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The linocut "Angry Cat" or "PRKL" with a reggae colored sky in the background and a small linocut of a cloud and lightning & an orange moon is now in the frame. Similarly, "Hercules Lifts the Globe" received light wooden frames found in the closet. The frames are A4 size.
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I made pastel backgrounds for two linocus. In the first, the colors came in such a way that it reminds me of reggae music and the big crocheted hats that the musicians wore when I saw reggae bands in London. In the second linocut, Hercules lifts the globe with his strong arms. The Globe is coloured by hand.. I'm going to find for these some old frames in my closet.
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At first glance, the photo of the card looks rather quiet, pale, the edges of the boards can be seen horizontally and vertically. But then you realize that it's a genius invention: a shelf for the cat outside the window. The cat can take a nap on it if no one is opening the window. Or the cat can tap on the window glass, and the mistress or master lets in through the window. The picture was taken by Jukka Klemetti and it is called Kotikissa /Home Cat. The cat is clearly well fed, a bit lazy but the boss of the house.
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Runebergin mökki - Interi ry's summer shop had sold one larger linocut, a couple of lino were taken to replace it. We also got hanging ropes directly with Eeva Mäkelä. Eeva was a temporary shop assistant, and she also has her own table, wreaths, cards and other nice things. The exhibition of Petra Heikkilä's animal paintings is only open until the weekend. There was plenty of visitors and excitement in the shop!
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More tea towels, cards and small linocuts were taken to Gallery Villa Armas, Armas Branderinkatu 8, Pikonlinna, Kangasala. The large lino/pastel from Tahmela beach had already been sold. And at the same time I was able to present the making, technique of linocuts and naïve art in general. The Naïve art joint Exhibition is open until the beginning of September.
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Finnish Art Day in Iittala - hot, lively, naïve artists demoed and sold their products. We celebrated Helene Schjerfbeck's birthday every year all over Finland, in Iittala, along with a naive exhibition. It was wonderful when the fish found a new home at Kirsi's and in Lempäälä, and the stone frame with a cat picture that had broken off from the corner found a new home as well. It was nice to watch the work of others: Esa Leppänen, Ulla Kauhanen, Marke Laaksonen, Anna Luostarinen, Ira Grünfelder and many others.
