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Winter is approaching, but I still thought of making one sun picture. This is from my larger mixed media series (70 x 40 cm). The linocut on the bottom shows Pispala and two red cats with their tails knotted. The laughing sun rises in the sky. So far, all parts are linocuts.
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The Advertising card of Gallery Five located in London is effective. With only three colors, black, red and white, an effective and cheerful image has been conjured. The black cat is round, smiling and has red ears and a bow. The name of the gallery is red. Welcome!
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A couple of friends asked me if I had noticed that one of my linocuts appears in the reality series Rikkaat ja rahattomat / Rich and Poor. Well, I hadn't seen! But now it has been proven. The "Shelter From the Wind” lino is glimpsed on the wall of a penniless circus artist in part 5 of this year. In the picture, a mother cat is holding her cub on Pyynikki’s viewing bench. Rikkaat ja rahattomat, Ruutu TV's reality TV series is based on the international format Rich House Poor House.
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I ordered more my 2025 calendars for next year, and there is still plenty left for this year too! The calendar is printed from my linocuts/pastels, there is quite a lot of color and sky and water, Pispala and cats too. The proverbs were chosen by my husband Timo. My favorite of the old Finnish proverbs is probably June: "There are nine kinds of crazy people, and then there are also summer cottage crazy people". The calendar is on sale in the lobby shop of the Naivistit Iittalassa exhibition, in my Etsy shop, in the Art Pispala gallery and on November 23 starting also in Interi's Christmas shop in Runeberg's Cottage in Tampere. The size of the calendar is 42 x 21 cm, and it was printed in A-Print.
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A couple of new models of Christmas cards from my linocuts have now been printed. The cat playing the violin is in the middle of the laughing stars, the other cat playing the violin is surrounded by Christmas greetings in different languages and the dog is ready for a cross-country ski run with a red knitted hat on his head. Old cards are still available: Pispala's Christmas, Christmas cats at the window, a dog with red apples in its mouth, trolls, a Christmas stocking, a Christmas ball and a cat skiing. Christmas cards will be for sale at Naivism's Winter exhibition in Iittala, at Interi's Christmas shop in Runeberg's Cottage and in my Etsy shop.
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Naivismikauppa / Naive Art Web Shop or Naivists in Iittala - the online shop for the exhibition has opened. The store looks good, and there will probably be more products published by the Naivisti Iittala exhibition in the future. Now in the store you can find e.g. pillowcases, towels and long-sleeved shirts and bags. The patterns on the shirts and bags are my linocut of insects. I myself call the image Korrot in Rauma's language. In the rest of Finland, the word korro is probably not very common or well-known. It's nice that korro has been taken as the name of a pattern in Iittala as well.
Neljäs 20 x 20 cm kokoinen sekatekniikkatyö sai nimensä Juice Leskisen kappaleesta Tanssimaa: "Minut löysit päältä meren tuulisen". Perhoskissa käsin väritettyine siipineen on linopiirros. Taustalla on vettä, rantaa, auringonpalvojia, jotka tein pehmeillä pastelleilla. Näitä hassuja perspektiivikuvia lentävistä kissoista oli niin kiva tehdä, että varmaan niitä syntyy lisääkin.
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The fourth 20 x 20 cm mixed media work got its name from Juice Leskinen's song Tanssimaa: "You found me on top of the windy sea". The butterfly with hand-colored wings is a linocut. In the background there is water, beach, sun worshippers, which I made with soft pastels. It was so much fun making these funny perspective pictures of flying cats, that I'm sure there will be more of them.
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In Christine Cipriano's painting, a slightly grumpy-looking cat looks straight at you. There are a few feathers next to the cat, so it almost caught the bird. But in the background, a woman in a red dress lets a bird fly from her hand. The bird has been saved from the claws of the cat. So there is cruelty in the picture, but it is nevertheless full of beauty: green soft hills and bushes, funny fan-shaped trees, a warm blue sky and the cat's cheerfully striped fur.
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The third small mixed media work about flying butterfly cats depicts a cat above sunny summer fields, clouds on the horizon. A cat with colored wings is a linocut with hand-colored wings. The background is a soft pastel. The size of the picture is 20 x 20 cm, and it got its name from Edu Kettusen's song Pilot's son: "I would still fly higher than others".
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A butterfly cat flies high above the sandy beach. On the beach, you can see umbrellas, swimming mattresses and people on land and in the water. Summer is hot. The butterfly is a linocut, the wings are hand-colored and the background is pastel. The size of the picture is 20 x 20 cm. The name for this speedy picture came from the PMMP song Rusketusraidat: "Let's throw away all our pants and shirts, let's take a flight".
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If you make a linocut of a butterfly cat, it must also fly. A violin-playing cat with hand-painted wings flies over the fields. White sheep are eating grass in the field. The background is pastel. This 20 x 20 cm cheerful work got its name from the song Viulu-ukko by the band Pihasoittajat: "He just plays with the violin, the gang gets into the mood".
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I found a 27 x 27 cm box frame in my closet, which was perfect for this linocut and embroidery work. There is room in the box for the thread tassels and they will not flatten. The strings are crocheted and attached to the paper with thin sewing thread. The cat is a linocut and the background is a monotype. This cat is "Tangled".
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Wendy Burke's painting is called "Cat in Lap 3." Wendy has a striped blanket and a striped lazy cat on her lap. The cat's striped patterns are cleverly made quite bold. The stripes on the blanket are clearer. You can almost feel the difference in textures in your fingers. From a distance, it looks like a cat is floating on waves.
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Another photo from the buyers of my linocuts of two linos in their new home is amazing. Two rather large linocut/pastels are on the wall at an angle. They seem to be talking to each other. Both have cats. The cat in the smaller painting peeks in wonder at the cats flying around the moon in the other painting. A hawk or an eagle in the sky may be a bit threatening, but cats are playful. Both pictures have Pispala in the lower part. And the corner of the flat-screen TV can be seen at the bottom of the picture. Every time they watch TV in this home, they see these linos. Could it be any better!
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I send proofs of my linocuts with Etsy and other orders. A Puss in boots left with one calendar order. And then I received a picture from the recipient, where next to the Puss in boots are two my linocuts: a floating cat and an egg cat, i.e. a cat that hatches from an egg. Thanks for the picture, it's warming! It's very rare to get pictures of linocuts in their new homes, and such pictures are always a pleasant surprise!
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In an affectionate and cute pale brown painting by an unknown artist, a girl and a boy have received mail. There is an opened envelope on the floor and the children are eagerly reading the long-looking letter. A doll is hanging from the girl's hand and the cat is polishing its fur on the boy's leg. Who did the letter come from?
