Perhosbaarissa ovat tänä loppukesänä punaviiniä litkien viihtyneet enimmäkseen amiraalit (Vanessa atalanta), joskus neitoperhosetkin (Nymphalis io) ja myös suruvaipat (Nymphalis antiopa).
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This late summer, the butterfly bar has been mostly filled with admirals (Vanessa atalanta), and sometimes even Nymphalis io or Nymphalis antiopa , sipping red wine.
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Martti Innanen's naive painting from 1987 is typical of him, even though the subject is something other than those strange village lunatics in an old rural landscape. The dilapidated house, chipped plaster and bricks are depicted in folded greenish-brown colors. Innanen's typical yellow cat is peeing on the plinth. A large sheet swings on the wall of the house: "This house has been taken over!" The squatters in the picture resemble the familiar village lunatics, now in an urban landscape and in fashionable 1980s clothes and hairstyles.
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Cosmos flower is a nice and quite simple autumn-summer flower. There are plenty of colors. And what's best: cosmos stays beautifully upright without supports, while almost all other seed flowers have fallen all over the ground in this summer's rains and winds.
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Summer is still in bloom. The poppy flowers are lost in the grass, so you have to bend down to admire them up close.
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The artist of the watercolor is unknown, but the work was done around 1820-40. The subject is oriental, Chinese or Japanese, and quite mystical. The woman is sitting on a chair holding some kind of fan, or has she been playing with it with a cat? There is a black cat on the floor, and a small boy is trying to pick it up. Perhaps a servant is peeking from behind the door with a fan in his hand. The atmosphere is somehow mysterious, green and orange and an open window.
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This linocut cat has strength. It lifts the entire Earth and another cat on its shoulders. Cats and the Earth are linocuts, where the Earth has been printed blue and the continents have been hand-colored in green. The background is pastel. The size of the image is 22 x 11 cm.
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The summer 2026 exhibitions are soon coming to an end. In Pieksämäki, the cultural center Poleeni's Pictures of the Smile - Naive Artists at Iittala goes Pieksämäki ended on August 8, 2026. It was nice to be part of such a new place for Naive Art. Thanks to the curator Veikko Halmetoja. Three paintings found a new home, thanks too! And thanks to everyone who enjoyed Naive Art!
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Cat Seated On a Chair is an albumen print by A.W. Turner from the 1860s. Albumen printing is an early photographic technique that was popular from 1850 to the end of the 19th century and was the most popular way to make photographs. Thin paper was soaked in a solution containing egg white and silver salt and the image was printed on the paper by exposing it with light, somewhat like a cyanotype. Not an easy technique! The result is a bit blurry in this albumen print, the shadow of the cat's head is nice. But the subject's placement could have been improved, now the top part of the picture is taken up by a blank wall.
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The last large lily opens its flowers white at first and within a couple of days they turn pink, with funny spots on the petals. And a sweet scent on a dark August evening.
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The linocut of an angry cat, the moon and a lightning cloud now has a soft pastel background: yellow cornfields, a darkening sky and lightning. The size of the picture is 23 x 17 cm. And the name of this picture is: "Äksy ärripurri äänensä korottaja" (impossible to translate)
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Another new red and white fragrant big lily opened! It doesn't like this cold, but what can you do for the Finnish summer?
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In a Japanese woodcut from the early 19th century, a woman in a kimono lifts a cat into the air. It is probably not good for the cat to be in this position, it is being strangled from the stomach. The image is beautiful and the colors are delicious. These Japanese woodcuts were admired in Europe and were an inspiration for many impressionists, Picasso, van Gogh and many others. These woodcuts had something light and new in terms of color, perhaps also a sense of craftsmanship. This woodcut was made by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865).
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A funny thing about the art world. On Instagram, @janijeulonen posted a message about how he had found one of my cat cards while visiting the Väinölä Art Center and bought it, framed it and hung it on the wall next to his own painting. The painting features Picasso's Le Rêve in the right size, which he painted for a theater set. The card features my linocut from a few years ago: A Cat Who Believed He Was Picasso.
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Picasso: original |
