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A brightly colored linocut fish with yellow eyes swims under the yellow waves gilded by the sun. It feels as if the fish is talking as it releases bubbles into the water. The background is made with soft pastel crayons. The size of the picture is 15 x 15 cm. A verse of a poem by Lauri Viita gave this picture the name: "Like a bream on its side, it carries the strongest of the breams". I'm not at all sure now whether this fish could be a bream.
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The linocut fish is colored blue and white and the eye is red. In the background, the sun is reflected in the water and the fish swims at the very bottom. Clay and small aquatic plants tickle the fish's belly. The background was made with soft pastels. The size of the picture is 15 x15 cm. The name for this fish comes from Aale Tynni's poem: "I find that I fit well into a happy and small riverbed."
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In this fourth version of a linocut fish, a tropical fish colored with yellow-brown stripes swims among the waves. The background is, as usual, soft pastel, now quite bright blue water, small, white waves and a reflection of the sun. The size of the picture is 15 x 15 cm. The picture was named after P. Mustapää's poem: "There is no shore, oh Thesis".
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The third linocut fish is more colorful. The fish has blue, purple, red, yellow and green stripes made with colored pencils. The eye is shiny yellow. The background of this fish is deep blue water made with soft pastels, into which the sunlight is reflected in rays. The size of the picture is 15 x 15 cm. The picture was named after a verse from Lauri Pohjanpää's poem: "The day was a hot, the waves were moving".
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The second linocut fish is blue and white. Only the eye is red. Behind the fish, soft pastels also created blue and white water, where a few rays of sunlight are reflected. The size of the image is 15 x 15 cm. The name came from a verse from Lauri Viita's poem: "Under the waves, if not ahead".
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I made a few test prints of smaller linocuts of two fish. I tested coloring the fish by hand, testing them for a larger work. The colored fish alone seemed so lonely on white paper that I made a background of water with pastel chalks. This yellow-brown-gray fish has greenish water in the background. The picture was named "Only the blue of the forest, the green of the water and the flowers turn red" from Pertti Nieminen's poem Omnia mea. The size of the fish picture is 15 x 15 cm.
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The third version of the lantern fish is a fish in trouble. The fish is being chased by a flock of small fish, and there is strength among them. The lantern fish tries to swim to the shelter of the soft sea grasses, but it barely succeeds when that lantern shines brightly. The fish is a red-black linocut, the small fish are small red linocuts and the water is a soft pastel. The size of the picture is 24 x 36 cm. This fish picture got its name from Eila Kivikk'aho's poem "A mirror broken by a wave looks diagonally into the distance".
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The second version of the lantern fish is green. The fish's lantern illuminates the seabed, with only a couple of seaweeds swaying in the water. This croaker is a black and white print, while the first version was red and black. Water is soft pastel, The size of the image is 24 x 36 cm. The fish got its name from Sirkka Selja's poem: "Through the waves' wild, glittering strokes, I swim, with supple and powerful strokes, towards the green immensities of the sea."
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I made a linocut of a lanternfish for a larger mixed media work. I printed a few lanternfish on paper by themselves, and the fish looked so lonely that I wanted to make a background for it in pastel colors. The yellow lamp of the lanternfish lights the way under the waves. This image was named "Kalvo tyynen veden kantajaansa kuvastaa" (The Film of Calm Water Reflects Its Carrier) from one of Eila Kivikk'aho's poems.THe size of the picture is 36 x 24 cm.
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I colored four new linocuts of fish with markers. This fish definitely doesn't live in the coastal waters of Tahmela, but is some kind of aquarium fish or tropical fish. It was nice to color it with markers with slightly brighter colors to make it colorful. The eyes are yellow and the rest is a mix of all colors. This fish will probably swim to a larger mixed media work that I'm planning. The size of this fish is 10 x 13 cm.
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I tried to color four linocuts of a fish with a marker. Two of the fish turned out yellowish and two bluish. The eyes of this fish are red. The size of the fish is 10 x 13 cm. Maybe this fish will also swim into the picture I am planning of life underwater.
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I made a couple of new rather small linocut fish, about 10 x 13 cm. I plan to use these in at least one larger mixed media work. I also plan to color the fish with markers. We'll see how they turn out...
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I got a picture from my friend Ulla. The picture shows a scared fish in a frame. The fish is a linocut and the background is a monotype. Ulla got this fish as a Christmas present, as she and her husband are both keen fishermen at their summer cottage. The painting was wrapped in gift paper, but then she lost her patience. Ulla opened the gift early, already before Christmas. The fish swam to its rightful place in its new home.
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I tried to print a pike linocut in green. If only that way I could get more of a water feel to the image. The background is a monotype, with some patterns made with a plastic knife. The size of the image is only 9 X 9 cm.
