Spring

"Spring"
Oil on linen canvas, 2011



I was painting with Mauri yesterday and it was a nice and warm weather.
Unfortunately sun did not shine, but I hope that we have better luck tomorrow.
Snow is melting super rapidly here in Finland and we have to try to paint as much as possible before its all gone.
To check out Mauri´s pastel click here.

New stuff

"Carpenter"

Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm
2011

"Pose"
Oil on canvas, 50 x 35 cm
2011

Here is a couple of new paintings that i wrapped up.
I was actually planning to do some pleinair painting, but I got this damned flu.
Maybe i continue these tomorror, but now I need a break from these to be able to make any kind of judgement. :)

Plein air fun

"Abandoned houses"
2011

We had super fun painting at this nearby location with my friends.
There was plenty of abandoned houses in this old factory area.
Day was cold and windy, but definately worth the visit.


In the beginning stage..


My painting companions, Mauri and Arto.
Please check out the final vesion of Artos painting on his blog :)
Arto´s blog

Early bird

"Early bird"
Oil on canvas, 2010
38 x 52 cm

New and old plein airs

Spring is coming

"Spring is coming II"
Oil on linen canvas, 2010

I took a day off from work yesterday and we went to this beautiful location nearby.
We were of course doing plein air painting with my friend, Mauri.
We really enjoyed the great weather and the nature. Snow is melting rapidly and one could really feel that the summer is near.

New hay

"New Hay"

Oil on canvas, 47 x 105 cm

2009

January in Finland - Plein Airs

Unnamed works, about 24 x 30 cm, Oils on canvases.

Its super fun to paint in here even its so cold.

I almost dropped to the river through the ice yesterday,

but luckily i didnt get wet and managed to paint the two last ones :D

Here is the making of shot of the first one:

Minttu

"Minttu"

37 x 55 cm

2010

New paintings

"New mask"

100 x 70 cm

2009

"You can not see me"

44 x 70 cm

2009

Heavy wind

"Heavy wind"
2009

It was a nice and windy day today. Good day to put the new easel into windtest.
We were painting on the shores of Helsinki.

"Nocturne Trees"
2009

I almost forgot to post this painting that i painted a few nights ago.
Its funny what kind of color harmonies can occure when you are only using a led based headlamp in the middle of the night.
Its fun and spooky, of course. :D

The Dynamic Duo

"The Dynamic Duo"
Oil on linen canvas, 40 x 66 cm
2009

We had this halloween party and our kids we dressed up as an batman and as a little bat.
This painting is based on a few blurry photographs and pure inventions of stuff.

Work in progress closeup:

I got couple of new books today, Sorolla´s and Leyendecker´s books. Those masters really created a lot of awesome paintings and i just had to paint something after reading those books.

Amazon links:
J.C. Leyendecker
Joaquin Sorolla

King of the Hill

"King of the Hill"
Oil on linen canvas, 27 x 50 cm
2009

In this one i really tried to push the colors.
Every master whom i admire (John Sargent, Richard Schmid, Anders Zorn..) has said that you should be sure about your strokes and that those should be put down
with total degree of certainty.
Basic principle was that the laid stroke was the permanent stroke.
Its mentally (for my brains) really hard to paint this way and also the reason i love it.
This is the first time i didnt actually scrape off anything. Lets call it luck. :D
But anyways it sure was super fun to see it unfold.


Here is one work-in-progress shot

Princess

"Princess"
Oil on linen canvas, 40 x 28 cm
2009

This is a quick sketch i painted from my sisters younger daughter.
She is so beautifull child. To bad I didnt really achieve likeness in this small painting.

New stuff - unnamed actually

3 Onions

3 tomatoes

1 Artist

I havent posted anything in a while, so here it goes.
Sorry about the quality, but its hard to take good photos with crappy camera. :)

Determination

"Determination"
Oil on linen canvas 24 x 44cm
2009


And here is a few work-in-progress shots

Morning Traffic

"Morning Traffic"
Oil on linen canvas, 2009

JUMP!!

Its been a while since i have painted anything that makes any sense to anyone :)
This is based on a referende shot i took from my lovely princess.
I did take an huge liberties with the perspective angles and i forced the value system basically down to 3 values.
Thanks for dropping by :)

Innerspace

"Innerspace"
Oil on cavas, 30 x 53 cm
2009

I fixed a few drawing issues. :D
Here is some work-in-progress shots:

New sketch and sundays painting session

Sketch of my son, Nooa.
I repainted the face about 6 times. Its just so hard to get the drawing right sometimes.



Here are some shots from sundays painting session.
We were painting live model at our studio, with my super cool painting buddies.
Silver Saaremäel and Jussi Tarvainen

Luis Lazcano and Juhani Karlsson discussing about drawing techniques.

Kaija was doing some awesome set of drawings and i think we all envy her design skills. :)

Arto Isotalo with Kaija&Silver on the background

Team photo. I am the guy with the 4 horns.


"Red"

Thanks to you guys for joining in on sunday. It was super cool and we have to do it again soon!