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
What an happy day! I just got this new plein air easel. I could not be more happier about it! Its sturdy and very solid in design. In this case it was a huge benefit that it is really fast to assemble. I added a piece of glass and the grey paper on the bottom of it to have this glass pallette that i have been wanting to have for a while. I only had like 30 minutes on the spot before the darkness fell, thats why the painting looks so sketchy. I had super fun!
This is one of the largest work so far. It took me a quite a many days and nights to finish this painting. There is some glare on the canvas, but i post a better picture later on. It just started to snow. I do wish to do some plein air painting before it melts away :)
"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.
"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.
My first book just came out. I can not wait to get the first copy of it :) It is available for purchase online at www.blurb.com Preview the whole book:
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.
WHOOE! New brushes! I can finish my painting! These look exactly like Langnickel Royal Sable Brush 5590´s, BUT they are made by Rosemary&Co. Series 279 Long Flats. Sizes 8-2. These should be very durable and the delivery was super fast. I am going to put them into a test rightaway!
Review: These are super-high-quality brushes. Feeling when you touch the canvas is exactly like in the Langnickels brushes. None of the hairs fell off last night, so thats a HUGE plus. I am guessing that these will endure really heavy duty, because i love to paint both thick and thin, fast and slow. Shortly, these are my new bests friends. :D