True Love

"True Love"
Oil on linen canvas, 25 x 45 cm.


Here is a few wip pictures from the process.
I chose to go a bit more sketchy style with the background this time. Its fun to experiment.

Clouds

"God Lives There"

Oil on linen canvas, 40x55 cm

I tough to train my ability to see sensitive color changes.
Painting clouds and snow is really good way to see more color.
Mixing all those colors for the clouds was fun!

I don't think they saw us

"I don't think they saw us"
Oil on linen canvas, 25 x 45 cm

These dolls are beautifully designed and handmade by my friend Kaija.
You can easily buy these online :)
Here is the direct link:

www.etsy.com

Here is a work in progress shot from my studio, also known as the living room. :)

Two plein air paintings from today

"Stones"

"Resting tree"

Its been an another great painting day. These two were painted in the afternoon in Sipoo.
Its a natural reserve area. Really beautiful place in every way.

Values,values and once more values

Some of you guys have asked me about values and their part in the painting
I think the values are THE MOST important part of any painting. Then comes the drawing(includes edges) and then the color.
I made this sketch today and tried to incorporate only 3 values in this one to have more kick into this painting.



"Rocks"

Black and white version

Posterized 3 shade black and white

Tugboat

"Protector"


What an beautifull day it was today. We were in Helsinki to paint some tugboats.
Super cool!

A lot of stuff

"Daydream"

"Book of colors"


"Drifting log"


I have been painting like crazy again.

I finished the first one today. It took basically 3 nights to paint. its made from reference photo i took back at the summer cabin.

Second one is just a quick 2 hour sketch, I was facinated by all that blueness in the kids room the other day and i took a reference photo. When i took it i had to memorize few of the important colors (mostly those greens in the shadows),which were super necessary so i could get this going on a right direction.

Third one is painted yesterday, it was really a great weather. Sadly the sun effect turned out to be a bit mellow in this one. Other than that it was great to be there.

We have also been painting with the kids. Here is few pictures from that.
Its amazing to watch kids to paint. Definately a learning experience and super fun, and messy of course. :)

New paintings

"Tipsu"
Oil on linen canvas, 2009




"Daisies"
Oil on linen canvas, 2009



Mauri and Arto painting.


I am back from my summer vacation and its good to be home :)
I just finished the first one.. Second one is painted yesterday.
We had a painting trip with my buddies Mauri and Arto. In this shot you can see how we are hiding from the rain under the bridge.

Flowers

I am on my summer holiday and i have been mostly just goofing off with the kids.
Here is one small flower painting from life. It is painted very early in the morning.
I woke up like 5 am to do this.

Lets see if can manage to upload this with my mobile phone..

Arrows

"Arrows"
Oil on canvas, 2009
27 x 60 cm


And now for a something completely different.
This is really something i have never done before. I only now come to realise that this combines my other passion, animation with painting.
I have been reading a lot of Norman Rockwell books and that is apparently, unconsciously, affecting me.
Well obviously :)

What do you think about it?

The missing piece

The missing Piece
Oil on linen canvas, 2009
27 x 50 cm


My family left to the cabin so i have been painting all day long.
In the morning i was doing some plein air painting
and here is the second one painted in the studio. :D
I probably soften a few edges tomorrow.

Wonderboy

"Wonderboy"

Oil on linen canvas, 2009
24 x 35 cm

I was virtually listening only one song while painting this.
Song was Tenacious D´s Wonderboy.

Well he surely is the wonderboy for me. :D

In her thoughts

"In her thoughs"
Oil on linen canvas, 2009

This started out as an sketch of my dear wife, i just wanted to paint somewhat the same way,
that i assume that John Singer Sargent painted.
Well this is a very humble effort compared to his mad skills. :D

Drifting clouds

Drifting clouds
Oil on linen canvas, 2009

Relaxed boy

Relaxed boy, 2009
Oil on linen canvas.

This is the first time my son has ever posed for me. :)
He was a super good model, changed the postion like every minute or so to keep me focused on the task. :D
Total painting for this sketch was about 15 minutes.
After that was of course his turn to paint with acrylics.
We had really super fun painting together.

Small brook

My kids took a nap in the car, so i drove right next to this lovely little brook nearby.
I spent about 45 minutes on this spot before they woke up.
I am kind a glad that i stopped painting at this stage,
where there still are a lot of bold strokes clearly stated.

"Small brook"
Oil on linen canvas, 2009
21 x 34 cm

Boy getting dressed

Boy getting dressed
Oil on canvas, 2009

The Shore at Eira, Helsinki.

It was a beautiful day today. I had super fun painting on the shore.
:)

New stuff

The Sunken Tree


Trees in the sunset (sketch)

This was kind of results of speed painting. Half on hour on the spot.
I would have gone a bit earlier, but i had to put my kids to bed :)

The Big Machine

This was actually done on paper, because i ran out of canvases.

These are from the last weeks plein air session.
I am the guy on the left. Mauri is the gentleman on the right.


Work in progress..
We had an new guest star with us. You can see Arto Isotalo working in the background.
Thank you Arto for joining us on this rainy day. Lets do it again soon! :D
Btw, check out Artos blog from my links.
http://artoisotalo.blogspot.com/

Two new plein air´s

Two new plein air sketches from nearby forest. :D

Breakfast

Breakfast
Oil on linen canvas, 2009



And here is some work in progress shots

And two close ups.