Ponytail

"Ponytail"
Oil on canvas, 45 x 69 cm
2010

I was painting today with my daughter.
She painted with water colors and created a pile of works.
I only managed to paint this one.
We had fun. :D

Catch

"Catch"
Oil on linen canvas
65x97 cm 2010

Susan Lyon Figure Drawing Video´s

There is a couple of new videos available from Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon.

I bought the videos of Susan yesterday and i have to say that they are marvelous drawing lessons. I highly recommend these and they are definately worth the money. You also get access to download them instantly.
Susan tells, in a really beautifull calm voice, the thought and measuring process behind her drawings.
She also goes thru the materials and tools used.
Mostly she shows you how to use the pastels (pens also) and charcoals for quick sketches.
I think these are great examples of simplifying the design and keeping the values in order.
I also believe that even those of you who have done a lot of drawing can get a lot out of these.

Check out the trailer from here:
Promo
Order from:
Susan Lyon

Shore of the lake Keitele

Another rainy day is melting the final ice coat of this lake. We saw a few swans in the morning aswell. Too bad they didnt stick around to pose for me :)

Kids were also as encouraging as ever. "Daddy, what colors do you have..add some pink in there". Well i did. And some of the rocks actually are that way.

storm is on the way

Its been a super good day. We are here at the summer cabin with my family. Our kids were collecting stones and stuff from the beach. I allready have alot of stones so i thought that i paint this beautifull vista, despite the rain. These are actually the same views that the great finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela used to paint.

Play

"Play"
Oil on linen canvas, 2010

To the sauna

"To the sauna"
Oil on linen, 2010

Profile

"Profile"
70x110cm
2010

This is basically painted with the effort of the whole family. I just painted the face :)
Kids used charcoals and watercolors to do the rest. It is amazing how fast all the dinosaurs and vulcanos took their forms, there might be also race cars and skycrapers too in the picture.
We had super fun! :D

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.

Gallery Opening!

My one man show started yesterday and it was amazing!
I met so many wonderful people and I want to thank everyone who was able to participate.

Exhibition is open till the 28th of march in Bulevardi 7.

Here is Jarmo Haapalainen, the gallerist and I am on the right, the happiest guy on the planet.

The gallery was packed full with gorgeous guests.

New paintings and one snow sculpture

"Spring is coming"
2010

"Glimpse"
2010

Just for the record, I only painted the face and the kids took care of the rest with charcoal and with watercolors.

And here is one of the life size snow sculptures I made with the kids.
3 other didnt survive the "re-modeling" :)
We had super fun!

New Paintings

"Zipper"
2010, Oil on linen canvas



"Bubbles"
2010, Oil on linen canvas

New Plein Air´s

"Floating Ice"
Oil on Linen canvas, 2010

" -20 Degrees of celsius"
Oil on Linen canvas, 2010

Its super fun to paint even it gets pretty cold at some point.
Paints start to freeze and stuff..
My fellow painter went even further, he was doing charcoal drawings with his bare hands. Thats the right attitude and takes a lot of mental discipline.
The first one is finished like an hour ago, weather was like made for the landscape painting today. :)

Mother´s Pearls

"Mother´s Pearls"
Oil on canvas
2010

My One-Man show is coming up really fast.
I got only one week to wrap up the paintings.
It will be held:

11.-28.3.2010
Galleria Bulevardi 7
Bulevardi 7, Helsinki

I am really looking foward to it :D

Reflections

"Reflections"

Oil on canvas

2010

I totally forgot my solvents at home and this is mostly, like 98%, a palette knife painting.

Daddy´s girl

"Daddy´s Girl"

Oil on linen canvas, 33 x 48 cm

2009

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

Blue dream

"Blue dream"

60 x 110 cm

2009

Wheee, its done. Finally.

It was quite exhausting (mentally) to paint this within 2 days just to keep the paint wet.

BUT it surely was a super fun challenge never the less.

Its based on a few photographs i took from my little angels.

It was a privilege to paint this.

And here is a closeup shot:

New paintings

"New mask"

100 x 70 cm

2009

"You can not see me"

44 x 70 cm

2009

Sketches

I have been on this flu thats going around. Finally i felt strong enough to do something fun :)

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

NEW EASEL!! EASyL Versa by Artwork Essentials

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!

I am also glad that they do ship these easels internationally. Find out more from
http://www.artworkessentials.com/

Blossoms

"Blossoms"
Oil on canvas
2009

I bought these flowers to my dear wife a week ago.
It seemed like a nice subject to paint. Flowers always have such a nice variation in edges.

SNOW!! Finally

"Nuoska"
Oil on linen canvas, 23 x 31 cm
2009

Nuoska is finnish word for the snow that is really wet.
It was a beautiful day and i really enjoyed the silence in there.

Lego Train

"Lego Train"

Oil on linen canvas, 75 x 104 cm
2009

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

"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

Early Figure Paintings - THE BOOK

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:

Click IN HERE

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. :)