Arctic circle - international drawing exhibition

I was selected for a large, international drawing exhibition at Galleria Napa/Rovaniemi with my wolfpack drawing. In total 77 artists around the world were selected for the show.  The inspiration and support for the show came from the UK’s most celebrated annual drawing exhibition Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize spearheaded by artist, curator and professor Anita Taylor. The exhibition is an initiative by artist, curator Elisa Alaluusua who has been part of the drawing community in London and wants to expand that to her native home in Finnish Lapland. Drawing brings people together and this exhibition celebrates those connections. In fact at the start of the show we had an online meeting with several other artist and it was great to get to know other artists from all over the world explaining their approach to art and the pieces in the gallery. 

The gallery is still open until 7.1.2025! Go and check it out! 

Many thanks to everyone involved in this gallery! It was a great honor for me to be part of this this new annual show! 

Some pics from the gallery take by Marko Junttila

    

Garden of death

Hemulen in the garden of death.

Combining two of my favorit artists in this picture; Tove Jansson and Hugo Simberg.

Tove Jansson (1914 -2001) is one of the best known artist from Finland.
She was a multi-talented artist and author who is mostly remembered as a creator of the Moomins.
The weird and friendly garden enthusiastic Hemulen is one of my favorit characters.

Hugo Simberg (1873 -1917) was a significant symbolic painter and graphic artist from Finland.
Angels, demons and death played a big role in his art. His tender and humorous images of death invites the viewer to consider mortality in a new light.

Predator or prey

Predator or prey. A new creature of the night...

Wolf

A creature that walks by night and makes no sound.

Magpie king

Ink drawings continue! Here is the magpie king 😄
We have magpies in our backyard almost everyday. They are such intelligent birds ♥
Please notice that I'm also wearing a magpie shirt in the drawing photo 😉

Greedy frog

Here is my newest ink drawing. The greedy frog, or rather toad. I'm also working on a bling bling loving magpie drawing right now. This year has started out great artwise :) I started to do more drawings sometime last autumn...it took me a few months to get back into it, but now it feels easy again. Like they say, it's practice, practice, practice...

Crested tit ink drawing

I promised more bird drawings! Here is a crested tit ink drawing. I just love birds!
This is my first drawing this year! I hope there will be lots of drawings this year :)

Blue tit ink drawing

For pretty much 15 years my main medium has been acrylic paint. The last few months however, I've been back to drawing, which is my first medium. I'm currently at home with our baby girl and when the baby sleeps or is calmly playing by herself, I'm working on small drawings. It's just easier than working on big paintings, that require a lot of space. Yesterday I did this blue tit drawing. Today I've already been working on a new bird drawing, so stay tuned for more birds!

Alice Terry drawing

Here's another drawing I haven't posted before. The model is Alice Terry, a famous actress from silent movies. Again I'm thinking that I should do more drawings and small studies like this...

The moon drawing

Today, while cleaning, I found this drawing. I love the art of Alphonse Mucha and this is a copy of his painting "The moon". It's interesting to find something you forgot and apart from that it's even a nice drawing. I definitly need to do more drawings again! I've been telling that to myself a while now ;)

Maybe one day I get to see the Mucha museum. I've seen his work in exhibitions but I definitely want to visit the museum in Prague one day!

  

Mermaid pencil drawing

Here is an old mermaid drawing of mine. I did this almost 10 years ago in my early twenties. When I look at this drawing I can't believe the patience I had when drawing all those scale and rope details. I can vaguely remember that I did this drawing in 2 days. Sitting Saturday and Sunday alone at home and drawing for 8 hours a day...drawing like according to working hours.

A few years ago I sold this to a friend. Whenever I visit my friends home, I see my drawing in their living room nicely framed :) It's really nice to sell artwork to friends, since that way you don't completely depart from your work. 

mermaid (year created 2003, size A3)

red hair

I just found this old drawing (or is it a painting? :/ ) on my PC. It's for some reason not on my website. Probably because it doesn't fit any "category"... well, that's what blogs are for. Here is my "red hair" entitled painting/drawing from 2009. This piece was inspired by early 20th century figurative painter Egon Schiele

Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School 28.12.2011 Helsinki

Yesterday I was again at a Dr. Sketchy drawing session in Helsinki. The evening was called "Dr. Sketchy Does Mother Russia!". I had a lot of fun drawing... I'm afraid this time I was drinking more than drawing. Maybe next time I drink less and draw more ;)

Below is a picture of me and my tipsy drawings. 

My fabulous dress was from bettiepageclothing.com

Dr Sketchy Finland website:  drsketchysuomi.com

Model of the evening was Bettie Blackheart: www.bettieblackheart.com

Below are a few more photos of the event. Photography © Tuomas Lairila.  

New drawing: old clown

I did this drawing today. I felt like drawing something else than halfnaked girls.

torso drawing

 

























I did this small drawing today. I wanted to exaggerate the body on purpose, and I did not finish this on purpose either...drawings look better when they have still a sketchy feel to them....or at least that's my opinion. The surface was nice to draw on...it was some leftover board that I got at my local art gallery. After painting a lot I don't like drawing anymore on white paper. I like to use something colorful...a grey or a brownish paper and then use some white highlight in the drawing. Size is about A4

New drawing "Das Model"

A drawing I did recently:

Kafka beetle drawing

I did this "Kafka beetle" drawing. Gregor Samsa is a character in The Metamorphosis, a short story by Franz Kafka. Gregor tries to live his life after having been transformed into a giant insect. I read the story many years ago in college but and the part I remember best is that Gregors father throws apples at him. One apple gets stuck in his back. The apple starts to rotten and Gregor gets sick. In my version an apple tree starts to grow from his back :-o The apple tree might be a symbol for various things. I myself thought of it as a burden which grows and takes you over. But for somebody else it might be the opposite of the rottening apple. Something good that starts to grow. Go and figure out :)
Franz Kafka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka
The Metamorphosis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis