Artist

I have been drawing since childhood but the actual inner artist in me woke up when I tried oil painting with help of the guide book that I borrowed from a library at the age of 16. That is when I got a special enthusiasm for making art, and I started practicing drawing and painting eagerly. Over the years, my passion for the visual arts and desire to develop myself as an artist has only grown. I have used many different techniques and supplies from pencils and pastels to oil and acrylic colours. Today, I mostly paint with watercolours, because working with watercolours is inspiring but also challenging – sometimes even a bit too much. Originally, I was basically more of a drawer than a painter, often reflected precision at my work, but recently I have sought more free, painterly manner.

I prefer to paint topics that are meaningful for me in some way. When I was younger, I searched topics around me, but nowadays, topics and ideas tend to find me without even looking for. Animals have been strongly present in my art from the beginning, as well as the details of nature and everyday life. I have immortalized my own experiences or things that have happened to people near me. Often the underlying theme is a meaning, that does not necessarily open to the viewer in the same way as I have experienced it while painting. Everyone perceives the world in their own way, and can also experience painting differently. There is no right or wrong way, but if art evokes a feeling, it has succeeded in its mission. This I hope for my art as well.

Visuality, longing for beauty, and observing the environment are an important part of my life. Visual orientation is also useful in my main work in marketing design. I have been doing graphic design and image processing and planned e.g. brochures, advertisements and websites. In the past, I have also done small illustration tasks. The bigger illustration project was when I did the illustration and layout in a cat-themed children’s book written by my father-in-law, which was published in 2012. Today, I focus more on free art and regularly participate in various group exhibitions in Finland. In recent years, my paintings have also been accepted for international watercolour exhibitions.

I have had studies visual arts at Kuopio Community college in the 1990s, where I studied regularly for ten years. From time to time, I continue to attend interesting short art courses and painting demos both in Finland and internationally.

My roots and home place are in Kuopio, Finland, where I have lived all my life.