ON MY ART
Landscapes
I paint pictures mainly of Finnish landscape and I usually find my motifs in places I am familiar with, especially in Hämeenlinna and Riihimäki towns and Lake Vanaja. My landscapes are based on close observation of nature, but the places I depict can seldom be recognized. Instead of scenes, I paint memories that contain my feelings and experiences. I simplify a lot and try to find what is universal and timeless in the subject.
Figures and portraits
Figures and portraits are another important motif to me. I have painted more than a hundred commissioned portraits in Finland and abroad. In my portraits outer likeness is essential but I also aim at inner likeness, i.e. I try to reveal something about the model’s personality. Therefore, it is important to me that I become acquainted with my model during the painting process.
Tigers
Tigers and people are seen together in my allegorical paintings, which deal with fundamental questions in life. I get topics to these works from everyday life and, for example, from art history, old myths, stories and legends, too.
One of the most important themes of my tiger paintings is the complex relationship between man and nature. The tiger is a good symbol of nature. In its fate as an endangered animal species we can easily see the uncertain future of mankind. Man is undoubtedly the greatest threat to the tiger. The habitats of the tiger must make way to the ever-growing human population. Because of its beautiful fur, the tiger has been hunted to satisfy human vanity and there is still a great demand for tigers in Chinese medicine.
The tiger also represents the duality of nature. It can be beautiful and gentle but also unpredictable and threatening as nature itself. In many viewers' opinion, the tigers of my paintings symbolize the male sex. Interpreted in this way, my tiger paintings also deal with the relations between man and woman.
Painting technique
I paint my pictures in oil and acrylic and use the traditional painting method called glazing. I chose the glazing method, which was, by the way, used by the old masters such as Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt, because it is virtually impossible to gain the iridescence and depth of colour achieved by transparent coats of paint superimposed on one another in any other method of painting.
My paintings are made up of an under-painting and several transparent glazes, which have to be bone dry before the next layer can be added. In under-paintings and the first glazes I use acrylic colours. However, I always finish my works in oil colours. At this final stage I alternate opaque colours with transparent ones and, at the same time, try to retain the freshness of an alla prima way of painting