Painting and Drawing Fruits
This week, I share my love for fruits and give inspiration for fruit-themed paintings and drawings.
Here’s one of my newest paintings called Jupiter’s Bowl. This oil painting is a part of my series Linnunrata – Milky Way, where I explore planets and outer space. (See previous work: Uranus here, the Moon here, Mercury here, Neptune here, Pluto here, the Earth here, Venus here, and the Sun here!)
Fruit Storm in a Magical Bowl
The idea for this painting started from the orange storm that the planet Jupiter has. But then I thought about the Finnish saying “myrsky vesilasissa” which is “storm in the water glass” in English and similar to the saying “storm in a teacup.” It felt playful and funny to compare the planet to a small bowl and make a still life that doesn’t look still at all.
The first layers were very different from each other, and it felt like there was still more to come. The final version has brighter colors and juicy fruits that burst everywhere. Here’s a closeup of some:
I love lemons and oranges. I think they are one of the most attractive things in the world. Their smell, taste, and look captivate me. And they are not difficult to paint or draw either!
Decorative Slices in Black and White Drawing
Here’s a line drawing from 2018 when I participated in Inktober for the first time. The slices were fun to draw, especially because I treated them like Faberge eggs: filled with jewelry and other decorative elements.
Back then, I was finding out things that I really like and bringing them together in my drawings.
Intuitive Fruit Painting in Gouache
In 2019, I made a gouache painting (see the video!) that reminds me of Jupiter’s Bowl. It has fruity and fresh colors and some stormy vibe too.
I was a bit clumsier painter back then, but the idea of refreshing fruity burst is evident.
Fantasy Fruits in Colored Pencils
This year started by making a new class called Fun Botanicum. The second lesson of the class is about fruits and berries. Here’s my example from the class, made with colored pencils.
I wanted the spread to look juicy with my own fantasy fruits. Practically, you can draw a circle, add shadows and decorations, and it will look like a fruit!
Juiciness vs. Fruits
When I took pictures of Jupiter’s Bowl, it was late May and grass and tulips were in full bloom. There’s a lot of juiciness in summer colors.
My suggestion is to focus on the juiciness when drawing or painting fruits. If you think about how the fruits look in reality, the result gets stiff more easily. If you let go and focus on the juicy part, creating is much more fun and the result more expressive. Anything can have the spirit of the fruit, and art can be juicy without presenting the actual lemons and oranges.
Tell me, which are your favorite fruits? Do they appear in your art too?
Coming Up with Ideas that Make You an Artist
This week’s blog post is about working with ideas that bring more of you together and make you an artist.
Here’s one of my newest paintings called Merkuriuksen lämpötilat – Mercury Temperatures. This oil painting is a part of my series Linnunrata – Milky Way, where I explore planets and outer space. (See previous work: Neptune here, Pluto here, the Earth here, Venus here, and the Sun here!)
My first intention was to create Mars, not Mercury, so I started with sharp strokes and fiery colors.
But it happened that Mars appeared in another painting, so I changed the subject after the first layer. This wasn’t hard. All I needed was to get back to left-brain thinking, which I call my inner engineer.
Fact-Finding for Artistic Inspiration
It has been fun to find out facts about the planets. I have also had great discussions about them with my husband. We both love science and are interested in the bits of information about outer space. The mind-blowing fact about the planet Mercury is that its temperature varies about 650 degrees! Night and day in the same location can have very different temperatures.
I try to keep the fact-finding separate from the painting process as possible. I want the facts to be just one of the many inspiration sources and be intuitive and inventive during actual art-making. For example, in this painting, I also thought about pattern designs, interior decorating, wallpapers of William Morris and Designers Guild, fantasy stories with unicorns, gardening … all kinds of inspiration got mixed into one piece.
Hidden Love for Natural Science
Over a couple of years, natural science has got more and more impact on my art. However, I have been pretty quiet about it because it feels weird to talk about science and then show flower paintings. But now, my inner engineer said that Mercury Temperatures is the only appropriate name for the piece, and I noticed how happy she looked, being involved and accepted more than many times before.
This spring, I have learned a lot about leading myself artistically. I have noticed that if my inner engineer can provide concepts like “temperature changes” rather than direct images, my inner artist can then tie them freely with visual ideas. Together they form an effective pair. My inner engineer can provide exciting ideas based on her background studies, and my inner artist can still get all the creative freedom she needs.
Digging Deeper into the Professional Identity
It has started to feel that there’s a reason why I first studied engineering, then moved to design, and only finally to art. I play with the question that if my career had started as an artist, would I be studying technology now? It feels that my ideas are on several levels, and if I omit the science level, something is missing.
For years and years, I have been trying to manage what my inner engineer can do and how she should not disturb the inner artist. But now, when I have given the inner engineer a significant role, the inner artist hasn’t complained at all. On the contrary, it feels like the artist praises the engineer and vice versa.
This understanding has also closed the gap between design and art. Some of my work can now be openly more design-oriented than others. My inner designer had a lot of fun participating in this painting.
I feel happy about being able to use my curiosity about natural science in the artistic process. I have even started to think that my background in technology and science can be one factor that makes my art unique, even if it doesn’t get the leading role when marketing my work.
Coming Up With Genuine Ideas
We often think about using the skills from one profession to another very literally. But the identity in one can be used for another when we get to the level of ideas and inspiration. Every field has pieces of information that are super inspiring, especially if you already have the foundational knowledge of the area. With the knowledge, your imagination can build bridges between what is and what could be.
Ideas that make you an artist are not about art.
The artistic identity is more like an umbrella rather than an individual thing. An artist is a connector rather than a lonely one on a closed island.
What do you think?
Expressing Happiness in Art
This week, we look under ice and talk about expressing happiness!
What’s in the Name?
Here’s one of my latest paintings called Onnellisten maa. Like so many times before, I had difficulties translating it, but I came to a conclusion that the English name can be a bit different “Happy Earth” instead of “The Land of Happy Ones.” Maa is both earth and land in Finnish.
This painting is a part of my series Linnunrata – Milky Way, where I explore planets and outer space. The painting represents the planet Earth and Finland, my home country. (See previous paintings: Venus here and the Sun here!)
The name Linnunrata also has a double meaning in Finnish. It’s not only the name of our galaxy but also means bird’s route or track. My paintings often have bird-like shapes and flying objects, so it’s a perfect name for the series and for the upcoming exhibition that will also have some older pieces.
Inspired by Ice
Here’s how the painting started – lots of wild strokes in icy greens.
These greens are composed of Titanium White, Raw Umber, and Nicosia Green Earth. The green is a new color that I purchased recently. It’s earthy, not bright at all, but wonderfully suitable for an intuitive painting inspired by our globe.
I also wanted to throw in some blue. At the beginning of April, thin ice covered all the puddles and reflected the sky.
Here’s how the painting looked after adding some Prussian Blue over the greens.
My puppy Saima found ice interesting too!
We in Finland are known for icy surfaces, not only in nature but in people too. Our most known celebrity must be a winning formula driver Kimi Räikkönen, also known as The Iceman. “Shut up, let me drive” was his regular message to the team when he was in the middle of the race.
But ice is never only ice. It makes us think about what’s under it. How does Räikkönen feel when he turns the wheel and pushes the pedals – pressure, joy, passion? What is the storm inside an icy person?
Expressing Happiness
Despite all the ice, Finland has been selected as the happiest country in the world again. It’s the fifth time in a row! With the painting, I wanted to tell what makes Finland the happiest. At the same time, I wanted to express what makes the planet Earth so special.
So, it was time to break the ice and bring in more colors.
The best feeling when creating art is freedom. We are free to express and discover.
When expressing happiness, seek signs of life. For example:
- Could that spot move if I poke it with a line?
- Could those two lines be connected and thus get wings?
And when a creature is born, let him live in peace! Don’t force him to look like a certain species, but let him be unique in his world. I often aim for the impression of an uncharted area where a human, the viewer, enters for the first time.
I also try to express impact so that the painting makes sense. So, make the movement in one corner cause something else to change. And when you introduce a new color, do it gradually so that it doesn’t only flourish. There should be a beginning and an end to its path.
These two needs are not only what a painting or a drawing hopes to have. They are also important for humans. We want to feel independent and free and still impactful and connected so that life moves forward. I think Finland has been successful in both.
Now, most ice has melted, and our spring has started. Some say that Finnish people change when the summer comes. They see us stop to look at the sun and even smile sometimes!
Painting and teaching are my ways to express happiness.
How have you spread happiness through art?
Art Inspiration from Period Dramas
This week, I am sharing art inspiration impacted by period dramas.
Visual Deliciousness of Period Dramas
I am a fan of period dramas. Recently, I have been watching Gilded Age and Bridgerton. Both of them have beautiful outdoor and indoor scenes, and dresses too, of course! My eyes like the delicious visual world they illustrate and my heart always feels a bit lighter after an episode or two.
Even if the dramas have historical settings, their colors are not dull at all. A picnic in the forest looks vibrant and is full of sunlight.
I like how flowery everything is, and how the jewelry frames the faces of young ladies.
Being so inspired by period dramas, it’s no wonder that my art is full of romantic and old-fashioned elements. They speak fantasy to me.
Fantastic Old-World Impact
I think that every artist needs to find their approach to fantasy and fairytales – how to use imagination and what to express with it?
I am fascinated by the power of the inner world and all my pieces are inner sceneries in one way or another.
Pablo Picasso has said: “Art is a lie that tells the truth.” Similarly, I would say that art is a fantasy that gives us what we need.
Bringing Fantasy to Life
I often talk about seeing art as a story or a collection rather than a single piece. In the new class, Fun Botanicum, we create a set of illustrations that are all unique but still a part of the series. This is a great project for setting a style and bringing different coloring techniques together.
Plants are a fun theme to explore what you can do with colored pencils and imagination!
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