Inside the Creative Process: Art, Words, and Morning Robes
I often find that the bridge between painting and words is a difficult one to cross – especially when your latest work decides to speak a language of its own.
Even though I’ve always loved writing, being a visual artist often brings moments inside the creative process where words simply disappear.
Lately, I’ve been painting a lot. The more I paint, the harder it feels to write all those applications and descriptions that an artist is constantly expected to produce. It’s just as difficult to read what other artists write about their work—and even harder to read a critic’s take on anyone’s paintings.
It feels like words just bounce off the surface of a painting without ever sinking in. When you paint, you are inside the artwork, living between wordless layers. It’s a good place to be. At least until you make the mistake of asking yourself: “Hey, what exactly are you painting right now? Tell the camera! Write it down! Share it with the world!”
When that happens, my confident grip on the brush vanishes, and I start to stutter: “I’m just… putting some green here… and a little bit of red. Just a tiny bit …”
Inside the Creative Process: When the Painting Speaks First
As a painting gets closer to being finished, the words come more easily. Or rather, it feels like I don’t have to go looking for them because the painting has something to say for itself. Even though I don’t speak French, I feel like my latest work speaks the language. I call her Boheme. She is like a woman opening her front door in a morning robe, with everything in her life a bit scattered and messy.
In my own life, I think I’ve only opened the door in a morning robe once when a surprise package arrived. Back then, the postman certainly didn’t see a mess behind me — everything was in its place. So, it’s a mystery why this opposite creature appeared on my canvas. I knew from the start that I couldn’t control her with a heavy hand. Not because Boheme would be afraid of orders, but because I have no desire to fight that kind of energy. I’d rather let her grow, be free, and express her own kind of beauty.
Dreams I Didn’t Know I Had
Maybe that’s where the conflict lies. My own world is small, and I find myself quite uninteresting as a person. Yet, my paintings reach further and bring out things I didn’t even realize I was thinking about. That’s my favorite part of this job—seeing your dreams come true, especially the dreams you didn’t even remember having.
Despite all this “unconsciousness,” it’s still good to recognize the words, music, scents, and moods that belong to your artistic vision.
Finding the Right Mood
A few weeks ago, my husband told me about a record review he had read. He hadn’t heard the album yet, but the description stuck with him. Just from his brief explanation, I got a strong feeling it could be interesting for my art. We searched for the article to find the singer’s name. It was the album LUX by the Spanish artist Rosalía, and it felt familiar from the very first notes. I love her track Bergheim. It mixes different styles with classical music, creating a luxurious, grand, and slightly mystical atmosphere.
Boheme and I have been listening to the song together. Through her, I’ve realized that when it comes to morning robes, the mint-green terry cloth one my mother once bought me has nothing to do with the luxurious creations Boheme has in her closet. And those are the kind of closets you actually want to leave open when you answer the door.
And that’s the true beauty of art: it always gives you a better view.
The annual major painting event, the Sales Event of the Finnish Painters’ Union, takes place in March at the Cable Factory, Helsinki. I am participating in the event with this painting, along with a few others.
Building a Mystical Course with Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia
Usually, after making a course, I think: never again! It takes time to get new ideas and energy. But this time, after finishing Wild Garden, I had a new idea right away, and it felt like someone was talking to me: “You must do this, Päivi. If you don’t, nobody else will.”
The upcoming course is called Mystical Minis. We will create abstract art with colored pencils.
We will make small drawings, and each takes only about an hour to create. At the same time, we see our inner world in a new light and build a self-feeding process for creating art. This course will bring both excitement and depth to your art-making. I believe it will leave a permanent mark on you, and I hope you carry the influence of it with you for a long time what ever art you make after the course.
Mystical Trio: Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia
With Mystical Minis, I honor three women from about 100 years ago. Two of them are pioneers in abstract art: Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) and Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884). The third one is the modernist author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). You can’t find another course similar to this one, I promise!
Mystical Flow
I have been super-motivated to create the new course. So far, I have also enjoyed making it immensely. Some courses are born with intention, while others come out naturally, and those love children need to be born without too much forcing. It’s the very same thing as in the art-making! This course wants to come out, and I will help it.
I usually question the course idea many times before I start making the course. I especially think about whether anyone will buy it and what kind of people would. But here, it feels like Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia do not care. They just want the course to be born. They want their voice to be combined with mine, and that brings an extraordinary meaning to this work that truly feels mystical.
If you have been in my courses, you know that I am not a secretive person. I always try to explain everything as openly as I can, and I can’t help smiling. And when I asked Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia, why they picked me, they said: we need somebody like you to complement us, just be you and everything will go fine. And I have trusted them and followed my inner voice to gather all of us together, not only Hilma, Georgiana, and Virginia, but also you who want to create a new kind of connection to your inner world.
Mystical Minis – When?
I am currently editing the videos. I don’t have the exact publishing date yet, but I expect releasing this mystical course late this year or early next year.
About Music and Painting
This week, I share a painting that had a big goal: to achieve a similar effect to uplifting music.
I think that all painters envy musicians because music can make great emotions flow in an instant. Music can make us feel that the world is expanding into the universe and at the same time, shrinking to the size of a heart.
When I listen to Luciano Pavarotti sing Nessun Dorma, his complete self-confidence makes me, who is a mere listener, feel almighty too. And Avicii’s Levels is often my choice when I want to celebrate an achievement, for example, a newly completed painting.
But even if we painters envy musicians, I also think that musicians also envy painters. Music is experienced in a fleeting moment, but a painting can capture that more permanently.
Music I Listen to While Painting
When I start a new painting, I often listen to Kaija Saariaho‘s music. It is art music, and I don’t find it entertaining at all. But it helps me to think more spatially and paint a 3-dimensional space instead of a 2-dimensional surface. (See the video of my first encounter to Kaija Saariaho’s music from 2015!)
I try to avoid letting the music leak ideas into my paintings. I don’t want the music to create the illusion that the unfinished painting is better than it is. The music’ should mainly’s main function is to entertain my impatient side while my patient side paints.
As the painting progresses, I gradually move to lighter music. First classical piano and violin concerts, then entertaining music television shows that play pop and rock.
When the painting is in the finishing stage, I listen to dry talk programs such as political analysis.
Music helps me to keep going. It takes many sessions to finish a big painting.
I painted this painting in 7 parts and as you can see from the pictures, it changed quite a lot over the months. I started in early August and the painting was finished in late November.
My painting called Cosmos is a flower arrangement, but at the same time, I was aiming for much more. I wanted to express both meanings of the word cosmos – both the flower and the universe. So I was aiming for the same thing that music can give: the expansion into a larger whole and the contraction into a single moment.
Details of Cosmos
The blue flower was the most difficult to paint because I wanted it to be modest and small and still refer to the universe. It had to be simple and delicate, but still strong enough. I rarely use Cobalt Blue this much. It’s my most expensive pigment and not very good with historical pigments that I mostly have. But in this piece, I think it perfectly represents the universe.
One of my favorite details is the flying orange petals. I think they look like a little melody playing in the background as the song slows down.
Some areas come more easily than others. The top right corner was finished early, and it was a lot of fun to paint. I prefer dark backgrounds over light ones, but dark paintings can be difficult to sell, so I try to be moderate with dark colors.
The red spot is both a supernova and a flower.
I love painting bowls and vases, especially when I can just freely compose them from strokes and shapes.
I also love to paint water. Here, the vase disappears under the waterline.
I often paint a flower so that it’s partly quite sharp and partly blurry or invisible.
Music can use echoes as an effect, while visuals can have mirror images. The echoes and mirror images can differ slightly. I played with this idea when painting the red flower and its dark echo.
Ornaments and ornamental strokes inspire me a lot. I think that when you have found out how you want to draw a single line, you are really close to finding your style.
Lines are like musical notes that a mind can interpret and sing. They have the painter’s voice.
What kind of music do you listen to when you paint or draw?
Let’s Paint like Emily Wrote – Emotional Connection with Childhood Novels
This week, we are reminiscing about childhood novels while painting naturally with watercolors. Do you have this kind of emotional connection with the books from your childhood?
See more pics at Taiko Finnish Online Art Store
Now that spring has arrived in Finland and the plants have started to grow, two words have risen above others: “warm” and “natural.”
In January, I decided that my word of the year would be “Release.” This word takes my thoughts to childhood. Again, I want to be a person who is expressive, but also warm and natural.
Can Art Be Natural?
I think art can be abstract and original, but still natural. In this introductory video for the course Freely Grown, I open up about this way of creating.
Watercolors are perhaps the most natural art supplies. When a color meets water, it blooms, and as Henri Matisse said, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
When painting naturally, seeing and creating alternate. A hazy spot that looks like a mistake can be the seed for something bigger.
Natural vs. What You Expect from Yourself
With the word “Release”, I have been thinking about how difficult it is to let go of conventional interpretations and expectations. Can you paint dandelions – doesn’t everyone want roses?
To some extent, I identify more with the dandelion: persistent, sometimes pushy and overwhelming, often stepping over the borders.
The more I think about my shortcomings, the more I think about L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon, a brave orphan girl who wanted to be a poet. She felt like a real person to me. Her story was also a growth story of an artist that had a big impact on my life. I recognize this kind of emotional connection with other childhood novels, too.
The Brave Girls of Childhood Novels
In Finland, we had a popular children’s book series written by Anni Polva. The main character there is Tiina, a pretty wild young girl. Tiina isn’t an artist, but an adventurer. Isn’t it so that to release is also to go for an adventure?
What about Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five books? You could also go on an adventure in those, and in good company.
I also read L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series and Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women books. Memories of these girls’ books and the word “Release” strongly resonate with me right now. We are living turbulent times, and need to be brave and adventurous – but still in a warm and natural way.
Do you too have an emotional connection to childhood novels?
P.S. I also wrote about children’s books in these blog posts:
In 2023: Watercolor Flowers in Louisa M. Alcott Style
and in 2022: Turning Memories into Paintings