Painting a Mystery

This week is about painting a mystery and entering another world through art-making. My paintings are in an art journal and made with a loose touch.

It All Started from a Withering Bouquet

“The Midsummer bouquet has withered. I have to throw it in the trash,” I said. “But the setting is just like those old masters’ paintings,” my husband replied unexpectedly. And so I remembered this once again.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was
and there still is a world that you can get to from anywhere.

At first, it’s dark, but you can hear a woman reading a letter to someone.

You hear a clock ticking backwards, generating more time.

Then you know that it’s time to take a brush in your hand.

Squeeze the handle firmly and hear the trees moaning as their trunks slowly sink to the ground.

First, it feels silly to paint because there’s nothing to see.

But the darkness gradually disappears, and you realize that you are not alone.

Those strange creatures are all familiar to each other and, in a strange way, to you too.

In this world, everything has been mixed up.

You are the wind that shook the flower, and in blowing the petals back, you lost your soul to it.

You are the chair for which the imagination built a room to rest.

In this world, everything is unfinished. But if you are willing to hear and feel instead of only seeing what’s expected, everything is ready enough.

Painting a Mystery – Background Story

The idea of this blog post came from that short conversation with my husband. Then I had to take a photo of the bouquet and make it in the style of old masters.

After that, I remembered taking a photo of a painting called “Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table” at the exhibition of the H’Art Museum in Amsterdam. The painting is by Frans van Mieris from 1676.

While browsing my image archive, I was drawn by another photo, taken in the same trip to Amsterdam. It was a decorative mantel clock from 1782 in the Rijksmuseum.

The clock took my thoughts to a more recent visit in Porvoo, Finland, where my husband and I went to see Johan Ludvig Runeberg‘s home. The lovely interior was from the 1860s, and there was a big painting that I really liked. I took a photo, but haven’t succeeded in finding out who painted it.

After gathering the photos, I picked up my art journal (Dylusions Creative Journal Square) and started painting. I didn’t copy the photos, but let them soak in freely. I was just inspired by the atmosphere they evoked in me.

Hopefully this blog post inspires you to paint freely without strict plans and definitions. Painting a mystery is both fun and addicting – I am already eager to create more!