Two Landscapes and a Council of Trees!

Here's two paintings I made a few years ago.

'Sophia's Landscape'

The first here is called 'Sophia's Landscape' and it shows a typical summer scene from western Finland. This particular painting was from a photograph taken near the town of Nivala in the province of Oulu. The original painting is now owned by a private art collector in Helsinki.

This original photo from Nivala/Finland
was inspiration for 'Sophia's Landscape'

'Fourteen Angry Trees'

The second painting is made up of four individual frames each sized 70cm x 50cm. I decided to call it 'Fourteen Angry Trees', but I might be willing to change the title if anyone has a better suggestion. It depicts an imaginary landscape behind fourteen distressed and bitter-looking trees with a lot on their 'mind'. To achieve the image above I photographed the four original paintings and joined them together using image-editing software on my computer. The original painting or tetraptych (size 70cm x 200cm) can be seen in the video below.

    

Prints of 'Sophia's Landscape' are available here!

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- Alan 

    

Loops and Hookers!

Connemara pony at Gurteen Bay, Roundstone

Part 5 of my holiday adventures in Ireland and sadly this was our last day on the west coast. The main reason I made this blog was to reflect on the type of holiday I rarely have a chance to take. Mainly because whenever I do manage to get back to Ireland it is important for me firstly to spend time with my parents and my brother's family living in Dublin. Also, it's rare that Ireland's summer weather gets as good as this year 2013.

This part of our trip took us around one of Ireland's best locations to drive, the Connemara Loop. After leaving early in our car from our Kinvara holiday home we first drove around Galway bay and immediately tried to bypass Galway city. Easier said than done however, with so much traffic and a chain of roundabouts to pass. Luckily our Finnish friends had lots to talk about and questions to be answered, so the time went nicely. Below are a few photos from our trip, simply click on each image to enlarge.

  

Roadtrip map around the Connemara Loop.
(our route in red)

Having bypassed Galway city our journey took us right through Galway county and it's beautiful landscape. It's easy to enjoy the views of the Twelve Bens mountain range along the way, but care was necessary as some of the local sheep have a habit of wandering out on to the roads. Here's someone else's video footage of the views.

This area is a popular part of Ireland for artists also, with some of the country's most famous artworks originating from here. Jack B. Yeats and Paul Henry are just some of the famous Irish names associated with painting in Connemara.

Cloudy Day, Connemara - Paul Henry

Oil on canvas board, 

The first stop we made on our route was Roundstone, a village popular for it's culture and arts. As well as being a home for painters, it's also rich in traditional Irish music and dancing. Unfortunately we weren't sticking around long enough for any of that. So a quick stroll up and down the village, a cup of coffee and a slice of cake in a cafe and we were on our way again. We did get to see the nearby bus-stop, an all-in-one Post office/Petrol station/Grocery store and a couple of Galway Hookers!

Click images to enlarge!

Bus-stop at Roundstone

Shop/Gas station/Post office

Galway Hookers
Traditional fishing boats used in the Galway Bay area

Roundstone, Co.Galway.

After leaving Roundstone, we couldn't resist stopping of at one of the many nearby beaches dotted along the Connemara coastline. Here we had to kick off our shoes and go for a paddle.

White sandy beach at Gurteen Bay, Roundstone.

'Good to get the feel of Irish waters again!!

Beach at Gurteen Bay, Roundstone.

It was time to head to the town of Clifden next for dinner. The sea air in Ireland always makes me hungry for some reason. We had some excellent food at Mannion's Seafood Restaurant on Market street in Clifden. A great place to eat!

After dinner we headed out from Clifden via the Sky road, a scenic route which takes you up over the landscape and offers amazing views of the coast from a parking point along the way. It's not called the Sky road for nothing!

View from the Sky road, Clifden

With the sun finally began to go down it was time to head back to spend our last night in Kinvara. But before that we made our way past several other scenic locations, stopping at Connemara National Park, Killary Harbour (Ireland's only fjord), Leenane and Kylemore Abbey. Although we didn't actually manage to see much of Kylemore Abbey as the sun was setting blindingly in our view. But I did capture this nice shot from the opposite direction which I thought was even more appealing. 

Landscape close to Kylemore Abbey

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This is part 5 of a set of 'Ireland' travel posts here on my blog. Click on the destinations below to read the rest!

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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogs  and you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.

- Alan 

                     

Daniel's Art Group in Fokus

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a special art exhibition being held at Galleria Fokus, my local art gallery here in Karis, Finland. The organiser of this exhibition was Daniel Enckell, a local and well-respected artist who has set up his own art group classes over the past few years and is now showing the fruits of his teachings at this art exhibition. 

Daniel Enckell stands next to his painting 'Tessi' at Galleria Fokus, Karis.

Daniel Enckell's art group is represented at this art exhibition in Gallery Fokus by a total of eleven fine artists. Visitors to this exhibition have a unique chance to see a sample of Daniel Enckell's artwork also. 

On walking into the gallery last Saturday afternoon I could not help but notice Daniel's stunning portrait painting titled 'Tessi (Terese)'. It is a richly coloured painting of a young woman in a dark baroque style reminiscent of the great masters. What a wonderful showpiece to greet visitors at the gallery!

Solveig Eriksson standing next to her Still-life oil painting at Galleria Fokus.

One of the artists taking part in this exhibition has recently been involved with a book about Helene Schjerfbeck, one of Finland's biggest and best-loved artists. The book titled in Swedish 'Hon drog sina streck' has been translated into Finnish by Solveig Eriksson. As part of this group art exhibition Solveig and her co-artists displayed some fine still-life oil paintings. It was interesting to see and compare the techniques and brushstrokes of each individual artist. 

Fine art and refreshments at Galleria Fokus

From left to right,
Carola Welin - 'Under platanerna i Paris'
Nina Hackman - 'Stenhus'
Nina Hackman - 'Känsloflöden'

Visitors to the exhibition can find a variety of styles and subjects, including some wonderful landscape paintings. One painting I particularly liked was 'Stenhus' by Nina Hackman, a peaceful scene painted with wonderful attention to depth and light.

From left to right,
Asta-Maria Wikström - 'Madonna'
Helena Laitinen - 'Midsommarnatt i Savolax'
Nina Hackman - 'Stenhus på Gottland'

Daniel Enckell's Art Group exhibition continues at Galleria Fokus, in Karis, Finland until the 29th of January 2012. 

The artists on show are 

Asta-Maria Wikström, 

Helena Laitinen, 

Solveig Eriksson, 

Carola Wilen, 

Tuula Masalin, 

Christine Oesch-Börman, 

Rolf Grandell, 

Tor-Bjorn Sjöholm, 

Nina Hackman, 

Ann Glader, 

Lauri Stählberg 

and Daniel Enckell.

Galleri Fokus Galleria

Monday-Thursday 11-19

Fridays 11-17

Saturdays 10-14

Centalgatan 90-92, Karis  -  Keskuskatu 90-92, Karjaa

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-Alan

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Red Barn Blues!

With the summer a distant memory now, I just wanted to share one of my paintings which reflects summer for me here in Finland. It's a picture of a typical red wooden barn in Finland, with a rapeseed field lingering in front of it. The bright yellow rapeseed fields can be so strong in colour they can only but make you smile!

I usually take a small camera with me whenever I go outside whether in the cities or the countryside. I caught this photograph while passing a field near to village of Ingå in southern Finland. I was in a moving car, so the quality isn't great. But I knew from the moment I seen it that it would make a nice painting.

Here's the original photograph with my painted impression below it. 

'Red Barn' Original acrylic on stretched-canvas 
for sale from artist, size 50cm x 40cm.
Prints available from Imagekind.com, just click on image above.

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- Alan 

                     

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'Mount Errigal'

Mount Errigal

2009, acrylic on canvas (70cm x 50cm)

This is a painting I made in 2009. It features a well-known landmark in Ireland called Mount Errigal. It was painted on stretched-canvas using a mixture of 'Daler-Rowney System 3' and 'Winsor & Newton' acrylic paints. It's difficult to describe the style I painted it in. It's a style which I started back in 2005. I suppose the closest description I can relate to it is Neo-Pointillism.

This beautiful mountain is located near the small town of Gweedore, in a mainly Irish-speaking area of County Donegal. Of course most people can speak English there also.

I can speak and understand some Irish myself, but I still have a little trouble figuring out the Irish language spolen in the north-west of Ireland. This is so because of the three main Irish dialect areas in Ireland. Ulster in the North, Connaught in the West and Munster in the South. These are known as the Gaeltacht regions. I learned my piece of Irish in the West, or Connemara as it is better known. It sounds totally different! I didn't enjoy learning the Irish language, but in a way I'm glad I did. It was the teaching methods which I could dispute. I was thought by the Christian Brothers, who were thorough in their teachings to say the least.

My painting of Mount Errigal was a special commission for a woman in Scotland. Her parents were originally from this area of Ireland.

Here's a short video clip of how the painting was constructed. I painted it at my home in Finland from a photograph.

'Mount Errigal' was a picture I really enjoyed painting and I was totally satisfied with the result! It was hard to see the painting leave, but I know it's in caring hands now on a wall in Scotland.

This painting was recently voted

Favorite Landscape of 2009

on art website Fine Art America.

Click here for more details

Prints of the painting are available from here

I received this photo of my painting from it's owner, who had it nicely double-framed recently. It must be about one metre wide with 

this new frame. Excellent!

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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogs  and you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.

- Alan