Finnish Muses - Mirja Marsch

Moikka moi and Merry Christmas! Today it's the third and final post in the series of Finnish Muses. In the previous two posts I've drawn inspiration from the 19th century Ellen Thesleff and 20th century Outi Heiskanen and today the muse of 21st century is Mirja Marsch. This is also probably the last Trio, at least for now as I have some new things coming in the new year.

But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

While choosing the three Muses, I picked artists that I was intrigued by or wanted to know more of. Mirja Marsch on the other hand was an easy choice. I've been a fan since 2008 when I first learned about her art. We were co-workers then and I purchased my first pair of works by her then. They were "Medusa" and "Alice" - you can see the pieces here in her gallery (link). My latest purchase, from this year, I couldn't find from the gallery. I saw it in her Instgram video from a Christmas market, a beautiful canvas with a golden moon, black raven and teal background. I messaged her immediately if I could purchase the piece without attending the market! Now the piece is hanging in our living room. 

Mirja Marsch combines traditional painting with textile art in her works. She paints the beautiful portraits using textile paints and then adds embroidery, beading and appliqueing to them. If you have been following me for some time, you might remember me referring to Mirja in my earlier projects. Like in this Seth Apter team post (link) with Sewing Box Treasures and another raven (link), which ended up framed on our living room wall.

As you can see from her website (link), Mirja is a masterful painter. Like Outi Heiskanen, she combines people with animals. While Outi combines them to the same character, Mirja adds them to the same piece. She uses self portraits as a way to explore a subject and transforms herself into different characters. I'm definitely not a painter and I haven't dared to try anything as challenging as a self portrait before. But in honor of this Trio and inspired by Mirja, I decided to give it a go! I'm happy I tried, but as you can see, I need more practice! 

In the video I show you the process in steps. If you want to attempt a self portrait, too, I also share a trick how to ease the start and to use an actual photo as a means to sketch the features to the cloth. Of course you then still need to paint, but at least the dimensions are somewhat correct compared to the actual photo.

As you can see from the video, I decided to adhere the piece of cloth to my journal. I wanted each of these projects to have the same form even though they are completely different. Each of them have a collage of sorts, but yet they are very different. Adding them to the same journal gave them the same dimensions and combined the Trio a bit. 

I hope you have liked this Trio and maybe found some new artists to look more into! Thank you again for stopping by! Wishing you peaceful Holidays and once again - Merry Christmas! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, PaperArtsy, Sinelli, Derwent

Finnish Muses - Outi Heiskanen

Hello and welcome to the second post of the last Trio! This time I'm sharing three Finnish Muses, three female artists from 19th to 21st century. Yesterday I drew inspiration from Ellen Thesleff and today I'm sharing something about Outi Heiskanen. Tomorrow, on Christmas Eve I'm then sharing the last piece of this Trio and take a leap of faith with a self portrait.

But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

I wasn't previously that familiar with the works of Outi Heiskanen, but chose her to represent the 20th century as there's a big exhibition of her works in the Ateneum right now. She's a masterful print maker and also a pioneer of environmental art in Finland. The retrospective exhibition is co-curated by Outi's long time friend, PhD Tuula Karjalainen. An interesting detail in the exhibition was that Tuula speaks of her friend in the past tense, while Outi is still alive. It's because of the dementia Outi has, in her friend's eyes she's not herself anymore, her feisty spirit has departed already while her body is still here. 

What binds the two ladies together, Outi and Ellen, in my mind, is their attitude. Both broke the norms of the day in their art and also the typical norm for women of the time. Ellen was head strong, never married and wore her hair short in a time when all of those were very much not trades for women. Outi on the other hand married and had two children but she continued pushing for her career and let her husband take care of home and children. In one paragraph in the exhibition she pondered why staying home with the kids never even came to her head.

Before the show I knew the style Heiskanen uses in her prints. They are masterfully made, dream like and have great line work. The line was referred as branch-like and lively line in the exhibition. I remember how my teachers back in polytechnic had different views about this type of line. The others advised against it while others encouraged to use such a line, going over the shape several times. But what really struck me was the way Outi had made some of her works, combining different printing plates together. Like there was a print with an animal-headed person on its own and in a bigger piece the same plate had been printed along several others transforming it to something different just by juxtaposing it to different other prints! Absolutely mind-blowingly brilliant! And also breaking the rules as printing plates are usually destroyed after a series is printed.

You can see a couple of pieces by Outi in the first photo, a couple of postcards with her prints. On top there's "Maiden Voyage" from 1979 and below "The Dream" from 1974. You can see more works here (link) at Ateneum exhibition site and here (link) at Finnish National Gallery's page. I didn't base my piece into any particular piece this time but more of Outi's way to combine animals and humans. And while she did make sketches, installations, performances and used different approaches in her art, I consider her mostly a print maker with etching as her main technique. I have done one etching some odd twenty years ago along with one drypoint, but I wasn't going to get into that at home so I thought about a way to trying to capture the drawn line of the prints with mediums I had home.

I knew a brush stroke would be just way too thick to mimic the fine etched lines, so instead I chose to draw directly to my gel printing plate. By looking through Outi's sketches, I knew she was a masterful drawer as well, so before I grabbed my paint marker, I did warm my hand with some sketching with just a pencil. That way I had some ideas already what to draw when I pulled out my plate. I know in the video it looks quite scary as the black lines don't lift off completely from the plate, but after I had the prints done, I cleaned the plate with some baby oil and it looked like a new one again. 

Most of the prints in the exhibition were just black and white etchings. The ones that had a little color were aqua tints with the lines etched. The most colorful pieces were from Outi's alter ego Immi Piilo. I wanted to add a touch of color to my project, but not much. I kind of tried to mimic aqua tint with the solid, one color. But I have to be honest - when making the background I started to think about a print we had at home that's by my great aunt. It's an etching and aqua tint, too, depicting fields of oat. As I wanted the character to be the focal point, I used a pencil to the background leaving the black lines just to the character.

The fun thing about this project is that I now have some characters I can use later! I also enjoyed the technique of drawing to the plate very much. 

Thank you for stopping by today! I understand if you don't stop by tomorrow to see the last post as it's Christmas Eve. But it's here when you then have the time!

Materials: GelliArts, Posca, PaperArtsy

Finnish Muses - Ellen Thesleff

It's Wednesday of the third (whole) week of December and that means another Trio! I have some new things coming next year so I'm thinking this is the last Trio for the time being. And what would be a better way to end it than with some Finnish Muses! 

But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

Back in Seth Apter team I did some posts with Finnish inspiration - deliberately wanting to share the culture of my homeland. I enjoyed the Kalevala Trio for example tremendously! So, for this month I chose to go Finnish again as Finland celebrates its Independence Day on December 6th. 

There's a term "Golden Age of Finnish Art". The term is generally regarded to point to the realistic and romantic nationalist painters of the late 19th and early 20th century. When naming the leaders of that era the list hardly ever includes any women. So, I wanted to lift some women to the spotlight. Instead of concentrating just to the Golden Era, I chose one female artist from different centuries. One from 19th century, one from 20th and one from 21st. 

How I chose these three? Well, my first guideline was that they were somehow familiar to me or I was interested in them. I chose Ellen Thesleff to be my muse from the 19th century, Outi Heiskanen to represent the 20th century and Mirja Marsch as the muse of the 21st century. I have a picture of Ellen Thesleff on my craft table all the time, I just visited an exhibition of Outi Heiskanen at Ateneum and I have the privilege to own a couple of artworks by Mirja Marsch, an ex co-worker. 

Ellen Thesleff was a Finnish expressionist painter, although she started with symbolism. She's regarded as one of the leading modernists in Finland, although I have to say that I think she's not that well know as she would deserve to be. I think most Finns recognize a Schjerfbeck (referring to Helen Schjerfbeck, a Finnish painter of the same era) when they see one, but not a Thesleff. Ellen was celebrated artist in her own time. In a time when job opportunities for a woman were scarce she knew exactly what she wanted to be and strode towards her goals. Her father was an amateur painter but she started her official art lessons at the age of 15. Aged 22 she moved to Paris to study and a couple years later she traveled to Italy for the first time. Since then she had two home lands - Finland and especially her studio at Murole, Ruovesi and Italy. Here's the link to the Wikipedia page (link).

I really love Schjerfbeck's work but I find Thesleff intriguing. Where as Helen comes across a little aloof and maybe even timid (not sure if that's true), Thesleff is quite the opposite. She's quoted saying "I paint like a god". So, she's very sure of herself and her skills, she wears her head up and has a keen studying look on her eyes. She also wore her hair short in a time when long locks were the norm. 

In the first photo there's a couple of post cards with Ellen's work. The one on the top is a self portrait from 1916 and the one on the bottom a self portrait from 1894-1895. The latter is from her darker period following her father's death. But I didn't use either of these as my main source but instead a striking portrait of her sister, Thyra Elisabeth from 1892. You can see the painting for example here (link) at Helsinki Art Museum site.

The painting I drew inspiration is from Thesleff's symbolism era. The softness of the piece along with the warm colors and the fantastic expression of her model spoke to me. I also loved the hint of a halo beneath her head making the piece resemble iconography art. As you can see from the video and the finished piece, I tried to mimic that detail in my own take. In the video I also try to give an idea how to "cheat" when doing a portrait by using collaging as a means to sketch the subject. 

As I say in the video, I gave Ellen flowing locks and a blue dress. Partly that was because of the contrast for the hair but I'm guessing partly it was also because of the connection to iconography in my mind. When then trimming the bigger piece to fit inside my journal, the composition went off as I didn't want to include just the painted piece of her dress as it showed the line between the collaged and painted too harshly. As the composition now was so bottom heavy, I needed to add something to the top to balance things out and I chose to add a crown there. Partly again this was under the influence of the iconography, but also partly connected to her stance and head-strong attitude. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I'm hoping to see you tomorrow with Outi Heiskanen. 

Materials: GelliArts, PaperArtsy, Derwent, Posca, Sinelli

Peace is Everything - November Trio DAY 3

Hi there! It's the third and final post of November Trio! But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

This month the Trio is done in co-operation with Heidin Korttipaja (link) - a Finnish online store. Korttipaja has own stamp and die sets with phrases in Finnish for different situations. I received the stamp and die sets used in these projects and decided to make a Trio to show them off. During the three days I make two cards and an art journal page using the stamps different ways. As Korttipaja is a Finnish company, the videos are spoken in Finnish this time. But the subtitles are written in English so you can still follow the process.

You have seen the two cards already. The first one with the summer vibe and sentiment showing through a hole cut to the front and the winter one with sentiment layered on top of the embellishment cluster. Today I'm showing an art journal page with several stamp sets in use. Whereas in the two cards there's been mainly bigger words in  use, this time I relied heavily on the smaller stamps.

I love the Tim Holtz word stickers in white and black. These two colors go to most of my projects as they are and add a fun little detail. So, for this art journal page, I decided to make my own little Finnish word "tiles" inspired by the Tim Holtz ones. I cut both white and black strips of cardstock and then stamped the words onto those. The words put one after the other don't make any reasonable scentence, but maybe they could inspire a story? The first couple of lines translate freely "From us to you and beautiful, rewarding, autumn, wonderful, you, head(or main), journey". 

I played with the text elements in this page, also other than the little tiles. As you could see from the video, I started the whole page by adding a torn piece from an old book to the page and stamped one word over and over again to the rest of the page. While you can't see that word almost at all in the finished page, it's still an easy way to break the blank page and get going. I then used the same word as a part of the title of the page in the end. The word said "Peaceful" but I cut it shorter to state just "Peace". Now the title says: "Wonderful peace is everything for you".

Although I'm concentrating on the word stamps in this Trio in a way, I'm also showing different ways to color the floral stamp. In the first one I colored each bloom with markers, yesterday's version was all at once and then a touch of highlights and today I'm adding different color areas, but again more in a haphazard way than painstakingly coloring each segment. For that I'm using a stamping tool. I'm first stamping a sketch to a piece of cardstock and then smudge the paint towards the right places. Like green for the leaves, orange for the flowers. After drying the paints I then put the piece back to the stamping tool and stamp the outlines on top. This is a way I've used when coloring stamped images with embossing powder, too. 

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you've liked this series and found the Finnish voice overs fun. Wishing you a wonderful weekend! And please remember the Facebook live tomorrow!

Materials used: 

(links to Heidin Korttipaja shop - linkit Heidin Korttipaja -kauppaan)

Heidin Korttipaja: Hauskaa ja Onnellista stamp and die set

Heidin Korttipaja: Jouluntoivotuksia stamp and die set

Heidin Korttipaja: Upeaa ja Mahtavaa stamp and die set

Heidin Korttipaja: Hyväntoivotuksia stamp and die set

Stampers Anonymous Floral Outlines

Ranger: Distress Archival Ink Black Soot

Tsunikeno: StazOn Pigment ink Snowflake

PaperArtsy: Fresco Finish acrylic paint Key Lime

PaperArtsy: Fresco Finish acrylic paint Terracotta

PaperArtsy: Fresco Finish acrylic paint Butternut

Ranger: Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Prima Marketing: Finnabair stencil Bindweed

Tim Holtz: Idea-Ology Paper Dolls

Prima Marketing: Art Basics Heavy Gesso White

Materials: Heidin Korttipaja, Ranger, Stampers Anonymous, Tsukineko, Prima Marketing, PaperArtsy

Christmas Flowers - November Trio DAY 2

Moikka moi! It's the second post of November Trio! But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

This month the Trio is done in co-operation with Heidin Korttipaja (link) - a Finnish online store. Korttipaja has own stamp and die sets with phrases in Finnish for different situations. I received the stamp and die sets used in these projects and decided to make a Trio to show them off. During the three days I make two cards and an art journal page using the stamps different ways. As Korttipaja is a Finnish company, the videos are spoken in Finnish this time. But the subtitles are written in English so you can still follow the process.

I promised you two cards and an art journal page during this Trio. Yesterday I shared quite a summery card with the florals on the cover. Today I'm using the same floral stamp, but this time it's like icy, frozen flowers! I'm actually using this Stampers Anonymous stamp set in each of the three makes as well as the sentiment stamps from Korttipaja. 

This card is a bit more traditional when it comes to the use of the sentiment and matching dies. I stamped the words with the same inks I have going in the card otherwise, too, and then cut it out and mounted on top of the cluster. But I hope the background and coloring of the flowers gives you ideas and maybe something new! 

As you could see from the video, this time I color the flowers totally different way than in the first. Whereas in the first I used multiple colors and carefully colored each flower, this time I'm doing it all in once! After adding a "smudged" color layer throughout the bouquet, I then add some shadow here and there to define the shape more. 

To give the card more of a winter and mixed media vibe, I added some gauze to the background. As it's such a light element, I could use just gesso and Aladine Izink ICE to adhere it as well add some shine and sturdiness to it.

Thank you for stopping by today! I'm hoping I'm seeing you tomorrow, too, when it's the third and final project of this series!

Materials used: 

(links to Heidin Korttipaja shop - linkit Heidin Korttipaja -kauppaan)

Heidin Korttipaja: Jouluntoivotuksia stamp and die set

Heidin Korttipaja: Hyväntoivotuksia stamp and die set

Stampers Anonymous Floral Outlines

Tsukineko: VersaMark embossing ink

Ranger: Distress Embossing Glaze Prize Ribbon 

Ranger: Distress Embossing Glaze Broken China

Sizzix: Clear embossing powder

Ranger: Distress Ink Broken China

Ranger: Distress Ink Faded Jeans

Ranger: Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire

Ranger: Distress Ink Spekled Egg

cheesecloth / gauze

Prima Marketing: Art Basics Heavy Gesso White

Aladine: Izink ICE Snowball

Materials: Heidin Korttipaja, Ranger, Stampers Anonymous, Tsukineko, Sizzix, Prima Marketing, Aladine

Flowery Wonderful - November Trio DAY 1

Hello there and welcome to November Trio! This month there's a little twist in these Trios. But what are Trios? Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

This month the Trio is done in co-operation with Heidin Korttipaja (link) - a Finnish online store. Korttipaja has own stamp and die sets with phrases in Finnish for different situations. I received the stamp and die sets used in these projects and decided to make a Trio to show them off. During the three days I make two cards and an art journal page using the stamps different ways.

As Korttipaja is a Finnish company, the videos are spoken in Finnish this time. But the subtitles are written in English and I also talk a few words in English in each one. Naturally you can ask questions in English if you need more info! These posts, however, I decided to write in English as I've been blogging in English for such a long time now.

This first card is somewhat summer-like. It's a birthday card, with the phrase "Ihanaa ja onnellista juhlapäivää" meaning freely translated "(Have a) Wonderful and happy celebration". As you can see, the sentiment is stamped inside the card but one word shows through to the front as I cut an opening there. I thought this might be an idea you haven't tried before! Having a sentiment stamp and a matching die makes this really easy! You just find the right place and run the card through the die cutting machine and then align the stamp perfectly. 

As you can see from the video, I used just markers from a regular craft store to color these blooms. I used to have a big selection of Copics, but nowadays I color the stamped images so seldom, these water-based markers will work just fine. My daughter enjoys the alcohol markers more than me these days. To keep the colors all matching I used the same markers to make the splashes. I colored to a piece of plastic and then picked up the color with a wet brush. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Please let me know if you have any questions! Hope to see you tomorrow!

Materials used: 

(links to Heidin Korttipaja shop - linkit Heidin Korttipaja -kauppaan)

Heidin Korttipaja: Upeaa ja Mahtavaa stamp and die set

Heidin Korttipaja: Hyväntoivotuksia stamp and die set

Stampers Anonymous Floral Outlines

Ranger: Distress Archival Ink Black Soot

markers 

Materials: Heidin Korttipaja, Ranger, Stampers Anonymous, Sinelli

Impasto Inquiries - DAY 2

 

Moikka moi and welcome to day 2 of the "Impasto Inquiries" Trio! Trios are posts that I started while I was a member of the Seth Apter Creative Team. I enjoyed making a series of three posts so much, that I decided to continue them at least for a while. If you want to see the older Seth Trios, you can find them under this label (link). The Trio posts usually had a topic, or a product, to which I concentrated, like Izink ICE (link). Or I could challenge myself with limited supplies (link) or use one source of inspiration for three pieces, like I did with "Mothers of Kalevala" (link). In a way they are extended versions of the "Inspired By" posts we used to make together with Marsha Valk. You can explore those posts under this label (link).

This month I'm concentrating on Impasto acrylic paints from the Finnabair line. This theme was suggested when I was asking for Facebook live ideas and I felt that a simple Facebook live might have been too short of a time to study the paints. So, in the course these three Trio posts I'm showing different aspects of the paints, sharing some techniques but also making comparisons. In the first post from yesterday I was comparing the Impastos with two ways to thicken paint to kind of match the thickness of them. Today I'm showing Impasto paints side by side with regular acrylics.

As you may have noticed yesterday already, I'm doing all the tests on top of collaged chipboard tags. There's differences in the torn pieces on the tags, but otherwise I though that a somewhat uniform surface would help to show the differences between the paint mediums. 

Like said yesterday, Impasto paints are thick. So while they are wonderful for some techniques and especially to those where you require texture and dimension, on others they just won't work. In this duo I show one of those techniques - there might be more, but this is the one I've come across when doing different projects and playing with paints. 

In the video I again make tags, side by side. Only two tags this time as I'm just comparing Impasto acrylics with regular craft acrylics. The first technique is the one that shows the biggest difference - gel printing. While I get a nice print with the regular acrylics, the heavy, "dry" Impastos won't give me almost anything. But it's a totally different story with maybe more traditional use of the paints - stenciling and painting. For stenciling they work wonders also using a sponge and making a flat paint layer. The dry, thick paint gives a nice crisp image also this way. And when I then pattern the wet paint after brushing a layer of it to the tag, I get nice dimensional grooves to the Impasto compared to the flatter version of the regular paints. But it's what you are after. If you like dimensional strokes and texture, maybe Impastos are better for you than regular craft paints. But if you love doing gel prints, then steer away from Impastos. Or be like me and alternate between the two! 

Like in the first video, I then finish the tags with some elements but the main comparison is done on the backgrounds. For these tags I made a little composition using the gel print I got cleaning the plate, some Tim Holtz paper dolls and some thread. I also used some text stickers and used white on the darker tag and black ones on the lighter one as this was something that each needed in my eye. The other one needed more contrast and the other a bit more white to light things up. 

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have liked this second part of the "Impasto Inquiries" Trio. Please be back tomorrow for the third and final part!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Paper Garden, Tim Holtz, Sinelli, Posca