Ainola - The Home of Jean Sibelius

Last time I visited Ainola was in 2019. After the corona break the museum can be visited again. We visited Ainola with family and it was interesting once again. Our time table was perfect, because just after our visit a heavy thunder storm broke up with pouring rain. Now I’ll share some outdoor impressions of the charming house & surroundings.

Ainola means Chez Aino and it was the home of our national composer Jean Sibelius  (1865 - 1957) and his family - today a home museum. The pair got six daughters of whom one died as a baby. This cozy home was designed by Lars Sonck (1870-1956), a celebre architect of Art Nouveau and National Romantic styles. Located in the artist community of Lake Tuusula, Ainola was completed in 1904. 

Aino Sibelius (b. Järnefelt) was a beautiful & slender lady, but very tough. The couple lived

on a tight budget with five daughters and the garden harvest helped her to make ends meet.

This imitation of Aino's herb and vegetal garden was new invention at Ainola.

On the labels you could read what was growing in the early years of 1900.

 This is the door to Aino’s cellar where potatoes and home made jams were preserved.

Aino planned herself the sauna of Ainola. When looking at the laundry room, I don’t envy her!

Washing the linen was a tough job those days. Fortunately she had two maids.

The couple is buried on the property. The bronze grave monument is simple & impressive.

It is designed by the architect Aulis Blomstedt married to Sibelius’ youngest daughter Heidi.

Jean Sibelius died in 1957 and Aino in 1969.

This is how the sky looked when we started our drive back home.

No great thunder damages here as in the western part of Finland.

The pouring rain did so good to the garden and nature!

My 2019 visit to Ainola

Thank you for your interest, I'll share indoors photos in a later post.

❤︎❤︎❤︎

#der natur donnerstag #garden affair #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex 

#saturday’s critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world

The Blue Planet, Kerava Art Museum

Both sides of the coin, 1973

Yesterday, today, 1970

It was festive when, after a year and a half, I could visit an art museum! The Blue Planet exhibition, is on display at the Kerava Art Museum Sinkka. The exhibition focuses on the works of Kimmo Kaivanto (1932–2012) and their ecological accents. Kaivanto was incredibly ahead of its time, as an important theme in his works as early as in the 1970s was the concern for the state of our planet. Now that climate change is a fact, Kaivanto’s works are more relevant than ever. Another theme that strongly emerges in Kaivanto's art is anti-war. The big paintings were very impressive and they stuck in my mind for a long time.

Duet, 1997

Optimistic mistake 1974

As a museum, Sinkka is pleasant in size and the three floors with different spaces make the exhibition easy to approach. Spacious and fresh. I do not remember whether the museum already had blue walls in some places, or whether they were painted for this exhibition to enhance the so-called Kaivanto blue. And indeed, many of the artist’s works feature a delicate shade of sky blue or other blue shade. The art of Kaivanto is well represented in the exhibition: large-scale oil paintings, smaller serigraphs, a few sculptures and scale models for public spaces. A beautiful and impressive exhibition, definitely worth a look.

When the sea dies II, 1973

Secret meadow, 1973

Monument to Memorials, 1970

A Rising Blue Man Pointing against the Grain,1992

Package on the ice, 1973

Supergrowth, 1973

On a Green Meadow, 1969

The exhibition publication presents both Kaivanto and the five young contemporary artists well and interestingly. Chairman of the Board of the Kimmo Kaivanto Foundation has written Kaivanto's presentation entitled Kimmo Kaivanto - Environmental and political artist. The exhibition also includes a documentary that takes e.g. to the artist's summer place in Arkkusaari and follow his life in Helsinki. In the videos and installations of contemporary artists, amazement in front of man, nature and the universe comes to the fore, and various shades of blue are also repeated in their works.

Laura Könönen's (b. 1980) shiny blue apple (Bite, 2019) decorates the exhibition poster 

and publication. In her installation, she dropped the blue sky as fragments to the ground 

(No Heaven Up in the Sky, 2011). 

Antti Laitinen (b. 1975) built a small island for himself, on which a palm tree swayes. 

In his video (Voyage, 2008) he rows his island on an endless open sea. 

Kim Somervuori (b. 1975) grew up among street culture. His mixed media wall-sized work 

(Life is a huge sketch, 2020) depicts the cacophony of the modern world, I would say.

Maija Närhinen's (b.1967) installation (River, 2015) is an impressive shallow box, 

on the surface of which all the rivers of the world will surely cruise - cut from maps!

Lilli Haapala (b. 1984) has spent a lot of time on the islands in Finland and India. 

Her video ((Expeditions to Places that Don’t Exist, 2020) nicely describes the underwater world, 

perhaps an utopia. The artist was also inspired by Gaston Bachelard's Water and Dreams, 

according to which the elements of nature awaken the imagination.

It was an impressive and memorable exhibition - thank you art! 

A couple more works. Funny "Hommage to Frans (Sillanpää), 1974”.

And finally, a scary and sad sight: the eutrophic sea that Kaivanto painted back in 1973!

Fairway, 1973

 

❤︎❤︎❤︎

#der natur donnerstag #garden affair #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex / june

#saturday’s critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world

 

Colors of Summer Storm

The green art work on the right low corner is Kimmo Kaivanto’s Secret Meadow, 1973.

The Blue Planet Exhibition at The Kerava Art Museum Sinkka.

Color Collage 24/2021 

Colors of Summer Storm. The next topic appears on 4th July.

Garden Joys of the Week

The week has been sunny & hot and even hotter it will be!

There is so much happening in the garden, smaller and greater joys every day.

I gathered here some impressions and the plants that bring me the most joy at the moment.

Pimpinella roses are the first to bloom in Finland. This pale pink beauty is ’Ruskela’, 

a newly found traditional rose. It grows behind our wooden swing.

Another rose blooming right now is tall Norwegian Rose ’Hurdal’.

It is pink and very high and brings a forest feeling growing among thujas.

Photographing is a challenge, because of its height.

This guy is also a joy! Hubby has continued washing our pavements

with pressure washer. Still a bit to go. His garden outfit is not very elegant :DD

Blooming of Meconopsis betonicifolia is certainly a joy!

Last year there was no blooming as I had replanted it to a better place.

Now there are many buds!

Hope you find some cooling shadow, but let’s enjoy the summer!

❤︎❤︎❤︎

#der natur donnerstag #garden affair #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex / june

#saturday’s critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world