29 kesäkuuta 2021

My June in Collage


June has been a wonderful summer month with sun & warm weather.
I have met children & grandchildren & friends - so lovely.
Finland is opening up after the coronavirus outbreak.
I made a visit to writer Eeva Joenpelto’s home in Sammatti with other book bloggers
and visited the art exhibition The Blue Planet at Kerava Art Museum
and wrote two posts about Ainola, the home museum of Jean Sibelius: HERE & HERE.

Wishing everybody a good start to July!

❤︎❤︎❤︎
#der natur donnerstag #garden affair #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex / june
#saturdays critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world

27 kesäkuuta 2021

Ainola, the Home of Jean Sibelius


Ainola (Chez Aino) is one of the artists' homes around Lake Tuusula. Composer Jean Sibelius 
moved there in 1904 with his family. The building was designed by architect Lars Sonck
And at that time the villa had a view to Lake Tuusula. Now the lake is no longer visible 
from the windows, but the property is big, beautiful and wooded.



Aino wanted her husband farther from Helsinki and his drinking pals. 
Painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela painted the Symposion, which caused stir in 1894. 
In the wee hours, Gallen-Kallela himself, composers Oskar Merikanto & Robert Kajanus 
& Jean Sibelius reflect on the mystery of life and art. 


Ainola was the home of Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino and their five daughters 
for 65 years and is the most popular home museum in Finland. 
My home is only half an hour away from Ainola, so we visit almost every year. 
It is really atmospheric and cozy, the spirit of Sibelius hovers around.


When Ainola was built, Jean Sibelius stayed a lot abroad. Thus, construction supervision 
remained largely on Aino's shoulders. She had taken some woodworking course in her youth  
and designed among other things this elegant upstairs stair railing.



The dining room is dominated by a green fireplace by potter Johan Grönroos. 
In this fireplace, Sibelius destroyed the drafts of his Eighth Symphony and apparently also 
his youthful works in the “big burns” of the 1940s.


The dining room opens to the library with its comfortable seating group.



Sibelius' study was upstairs at first, but later he moved to work downstairs. 
The room also has a bed.


Ainola's kitchen is spacious, simple and white, 
although the color is over the years slightly yellowed.


The sauna designed by Aino Sibelius has an ingenious gutter. 
Mr. Sibelius liked to bathe and Aino designed a gutter in connection with the hot water pot, 
along which hot water was easily led to the bathtub.


The garden was dear to Aino Sibelius and its harvest important in shortage of money 
in the early years. Ainola also had the first greenhouse in the locality 
and the cellar can still be seen today.



The simple and impressive tombstone is designed by architect Aulis Blomstedt, 
spouse of the youngest daughter Heidi. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Aino (1871-1969).


In addition to Ainola, other artists' homes of Lake Tuusula’s artist community
 are open to the public - e.g. writer Juhani Aho's Ahola, painter Pekka Halonen's Halosenniemi 
and writer J. H. Erkko's Erkkola, as well the home of painter Eero Järnefelt's Suviranta.

❤︎❤︎❤︎
#der natur donnerstag #garden affair #gartenglück #image-in-ing #makrotex / june
#saturdays critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world

25 kesäkuuta 2021

Friday Bliss #145 - Happy Midsummer!



It has been a beautiful, very hot & sunny week. Plants bloom and wither fast.
For my Midsummer bouquet there was only one decent peony left.
Fortunately we got good thunder rain on Wednesday, it was so needed.


Last weekend my husband’s two daughters Sanna and Milla came to visit us 
and Milla had baked me this wonderful strawberry cake. We had so fun meeting each other 
for such a long time. Hubby and I have enjoyed our lunches on the terrace.
Summer ❤︎



I’ll share once more this Midsummer poem by Eino Leino (1878 – 1926). 
His poems combine modern and Finnish folk elements. The style of much of his work 
is like the Kalevala and folk songs. Nature, love, and despair are frequent themes 
in Leino's work. His poem Midsummer is very beloved in Finland. 

JUHANNUS
Minä avaan syömeni selälleen
ja annan päivän paistaa,
minä tahdon kylpeä joka veen
ja joka marjan maistaa.

Minun mielessäni on juhannus
ja juhla ja mittumaari,
ja jos minä illoin itkenkin,
niin siellä on sateenkaari.
- poem of Eino Leino 


MIDSUMMER
Trusting, my heart I open and take
the daylight there to shine,
I want to bathe myself in every lake
and taste all berries fine.

Deep in my mind I celebrate Saint John
and the midsummer night,
and, in the evenings, If I cry anon
there's a rainbow bright.
- translated by Maria Magdalena Biela


MITTSOMMER
Ich werde mein Herz aufmachen
und den Tag glänzen lassen,
Ich werde jeden See baden
und alle Beere schmecken.

In meinem Kopf ist es Hochsommer 
und Feier und Mittsommer,
und soll ich abends weinen,
so wird es ein Regenbogen sein.
- my own translation



Wishing you all a splendid Midsummer / Summer Solstice!
And thank you for all the lovely comments you leave week after week at Friday Bliss.


❤︎❤︎❤︎



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23 kesäkuuta 2021

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!


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

❤︎❤︎❤︎
#saturdays critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world

21 kesäkuuta 2021

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
#saturdays critters #t in die neue woche #wednesday around the world