Floral Passions

04 elokuuta 2019

03 elokuuta 2019

Garden Joys of the Week

From 32 C to 18 C feels pretty chilly. Someone asked wether this cold weather is normal

in Finland. I would say not, but our temperatures vary a lot. I’m glad it has been cooler,

because we are desperately in need of rain. I don’t put my hands on a hose, but now I have had to!
This week the garden has offered still plenty of joys:

1) A lonely baby bird has watched me in the garden at half a meter’s distance several mornings!
It bounces around me so that I have to be careful and not step on it.

At first I thought the bird was injured, but no. It can fly, at least short distances,

but likes to be around me & watch what I’m doing. He was there this morning too when
I was weeding my herb garden. He is so cute ❤︎
Free photo online - because I do not do bird photos.

2) Harvest has continued: basil, parsley, dill, chives... And cherries - we got lot of them.

My husband took the ladder and picked, I cooked & freezed the juice in small portions

for cherry quark - it is delicious and allowed when sweetened with stevia.

3) Flowers of course, and bees and bumblebees!

I see a butterfly only occasionally and that is a pity.

Echinops bannaticus flowers are not yet fully open but still bumblebees are interested in them!

This collage is from last August.

What are you up to this weekend? I have still some cherry cooking to do.

// SOMMERGLÜCK
// SATURDAY'S CRITTERS
// MAKROTEX - August, elokuu

02 elokuuta 2019

I Paint Like a god!

People in the nature 1911
You might ask where are the people? Very small under the tree.

Ellen Thesleff (1869-1954) at HAM - Helsinki Art Museum

She was amongst the most talented artists of the Finnish Golden Era and one of the Finnish symbolists and expressionists, a master of colour, light and movement, earning recognition already during her lifetime.

The title quote is from Ellen Thesleff’s letter to Edward Gordon Graig (1871-1966). 21 January, 1940 - in another of her letters to Gordon Graig she wrote like this - what a charming mix of languages:

Dear You 18.1.1920 Quelquefois je pense - chi cosa if I could see you working and hear you talk - perhaps I could have some courage de vivre ancora... Dites moi can on respire in Italia - is the sun strong? I think I have all forgotten. And your written drama - how? And your living drama how? Pour moi tante la vie est una drama sans commence... et sans fin - how could there existe un finito? You think?

A view from Murole

She was a cosmopolitan, as much at home in Finland, Paris or Florence.

For her, the network of the international art world was a refuge, as was her summer studio

Casa Bianca in Ruovesi’s Murole village, Finland.

Self-portrait 1894-1895

Thesleff was an exceptionally strong and independent woman
striving to become a painter from an early age. She began her art studies at the age of fifteen
in Finland and continued them later in Paris.

Ever confident, she compared herself to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Muse of Art 1946

I personally like better her earlier paintings, so I photographed them at the exhibition.
But to give you an idea of Thesleff’s later style, above an example.

The painter’s sister Thyra Elisabeth, 1892 / Photo: Hanna Kukorelli

Leaf hut 1908

The Harbour of Helsinki 1912

Venice 1905

Midsummer, evening scenery 1906

Italian landscape 1906

The lighting in HAM was a bit challenging and turned the photos a bit yellowish. Interesting exhibition and the new HAM is impressive. The museum is situated in Tennispalatsi / Tennis Palace that also houses a Finnkino multiplex movie theatre. Before turning the building into a centric cultural center, there were four tennis courts and me too have played tennis there! Tennispalatsi was built in 1938. The functionalist building was designed by Helge Lundström. Photo Finnkino.