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 

    

Green Day in Helsinki!

On this coming Thursday, March 17th, a few people including myself will be wearing green and celebrating this year's St. Patrick's Day in Finland. Since moving to Finland I have noticed how well the Finnish people are able to enjoy this annual Irish holiday. I could almost say it comes natural! 
Having spent a few winters here in Finland, I can understand why so many Finns embrace this event with such joy and enthusiasm. The winters here are long, dark and extremely cold. And when this kind of weather drags on past February, there comes with it a lot of irritation, frustration and a growing urge to see the snow melt quickly. The more the sun appears, the stronger the feel of Spring! And while this may be the first celebration of the Spring season for many people, the Finnish people can get more value from it than most of us. It's time to forget about the cold and say goodbye to the snow (even if it's still hanging around!), - it's time to party!

This year I am planning my Paddy's Day schedule in Helsinki this year, where I hope to knock back a few pints of Guinness and maybe one or two whiskeys. I haven't decided where to go this year, but I reckon I'll find some craic somewhere! 

There's several places where you can drown the shamrock (if you can find a shamrock!!) in Helsinki this year. Top of the list has to be Molly Malone's pub where you will find 'A Hell of a Band' and also Finn McCool playing a tribute to the Dubliners singer Luke Kelly.

Not too far away from Molly Malone's bar in Helsinki you will find Brègain playing at O'Malley's Irish bar. 

I wish I had a little more information on what other bars have planned, but here are a few links to some bars which may be celebrating this Thursday
.

Parnells Irish Bar, Hämeentie 35, 00500 Helsinki

Kitty O'Shea's Irish bar, Helsinki

The Dubliner. Helsinki

The Castle, Turku

Daniel O'Connell's Irish Bar, Tampere

Parnell's bars in Finland

And finally, if I upset any fans of the band Green Day by my deceptive title please accept my apologies!

Especially for you, here's Green Day on December 15th, 1991 singing an old song in a pub I used to visit frequently back in Dublin. It was an afternoon gig (4-6pm), hence such a quiet 'crowd'. This tiny venue with a capacity of about 40 people was called 'The Attic', and could be found upstairs at a pub called 'The White Horse Inn'. 

Enjoy!

...and just one more thing for those of you good people who read this far down the page.....

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-Alan

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The Shamrock Experiment: Day 1

I thought I'd try and grow my own shamrock for St.Patrick's Day this year. This small green plant needs a little care and attention to be grown indoors, so don't be surprised if this goes all wrong. And there isn't a huge amount of sunshine in my part of Finland at the moment.

I didn't have any soil or fertiliser around, so I have to make do with some old mix of wood chippings and dirt. Because of this I will have to keep it well drained with water over the next few weeks.

Will I have the 'Luck of the Irish'? We shall see!

I purchased this small packet

of seeds while in Ireland last Christmas.

So here's the first photo of my experiment.

Keep watching this terribly exciting blog to see if the

shamrock grows in time for good old

St.Patrick's Day 2010!

Click here to read The Shamrock Experiment: Day 2

'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