Hogans Blog: european

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Thursday, December 7, 2017

My Finland 100 : 1-10

Finland became an independent state on 6 December 1917. Already there have been numerous events staged throughout the country to celebrate this centenary year. The theme of the centenary year is ‘Together’.

As I have been a resident of Finland for the past ten years I wanted to do a little something. For this I decided to post 100 images to my Instagram account on social media with the hashtag #finland100_igchallenge .

Anyone familiar with the Instagram application will be aware of the vast amount of wonderful photography posted every day online. There are so many amazing images to be found featuring Finland's stunning nature and landscapes. I imagine my photography may be lack lustre in comparison and as a result may not be noticed. So I decided to simply look closer in and around my new home for another approach. I have posted a variety of images found around my own house and neighbourhood. I didn't know much about Finland before I moved here, so I view this as an opportunity to show others a few things I discovered about or associated with Finland and it's culture. I have included everyday items, nostalgic items, locations, food and also some Finnish-themed artworks which I painted myself while living here. In other words, a bit of everything!!

The images are in no particular order of importance or preference, so I'll start with 1-10...

1/100
After almost 40 days away I'm looking forward to this!

Nice to be back home in Karis!

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Jan 14, 2017 at 2:22am PST

2/100

Finnish power breakfast! Muesli with forest blueberries and seabuckthorn berries. Plenty of anti-oxidants and vitamin C eqivalent to 500 oranges!

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Jan 18, 2017 at 11:47pm PST

3/100
Happy Runeberg's Day!..these are Runeberg tarts, very tasty treats from Finland. Find out more about this tradition on my blog at www.alanhogan-artgarage.blogspot.fi/2017/02/the-dead-poets-breakfast.html

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Feb 5, 2017 at 4:42am PST

4/100
the Finnish pantti or moneyback system helps keep plastics out of nature's way. It makes cents to recycle your plastics in Finland!!! ♻

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Feb 21, 2017 at 1:16am PST

5/100
Back in Karis with a bucket full of sunshine!!! Happy Days!! ☀😎☀

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Apr 21, 2017 at 11:21am PDT

6/100
Captured this 'Aglais io' on camera last Monday while out for a hike in Västerby, Finland. More commonly known as the 'European Peacock' butterfly, I've modified it with selective colouring and it's available as a print on some of my art webstores.

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on May 3, 2017 at 1:45pm PDT

7/100
Yum! 😘 Finnish pea-soup isn't just for Thursdays!

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on May 9, 2017 at 5:45am PDT

8/100
...'got a soft spot for this old Finnish band despite not understanding most of their songs. Nice melodies and compositions!

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on May 17, 2017 at 5:12am PDT

9/100
..clouds and rain today in Finland, so posting a sunny painting of a red house to brighten up my Instagram! It's called 'The Red House in Finland'.

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on May 30, 2017 at 11:17am PDT

10/100
...driving home for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

A post shared by Alan Hogan (@alanhogano) on Jun 4, 2017 at 11:32am PDT

Click below for more:

1- 10

11- 20

21- 30

31- 40

41- 50

51- 60

61- 70

71- 80

81- 90

91- 100

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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

- Alan

Alan Hogan

Born in Ireland, Alan Hogan is a visual artist now living in Finland. He paints a variety of subjects in a unique style which mixes traditional values with a hint of contemporary and sometimes melancholy undertones. A graduate of art and design from DIT Ireland, Hogan worked for many years in the Irish print industry before moving to Finland in 2007. This is where he re-ignited his passion for painting, with several exhibitions already displayed including the popular ‘Helsinki Design Week’. He is currently a member of various art groups in Finland including the Helsinki International Artists’ Association. Alan Hogan lives in the bilingual town of Karis in southern Finland, where he continues to paint and sell his art. If you have any feedback, requests or questions for the artist, please send an email to his company studio 'The Art Garage' at theartgarage@rocketmail.com. You can also find this artist on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hoganfinland

Monday, May 11, 2015

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!

Share this blog!

Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

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- Alan

Alan Hogan

Saturday, February 15, 2014

WINTER IS COMING....or maybe not!

I got up from bed this morning to find the temperature here in southern Finland had gone over to the plus degrees side again, +3° celsius to be exact. This has been the norm now for the past few weeks. Usually this time of year it would be somewhere between -7°C and -35°C. We've had very little snow this winter so far. Normally I would have enough snow-shovelling exercise finished by now to prepare myself well for the intoxication hit that comes with a certain green celebration in March. Instead I find myself looking at reports of bad weather from abroad. For example, torrential rain in the Caribbean, heavy snow and continued freezing temperatures in the US and Canada, and of course crazy floods and storms in the UK and Ireland. At the moment I saw it's snowing in Ireland, maybe because it has probably been blown halfway up towards Greenland!!

Foggy February in Finland!

Instead of shovelling walls of snow I have to look at constant grey skies and think fog. There's even the occasional shower. I can't complain really, in fact I'm very happy! The less snow-shovelling the better, I'm not much of a morning person, especially anytime before 08.00 or when temperatures are -10C or less.

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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

- Alan

Alan Hogan

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Summer in Dublin, again!

Over the past few years I have often heard Irish people talk and reminisce about the warm summers of the mid-1970's and early 1980's. I often rambled on about it myself sometimes.
Well, after this summer of 2013 I reckon all that might quiet down a little. Last month was one of the warmest Julys in recorded history of Irish weather and I had the luck to be on holidays right there when it all happened. I want to post a few photos on my blog here for my own record and also just to show the world that Ireland can be a wonderful place when she gets some sunshine! (okay, it can be a pretty good place without the sun too!)
I went on a little roadtrip from Dublin to the west coast of Ireland with some friends from Finland. It was really great to show my home country at it's best and I think the Finns enjoyed it. Also it was their first ever visit to Ireland, so a bit extra-special! I don't like to do on-the-spot travel blogs as I am usually too busy enjoying myself to start typing. But over the next few entries in my blog I will post some photos of the places I visited, including County Galway, County Clare, the Aran Islands, Kilkenny City and firstly my hometown Dublin.

Lambay island, off the coast of Dublin.

Coastal rocks near Malahide in County Dublin

View over Dublin from Deer Park Golf club in Howth, County Dublin.

View of lighthouse from Howth summit in County Dublin.

View of Dublin Bay from Howth summit.

Dublin Bay on a sunny day in July.

After arrival in Dublin, it was off to John Kavanagh's pub also know as the Gravediggers because of it's proximity to the Glasnevin cemetary next door. Here's what was going on at the cemetary gates while I supped on my pint of Guinness. The Ghostbus is doing a tour with shots of alcohol being passed around to it's passengers to keep them awake. (below)

Gravediggers Ghostbus at Glasnevin cemetary.

While I've been to visit my family back in suburban Dublin on many occasions over the past few years, I reckon it must be over 4 years since I have actually gone into Dublin's city centre. Unfortunately I only spent one day there, but this time as a tourist!