Doing summer things

I think that in summer you have to do at least this: Be near water as often you can, eat so much strawberries you possibly can, and see as much art you possibly can . And do all that together with your family. We did all that on our small vacation, here are some pictures

Being together :)

Seeing art :) Upper pictures piece is by Eero Hiironen, lower Pekka Parviainen

Eating strawberries and relaxing

Being near water, and feeding ducks that's a must too :)

Now I am back to work again, winter collection has been printed, and I should get the cards today, yay!

My first christmas elf :)

I have done several christmas/winter card illustrations before these new, but never real elfs. Just lots of animals with red hats :) Now I found these sweet faces, and elfs came alive :) These elfs are of a very small variaty, I think. This little one is helping with christmas decorating :)

I hope you like him!

Being mermaid... :)

This one I really enjoyed doing! It's, quite simply, called ' The Mermaid' .I really like the kitschy souvenir -look it has..it is so tacky it starts to be adorable :D This came somehow straight from my heart, so I don't want to explain it too much..usually I really enjoy writing about my thoughts about my works, but this one is too close to me I think :) It is from the new series I have started, called self-images.

New postcards from these illustrations will be available in my Etsy shop in August-September.

Also a better picture of 'The Queen of Snow' :)

My work in NY, Yay! :)

I have great news! My prints are now available in New York! At the very cool Urban Alchemist! How cool is that!! :) More information here: http://nymag.com/listings/stores/urban-alchemist/ So if you are anywhere near Brooklyn, please go and check it out :) I have many retailers in Finland and a few in Japan but NY...never really thought that this could happen :D

I have been busy here, working and visiting family. New works are coming together. Here is one of them called 'The Snow Queen' from the new series called 'Self-images'. This is a detail, and a not so good picture of it :) I like the branch-like-thing border, which is done with doily :)

I can feel a new series coming :)

I have been very busy working with new illustrations. And in the middle of christmas cards I found a new path I can follow, a new series of works that feels like an unexpected gift. The works that will be coming... I have made them more to myself than the recent works I have done, and they might not be as 'commercial' as my more cute stuf :) but at the moment they feel very important, something I HAVE to do. And I do think that other people might find themselves from these pictures too, so I have decided to make postcards out of them. Prints may follow too :) I will keep the pictures to myself for a while stil, but I can give you a glimps of my working table and of one work in progress. As you can see it involves doily, among other things :)

I think that there will be two cards from this series available in fall, I have to leave some room for the Christmas cards too :) but this subject needs much more work, so I am sure that the series will be growing :) I am so happy for this great working drive I have at the moment, knock on wood :) It feels so good after a VERY difficult spring. Have you ever had a time when everything you try, fails? I felt like that, and it was terrible!! Luckily I managed to get over that somehow and managed to believe in myself again. I think that this series came from those experiences. The name of the series is 'Self-images' ('Minäkuvia)