Here you will find my vintage-inspired fine art pieces as well as digital images in somewhat chronological order. Enjoy!
Lovebirds, 2024
Not much to say about this tiny painting. It was a sweet little project, full of joy. ●
Flower Kimono (Kukkakimono, 2024) is yet again a painting about a dancer or a performer waiting for her turn. She is all ready to go, just putting on last touches of powder at her vanity. Her costume is hidden under a flower kimono, but it must be flamboyant, since she is also wearing a big, pink feather head piece.
This dark blue/teal color is my current favorite, and combined with my all-time-favorite pink, the look is fabulous. I have decided to keep this painting for myself, although there were few interested in buying it on my last exhibition. I even decorated my new apartment with these exact colors to make this young lady feel at home! ●
The Morning After (Seuraava aamu, 2024) is a goofy one. It simply shows a man in a brown suit getting his bug shot taken. He has had a great night, that has turned into a rough morning.
I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a clever text or a sequence of numbers with hidden meaning for the plaque, so I left it empty. That sort of gives it a deeper, more mysterious ambiance, right? ●
Dashin’ Fella (Komistus, 2024) shows a devilishly handsome man in a suit raising his top hat in greeting. He is slick, he is unctuous, he is not someone to trust …but boy oh boy isn’t he just dashing! ●
Just Kidding, Sir. I’m on My Way to Mars! 2024
Yes, that is the actual name of the painting.
So here’s the story.
Earlier this year I discovered a new rock band (new to me, that is) called Chevelle. And they have a smashing song called Mars Simula. The song is – as far as I know – about getting frustrated of all the injustice in this world, and dreaming about leaving it. So I was blasting it away all summer and singing along, especially at the chorus when I yelled “Just kidding, Sir! I’m on my way to Mars!” I thought the lyrics seemed a bit strange considering the band is a bunch of angry young men, but I didn’t let it stop me. Eventually I got curious enough to check the lyrics, and it actually says “I’m getting sick – I’m on my way to Mars!”. Makes more sense when you think about it.
Anyway, I had already created this image in my mind of a young, playful woman saying this to someone. To this day, I still have no idea what the conversation could be that leads these words to be spoken, but I’ll leave that to the viewer.
(Mars Simula is still my go-to song at the gym when I’m aiming for a new personal record, you should give it a listen if you are into rock at all.) ●
You’ll Never Believe This (Tätä et kyllä usko, 2024) is about a woman using a public telephone to call someone. This is one of those paintings I did more as a practice (using gazillion different shades of grey and black and hoping they won’t just blend together to create a void) than purposefully painting something that I find interesting. However, the end result is curious – the painting has a serious, even dark undertone.
Could she be …a spy? ●
Dancer Waiting for Her Turn (Tanssija odottaa vuoroaan, 2022) was barely finished for my art exhibition I held at my teeny tiny apartment in August 2022. Some of the “glitter” dots were still wet, but no matter, she made it and people loved her!
About the painting process – I started sketching this in the spring 2022 and as always, I didn’t have a specific plan for the colors. I just knew I want to paint another cute girl in a glitter dress wearing some flamboyant headpiece. But then Russia attacked Ukraine, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with feelings of terrible anxiety, helplessness and anger. Without thinking I poured my feelings onto the poor canvas by painting the background blood red (upper part) and black (lower part). I regretted it almost immediately, but the damage was done. I chose to wait until the paint dries to see if I learn to like it or figure out how to make it work, but neither of those things happened. The painting was so creepy at this point it made me feel worse! I even considered just throwing the whole canvas away, because it seemed like there was no way to fix it. However, since I didn’t have anything to lose, at the end of one painting session I decided to rub all the leftover whites and blues and teals on this one, and see what happens. And who would have guessed – good things happened! The background turned out absolutely perfect, and it gave me the courage to do bold color choices and high contrast layers in my upcoming paintings. ●
Silk Stockings (Silkkisukat, 2022) was another painting barely finished for my art exhibition in August 2022. Although it’s only 50 x 40 cm in size, it turned out to be quite a show stopper. It was sold quickly to a lovely lady to put into her pink boudoir. It sounded like such a perfect place for my sassy dancer, I gave her a couple of ostrich feathers to go with it.
The next day someone contacted me to inquire if the painting was still available. They had seen it in the exhibition, and could not stop thinking about it. I reassured them, that painting this art piece was such a joy, I will be doing similar subjects in the future!
Few random facts about the painting process:
1) I wanted the background to be dark and moody, but at first the colors were just too bright, no matter what I did. The more I added dark brown and black, the “muddier” the colors got instead of dark. Then I remembered hearing, that painters like Rembrandt used to do several very thin layers of black to make their paintings deep black. So that’s what I did – flax seed oil (to make thin liquid), thinner (to make it matt and speed up the drying process) and a drop of black oil paint. And it turned out just as I had hoped. I left the areas around the girl unpainted at this point to give her a glow.
2) She was originally supposed to have dark hair, but to make her really pop out, I changed it to blonde. I was also a bit afraid the dark hair may look like a helmet.
3) It took me two days to paint the hands and fingers. I even considered making her wear gloves just so I wouldn’t have to paint the skin tones, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m very, very pleased with the result.
4) I painted the feather dress with palette knife. Such fun! ●
Laughing Flapper. Digital line art. It’s all one (very long) line. ●
Rules of Social Etiquette (Seuraelämän säännöt, 2022) is about a young lady looking at or past a book about social rules. I have this book (Erkki Kivijärvi: Seuraelämän säännöt, 1930), which contains all sorts of instructions on how to act on social occasions; what to wear for breakfast, how to travel on a train, how to greet an acquaintance on the street, who is allowed to wear short skirts, how to decline an invitation, how to use a fork / perfume / napkin / gloves / business card / you name it. The book seems very silly for a modern person, which makes it a very entertaining read. However, our young lady in her fur-collar dressing gown seems slightly annoyed by all these stiff rules. She is not so much reading the book as looking at it, contemplating. ●
Afternoon Tea at the Orient Express (Iltapäiväteetä Orient Ecpressillä, 2022). Since I will probably never have the finances to travel on the Orient Express, I sent this cute young lady to enjoy some afternoon tea and macarons on my behalf. I took some liberties with details, but hopefully I did justice to the elegant atmosphere. ●
Finishing touch (Viimeinen silaus, 2022) shows a young lady, perhaps a performer of some sort, putting on red lipstick. The painting process was rather fast and relaxed, and I’m convinced that’s why it turned out perfect. Yes, I said it. It’s perfect. No wonder it was one of the first paintings sold in my art exhibition. ●
Coy Flapper. Digital line art. It’s all one (very long) line. ●
Waiting (Odotus, 2021-2022) is about a young woman all dressed up, waiting for a time when she can go dancing again. I painted most of this 2021 during COVID19 pandemic (hence the topic and the title), but I fixed some nagging details later in 2022 just before the art exhibition. ●
Star of the Show (Esityksen tähti, 2021) is about a cute burlesque-style performing artist sitting on a moon crest, stars in her hair. She wears Fashion Nova’s flirty glitter-and-feather party dress. (To see the dress better, please visit the Let’s Work Together -page!) ●
Faux Diamond Earrings (Muovitimanttikorvikset, 2021) is a small piece I painted just to show off my handmade earrings. ●
Miss Fisher fan art, my favorite dresses of hers as paperdoll digital art. ●
Girl With a Camera (Tyttö ja kamera, 2021) is about a young lady taking a picture, perhaps a selfie through a mirror? Originally she was supposed to wear a red and white striped shirt, but for no particular reason I decided to paint the white stripes first, and it just look too fun combined with the pink base color I always use. I tell myself it has some René Gruau vibes, what do you think? ●
Dancing Skeletons -digital art is one my personal favorites and I have this on my own wall as a high-quality art print from Society6. The image was inspired by 1920’s and 1930’s “rubber hose” animations. ●
Crispy Winter’s Day (Kirpeä talvipäivä, 2021) was just a fur and hair study for me, but her intensive gaze turned out to be the show stopper. I still have the painting, and I’ve been thinking about adding some bright, colourful, Slavic patterns on her coat to make the whole artwork extra flamboyant. ●
I looked back, you didn’t. Digital line art. It’s all one (very long) line. ●
White Dress (Valkea mekko, 2021) is a small piece I first painted after a long break. The painting is clumsy and plain, yet there is some sweetness and innocence in it. ●
Muscle Man. Another one of my early digital works. ●
Jazz (Jazz, 2020) was a palette knife exercise I did, painting whatever reminds me of the Jazz Age! ●
One of the very first images I created to sell on Society6 – Pink flapper shoes. Digital art. ●
Art of Inkeri Kangas 