My Next Painting and Akseli Gallen-Kallela -

Teeing up a painting subject and a Finnish Master Artist

"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
— Sharon Salzberg

"Fate is how your life unfolds when you let fear determine your choices. A path of destiny reveals itself to you, however, when you confront your fear and make conscious choices."
— Caroline Myss

“Women often find themselves mirroring false reflections of who they are, while struggling to establish healthy boundaries and prioritize authenticity. The absence of a solid sense of identity leaves women vulnerable to external influences that shape their sense of self-worth.” — The Starfire Codes

The Universe, Serendipity, Synchronicity, whatever you want to call it, is now leading me to work on my self esteem. I read a substack that really nailed it, then the comments led me to Adyashanti. I found an audio version of a seminar on self acceptance, with Adyashanti one of five speakers, that sounded really good, so I downloaded it.

Adyashanti was my LEAST favorite speaker. Everything he said was so nebulous. Tammy Simon - my favorite podcast host - tried to get him on a more pragmatic tack, but he could not settle. Oh well. Different strokes for different folks.

But my time was not wasted. One of the other speakers hit me right between the eyes - Caroline Myss on self esteem. Before retirement, I received all of my self esteem from work, so much that I didn’t even notice it - I just swam through it like so much honeyed, admiring syrup. Yum. I miss sugar. (Oops! Sorry about that.)

I’ve taken some of her suggestions to heart. I’m setting daily goals. Each day, I’m writing three pages of free form journaling, a la Julia Cameron, exercising (walking and the 5 Tibetan Rites for balance) and making art in one form or another. She says this will strengthen my self esteem muscles and gradually build confidence.

I tried to come up with a visual for the way I felt when I bottomed out after retirement. Are you ready? It’s not pretty. I felt like a turtle without a shell - naked, wrinkly, with big, panicked eyes the size of saucers. And now I’m having to rebuild a shell with self-esteem from ME. I hope it’s prettier than the old one. What am I saying, of COURSE it will be prettier - I’m an artist now!

Here’s my art effort from yesterday. I did a quick, 10 minute gray scale of a photograph I want to paint. I love gray scale. So dramatic, so easy, so sketchy, not a lot of expectations. And it taught me a LOT.

You don’t ever want to have a horizon line in the exact middle, splitting the picture. You want it low, to give you more sky, or high to give you more foreground. Don’t ask why, your eye just likes it better that way. Make your eye happy. I think mine is happiest if the horizon line is slightly lower than the center - which will also help me correct the size of the figures on the shore. They were a bit too small in the gray scale drawing.

And the boats are a bit too large. I will have to figure out a way to make that little fisherman on the left not quite so ‘MAN OVERBOARD!’ in the final product.

The other thing you’re checking is to see if the composition is dramatic. Definitely! I think this will be fun to paint.

Today, I’m counting finishing a quilt top as my art. My first quilt top, red letter moment. I was flat out all day with quilting and multiple Zooms, so I think this creative endeavor will suffice, I’m too tired to sketch. My baby is destined for the children’s ward at the local hospital. I hope the recipient loves it. (I’d love to keep it myself, but that would be churlish. What a great word, churlish. I’ll have to work that into an actual conversation soon.)

ANYWAY, on to the art. Or should that be, someone else’s art? I found this painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela and fell in love with it. Note the similarity to the gray scale and photo above. He does a lot with very simple strokes and not a lot of detail, yet still intensely atmospheric. Today, I’m just putting up his landscapes, but check back for the next post and his paintings based on Finnish folk tales.

Veduta di un Lago 1901

The biography is from Nordic Art Intelligence.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931) is one of the most important figures in Finnish art history. During his fifty-year career, he produced a rich and diverse oeuvre that ranges from painting and graphic arts to applied arts, such as textiles and furniture. Gallen-Kallela was a chronicler of Finnish life — the country’s people, myths, and landscape. He is especially remembered for his illustrations and paintings of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. At the same time, Gallen-Kallela was a cosmopolitan artist, who was profoundly interested in the latest ideas and influences within art and contributed towards their development. Axel Gallén officially adopted the Finnish form of his name, “Akseli Gallen-Kallela,” in 1907.

Lake Ruovesi in Winter

Gallen-Kallela studied at the Académie Julian and Atelier Cormon in Paris between 1884 and 1889, where he became part of a group of Nordic artists that included the Finnish artists Albert Edelfelt, Eero Järnefelt, and Emil Wikström, Norwegian artists Edvard Munch and Carl Dørnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg. In Paris, Gallen-Kallela painted urban vistas and depictions of the bohemian lifestyle of the fin de siècle. During his studies, the artist also spent long periods of time in his homeland and painted the rural landscape of Finland in a naturalistic style.

View Over A Lake At Sunset

Gallen-Kallela’s lifelong passion was the Kalevala — a collection of poems of Finnish folklore passed down through generations. In the summer of 1890, the artist, his fiancée Mary Gallén (née Slöör), and his Swedish colleague, Louis Sparre, journeyed to the songlands of the Kalevala: Kuhmo and Russian Karelia. This formative trip, which was both a honeymoon and an artistic mission, inspired and strengthened a Karelia-oriented cultural movement in Finland.

Gallen-Kallela was a tremendously versatile artist, who mastered several artistic methods and materials through his career. During the 1890s, the artist travelled to Berlin, London, and Florence, where he learned glass and fresco painting, and different printing techniques. From his studio in Ruovesi, Gallen-Kallela would further develop these methods and create the first modern Finnish graphic art.

Spring at Kalela

Between 1909 and 1910, Gallen-Kallela traveled with this family to British East Africa, now roughly the same territory as present-day Kenya. During two years in Africa, the artist painted almost two hundred Expressionist paintings. When he returned to Finland, Gallen-Kallela established his second studio in Espoo. The castle-like Tarvaspää was built in 1911–13. Gallen-Kallela’s next great journey took place between the years of 1923 and 1926, when he traveled to the United States. The artist and his family stayed in Chicago and then Taos, New Mexico, where he studied the art of the Native Americans. From the United States, Gallen-Kallela was once again drawn to the mythic tales of the Kalevala.

Gallen-Kallela’s career runs in parallel to some of the most pivotal moments of Finnish history. His lifetime marked the period of nation-building, which culminated in 1917 with the Finnish declaration of independence. Following the Finnish Civil War in 1918, Gallen-Kallela served as an adjutant for the regent Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and designed uniforms and medals for the independent Finnish army.

Lake Keitele

Akseli Gallen-Kallela impact upon Finnish culture cannot be overstated. To this day, Gallen-Kallela’s depictions of Finland’s landscape, people, and myths form a shared visual language for every Finn. The influence of the artist also extends beyond his country’s borders. Gallen-Kallela was recognized during his lifetime as a profoundly important figure, whose work was exhibited across Europe and North America. Knowledge of Gallen-Kallela’s life and oeuvre continues to grow as new audiences discover his work through exhibitions and scholarship.

There are some great photographs of Akseli in uniform, with an impressive, waxed moustache, but I like his self-portrait. If you didn’t know, in your brain you remain around thirty, no matter your age chronologically. I wonder if he felt the same dissonance seeing his face in the mirror at 60 that I do seeing a white haired lady with my eyes holding a quilt. Quite the brain scramble.