About Birds and Art
This week is about observing birds and bringing them into our art.
These are from my online classes Animal Inkdom and Magical Inkdom.
Let’s start with a lonely budgie.
Last fall, the same sight always awaited me in the mornings – a lonely budgie in a big cage. The door was open, and I turned on the full-spectrum bird lamp, but nothing cheered her up. Ever since Primavera’s husband Leonardo had died unexpectedly, her world had been empty, and even the best YouTube budgies couldn’t fill it.
I have had budgies since 1991. My first budgie, Piuku, was also alone at first. Unlike 5-year-old Primavera, Piuku was a young bird. She adapted to being alone by taking me as her best friend. Later on, Piuku got other birds as companions.
Birds Bring Joy
The most enviable quality of birds is their ability to fly, but the more you get to know birds, the more you realize that their social life is very lively. A small flock of a few budgies can be like a soap opera. There will be arguments, gusts of affection, gossip, singing sessions, and all kinds of fun play. This way, the day flies by!
I have admired birds since swallows made their nest in the eaves of my childhood home. There were many other birds in the big yard too. I had bird books, and I dreamed about seeing kingfishers and other exotic birds.
Similarly, as wild birds make you look up, pet birds bring lightness to the home. Their vocals are clear and the flight sounds lighten the atmosphere. It is as if the world is not only lying down but also up in the air.
Birds and Flowers
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial career in 2008, I founded an Etsy shop to sell crafts and named it Kukkilintu.
Kukkilintu is a Karelian embroidered bird pattern that symbolizes happiness.
Karelia is a place in Eastern Finland, a part of it was lost in the war with Russia in 1940. I live in Southern Finland but was born in Northern Karelia.
Karelian people believed that the soul leaves the body in the form of a bird. Kukkilintu is a bit like the Finnish version of the peacock, which appears in the designs of other countries with the same meaning.
I thought the name “kukkilintu” was funny because it had the words “kukka” and “lintu” – “flower” and “bird.” When I was thinking about a name for my art blog a couple of years later in 2010, I thought that the flower could be a peony and the bird a budgie, so, a parakeet.
These two themes “flower” and “bird” have guided my creative process. I have wanted to learn the language of flowers and create beauty in the world, but also understand the life of birds and include their movement. Birds, flowers, and art belong together.
However, recently in my everyday life, it happened that the more I delved into the flowers, the more time they took away from the birds. I didn’t want to keep pet birds anymore, but felt that watching wild birds would be enough.
Magical Scene
Outdoors, one scene is above the rest – when a bird flies across the scenery. The bird then becomes kukkilintu – a flower bird. It takes over the landscape and erases all the sadness.
I came up with this when I was grieving the death of one of my dogs. Since then this very ordinary event has made me happy. It’s a message from the world that we always have inside of us, but that we don’t always remember, especially when we’re like a lonely budgie that has a hard time seeing ahead in life.
We must believe in our abilities, and happy endings as well. I found a new home for Primavera, where it has a spouse who was also widowed. I wish Primavera a long life. After all, it already has a long-lived name-sake, the famous painting by Botticelli born in the 15th century, which I have been to Florence to admire.
Do birds appear in your art?
Inspiring Art Journals
This week is dedicated to inspiring art journals that hopefully make you start creating right away.
Towards the end of last year, I started to really miss drawing. When I want to come up with ideas, I need a pen and paper! Or maybe I should say that I need my art journals because that’s where the ideas stay in good order.
I made this spread in my colored pencil journal. 2023 is an old romantic woman that is going away and a young girl who is ready for adventure will take her place.
There are only a few pages after the previous year’s spread.
I hope to make more pages in this colored pencil journal this year.
Inspiring Art Journals
This week, I picked up random art journal books and browsed them. I especially love the one in the upper left corner with the black and white drawings the most.
The drawings have no color but they are all full of ideas that still inspire me.
I now want to add ink drawings to my colored pencil journal as well.
Tiny Pages
Last year I bought a very small art journal. This is a pretty cute page!
All the reds and pinks looked very nice together.
Years go by and my skills grow, but even the clumsiest covers still seem to fit with the new creations.
Doodler’s Resort
While browsing the journals, I found a spread with a transparent film in the middle. I had printed doodles on it and I still quite like the effect. This idea is from 2020, when the world stopped and I couldn’t do anything but mindless doodling.
This art journal also has a lovely inside cover.
Divide the Content!
I don’t understand why it took so long before I realized that I could add annual pages, inside covers, chapters, and other pages telling about the content of the book in art journals.
Nowadays, I have a course called Fun Botanicum, where you make a chapter cover, themed pages, and an end page in the middle of an art journal.
Inspiring Art Journals Tell About Time
It was fun to look at old art journals and wonder how these are connected to everything that is going on now.
Time is a mysterious place. It is like an illuminated palace that blinds us. We can only walk away from it to the darkness. But as long as we are alive, we can start the adventure and get creative. “It takes a long time to become young,” said Pablo Picasso.
In my opinion, only by drawing can we know what we really think. The more you draw, the more your skills grow, and the more you will find out!
Do you agree?
Beautiful Blog Post
This week is about creating beauty, and I have a beautiful blog post for you.
Violets on an Adventure
Ten years ago, an old yard tiling gave us a surprise. Renovating it had been on our to-do list, but there had been other things to do in the house. But we were lucky.
The violets planted in the pot had looked at the tiling and its gaps with completely different eyes. What an opportunity for seeds! So, the following year, we were able to enjoy the glory of flowers in the surprising place.
Creativity is a flower that wants to break free from its pot and get on an adventure. Abundance is allowed and ugliness can enable beauty.
A painting that starts with a few ugly brushstrokes can be decorated
to rich and beautiful.
Beautiful Decodashery
My online class Decodashery is about creating beauty that easily finds its purpose. This kind of art is not just fun to make but perfect for cards and gifts.
Decodashery is one of my personal favorites. The videos are inspiringly colorful and uplifting. You play with the tradition of decorative art and create beauty that people have always found attractive. >> Buy here!
Paint Beautiful Decorative Flowers!
This week, we create stylized beauty. You will see how I painted these beautiful decorative flowers.
Time for Some Happy Art!
At least here in Finland, May-June is a time for parties. There are school graduations and then Midsummer at the end of June, which is celebrated not only by people but by Finnish nature too. Days are long and the deep sleeps during the dark winter are now coming into use. If different art forms had seasons, this uplifting time would be dedicated to decorative painting. Beautiful decorative flowers and other curvy motifs go well with the celebrations.
Decorative art is happy art for most people. Its tradition extends all over the world and it only requires a little sensitivity to beauty from the viewer.
Uplifting Art-Making
Three years ago, when the Corona lockdowns started, I buried myself in decorative painting. I made decorative collages from hand-painted papers and practiced decorative painting techniques.
These curvy forms and lines are still present in my paintings, where decorativeness is mixed with a more dynamic and abstract expression.
Painting in a decorative style is fun. A few thoughtful brushstrokes create beauty, and even a beginner’s work looks great when viewed from a far enough distance. Over time, the brush mark improves and has an effect on all drawing and painting, even handwriting. And it’s the perfect style for cards and gifts!
Starting a Decorative Painting
As I watched the blossoms in apple trees, I felt like painting something small and nice to celebrate the beginning of the blooming season.
I took out my black Dylusions Creative Journal and acrylic paints and painted the background very dark blue. Then I made leaves on top of each other, and so that they get lighter layer by layer.
At the same time, I watched the videos of my course Decodashery.
Decodashery – Painting Techniques for Vintage Flowers and More
I still like this course a lot. Decodashery is beautiful, inspiring, and detailed in its instructions. It is also full of ideas. When the Corona lockdown was on, I had plenty of time to experiment with decorative painting and make more examples than usual. This course is for watercolors, gouache, and acrylic paints. You can choose what you want – most of the decorative techniques suit all of them.
Beautiful Decorative Flowers in Two Parts
At first, I thought about making two separate paintings for this post but then decided to make one work in two parts. The first part is simple and stylized and the second part is more creative. In this first part, I used quite raw colors: mainly ultramarine blue and white. I also mixed some brown umber with them.
To highlight the decorative theme, I painted some parts with silver acrylic paint.
Finally, I added some Sienna brown and turquoise (manganese blue hue) to bring warmth to the details.
Now the first part is finished. The flowers that are only partly visible give the impression of continuous space.
Beautiful Decorative Flowers – The Second Part
In the second part, I wanted to bring more depth and warmth to the work. So I spread a thin layer of yellow-green color over the painting.
I used glazing gloss as a thinner here, but you can also try to thin the paint with water.
Immediately after application, I removed the excess paint by rubbing the surface with a cotton cloth. The thin color wash warms the tones of the whole painting.
After the color wash, the painting is a bit hazy. Next, I added more details and brought some of them back up from the lower layers. This sharpens the best parts.
I had lots of tubes on the table but only used a few. Decorative painting encourages making a variety of tones by adjusting the lightness and darkness of color instead of always changing the actual color.
Happy for the Artist, Happy for the Viewer
There were moments of joy that only decorative painting can give me while making the page. This style feeds gentleness and peace. And even if the pleasures of the decorative painting process are only experienced by the painter, the decorative painting leads to results that are extrovertedly joyous, ready to brighten up anyone’s day.
Decodashery online course – Paint vintage beauty – Buy Now!