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Peony and Parakeet

Fly to Your Inner World and Color the Emotion

markers

Art Nouveau Houseplants

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet

I love my houseplants and many of them appear in this collage. Its style is a mix of art nouveau and the 1960s. It is the result of staring some art nouveau tiles and the works of Birger Kaipiainen. Namely, not too long time ago I went to see Birger Kaipiainen’s exhibition in Espoo, Finland.

Paivi and Birger Kaipiainen's plate

This decorative plate was one of my favorites. I love the way the artist used textured surfaces to show off the details. And I have always loved ceramics, one of the favorite materials that I like to think of when making art. I am constantly inspired by materials and I try to imitate them by using inks, markers, and other supplies.

Creative Process

I took some photos of the phases when making the collage.

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet, phase 1

I began with india inks.

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet, phase 2

Then I randomly added some cut pieces of hand decorated papers. In the beginning, I work very systematically but for a while, I start to get impatient.

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet, phase 3

I have reached the point where I want to do something crazy. This time I just made a mess with a correction pen!

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet, phase 4

I added collage pieces and doodled with markers. Then I decided to add black acrylics to add contrasts. Looks pretty awful but I do not mind. It always looks terrible at this point.

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a collage by Peony and Parakeet, phase 5

India ink looks great over white doodles.

Art Nouveau Houseplants, a detail of the collage by Peony and Parakeet

Here’s a detail of the finished work. I love to use thin markers, it is like sharpening a blurry image!

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Finding Your Identity

Glass Gate, an art journal page

I am often unable to put my thoughts into words before I see them as a visual image. When creating this art journal page spread I had a strong feeling, a specific set of colors and a visual sketch in my mind. When I transfered the image to paper it became easier to catch the words that I was chasing: The Glass Gate.

Glass Gate, an art journal page, a detailFinding what you are and what makes you happy is like traveling in the fog. You see things that you are drawn to. Often they do not seem to make sense. Once you spend enough time for searching it becomes more and more clear that all those things do have a connection. There’s something what you’ve made for. You only have to find this glass gate, standing in the fog. You pass by it, you are so close, you just don’t know it. Once you see it, it’s all so obvious. The gate is huge and the pilars are shining. You can walk through and it’s not a big task at all.

I strongly believe in this. By listening yourself and analyzing things around you, you will find your own style, your own mission and your true identity. It might be a journey that takes the whole life but once you are on a right track it feels so good.

For me one mystery has been the watercolor paper. I have always loved it but never really cared for painting watercolor landscapes or still lives. Now, when I began to used it as the foundation of my art journaling, I feel more free than ever when creating images. A very small little detail, not even very philosophical, but it has made a big difference for me.

Combining Acrylics with Watercolors in Art Journaling

Art journal page, house and garden

This summer has been sunny and warm in Finland. It has been great to spend time outdoors, gardening! Our garden is still work in progress. I think about it constantly. And it shows here in this art journal page, as well as the hot summer days!

Art journal page, house and garden, a detail

I love the combination of acrylics and watercolors. They make a great background. Start with the acrylics, leave some unpainted areas and the add watercolor to them.

I continued by adding some handdrawn papers and wrote: “For someone this would be only a house and a garden but for us it’s the whole world.

Coming up in Espoo, Finland: art journaling courses by Peony and Parakeet (in Finnish). The first evening (19th September) is about creating pages about landscapes and places!

Art Journaling Doilies

Art journaling doilies

I haven’t ever been brilliant with watercolors but I have grown to like them very much. Recently I have used them more and more in art journaling. On this page I have used just watercolors, color pencils and markers.

Art journaling doilies

This page tells a story and that’s something I want to increase too: add more text and content to my pages. Here I write about how as a small child I wanted to learn how to crochet. I thought it is a part of good parenting to teach the child to crochet as young as possible! As soon as I learned it I was crocheting like crazy: doll clothes, doilies, clothes, valence curtains … I was the crocheting queen until I started dating and my boyfriend took me to see his family’s summer cottage.

All the textiles in that log cabin were crocheted! Full-sized curtains, bed covers, cushions, table cloths, you name it! His grandmother had done all that. I was speachless. When I met her she told me that a doctor had told her not to crochet anymore as her hands hurt. But as she wanted to do something she had started to learn printing fabric.

The relationship with the boy did not last and the grandmother must have been passed away already but now I know that you do not need to hold the hook to crochet. You can use your pen!

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