trees

My work here is meant to be about isolation - the setting is ideal for that, perfect for allowing ideas to germinate in seclusion. Of course, once the dust begins to settle, the loneliness is difficult to ignore. No matter how much music I play, no matter how many cups of tea I drink in big chairs looking out on the snowy forest, eventually everybody needs to get out.

The current population of my sketchbook

I have been fortunate in my contacts here, who have generously helped me in arranging a few outings in the coming days - a visit to the sauna, a Finnish language lesson, and a trip to visit outsider artist Tapio Autio - more on these adventures next week. It does help to plan things out; it staves off the feeling that when left utterly alone, we [or perhaps just I] automatically devolve into uncivilization.

Maybe it has just been a slow few days, artistically. One of my favorite films is A Midwinter's Tale, in which Julia Sawalha's character discusses the role of making art in life; she calls it nourishing your soul. Simple though it sounds, this is an idea that resonated with me instantly. Maybe I need to change perspective, get in a new head space, try a therapeutic approach to banishing creative stagnation - so I am just going to force myself to draw, no matter how terrible or off-theme the result.

Beginning to draw something like trees [feet for scale]

I stepped away from purely figurative work to sketch the trees. The Scots pines and birches that make up southern Ostrobothnian forests are slender, almost ghostly, and incredibly tall. The trunks are dark brown at the base, turning orange midway up. I do not know whether light, weather or something else effects this phenomenon. It is a distinctive look, especially when the weather blankets everything else in white. Walking back from the Nelimarkka-Museo yesterday, I took a few reference photos and proceeded to go outside my comfort zone.

Yellow gouache had a nice effect at the base of the trunks

Since a few of these studies have been fun [and different], I have put some thought into incorporating trees into my body of work here. While my intent was not originally location specific, I do not want to leave here in a month with no reference to contextualize my work. Sometimes I feel like I will never escape cliché, even now I am struggling to reconcile this subject matter - the forest is a pretty trite metaphor for psychological conflict and its outward manifestations - but luckily no one is around to watch me mime vomiting.

Time will tell what will come of these new territories. Next week looks like an upturn for mental health, and until then I'll see what I can mine from the solitude.

Blending ideas...