Right now I feel very fortunate to have a network of Estonian friends and relatives with whom to speak and write emails in my Mother tongue. This is immensely beneficial for my upcoming trip to the “Estonian Artists in Exile” to which I have the honour of being invited. The exhibition opens in Tallinn, Eesti in September, travelling to Tartu in spring of 2011.

 Since my parents and most of their friends have passed away, it is not easy to find Estonian speaking people in the small Estonian community here in Vancouver. I find that my “kitchen” Estonian is unsophisticated in a more cultured environment.

 The Estonian language is quite poetic. The words can be juxtaposed in almost any order in a sentence and still come out meaning almost the same. 

I have an English version of visual poetry with paintings and letters on www.latatara.org , an online exhibition out of New York. The invitation came from a long time Estonian friend, Helgi Leesmet, who keeps me posted on art events from time to time. I’m also thankful to all the other Estonian connections in Vancouver, Toronto and Estonia for keeping me up to date on current cultural events.

Right now I’m painting grasses, brush, autumn trees and waterways. I have an enormous collection of reference photos from which I get ideas to paint. (I carry my camera with me wherever I go, just in case something inspires me).

Most of my recent Acrylic paintings are on 18 x 24” canvas. That seems to be the right fit for the landscapes.

The painting goes something like this:

I select a photo or two, make compositional adjustments on my computer, do a little black and white thumbnail sketch in my sketch book to establish values (light and dark), followed by a rough (very rough) sketch on the canvas with chalk.

But first the canvas is primed with 2 coats of a mixture of exterior latex, Acrylic paint and Gesso. When this is dry, I paint the canvas with an “under paint” in a mid value. This enables me to go darker or lighter, painting the darks first followed by the lights.

So, here I am, enthusiastically painting away, listening to mostly Mozart until I get to more than three quarters of the way through, and then, BOOM, I get stuck!

This is when I place the painting upside down for a few days on the “viewing easel” until I see what to do to complete it.

The next crucial moment is when to quit as it’s so easy to keep going back to fix things.

This is my first Blog!  It's kind of like a diary of what I'm up to. So here goes.
The year began with a few group shows.  The first one was at the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove, where I showed "High Expectations". I am currently showing "Sunlit Meadow" at Mission Arts Council and a couple of architectual paintings at the Federation of Canadian Artists ( FCA) Student show on Granville Island, Vancouver, city of the 2010 Olympics.  The student show is of works by artists who have taken workshops from the FCA during 2009.  I happen to be lucky to take a workshop from Mike Svob and Robert Genn!
Right now I'm excitedly painting new Acrylic paintings from reference photos taken over the fall and winter - two of my favourite seasons. Yes, even in rainy Vancouver.
I find that the rain accentuates the true shapes and colours in nature.  The winter also creates more drama.