Helsinki - First Batch
Portraits made between dark winters and never ending summer days. Before I moved to Finland I had more than one year break from painting, as I was working and traveling in Australia and Asia. As I value long breaks as they give you the ability to think more “straight” and exit your comfort zone, so that one can create and develop a new style, I transitioned from a cartoonist, surrealistic style to a more traditional portrait style. Finland has very long and dark winters. Very goddamn long. I think the perhaps the dark, monochromatic tone of the weather gave some aid for tones used in this paintings. I always tried to minimize the use of colors when doing most portraits, usually two/three top (depending on the painting).
