Miia Änäkkälä
Yellow Mountain – paintings
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
9.7.-27.7.2014
My paintings are square-shaped watercolor paintings in which I often use a couple of colors or just one color. My paintings explore the boundaries of abstract and figurative art. My paintings combine planned compositions with automatic painting. I contemplate how open or fragmented a picture can be before it can no longer be considered figurative art.
My paintings start from a rhythm and composition. I often start painting without a theme. When I paint, I just try to follow the trail of paint without rationalizing the content. As the work progresses, random lines become organized on the surface and finally form a recognizable image.
I start my paintings by creating composition points on the paper and continue painting around them. I focus on the detail, ignoring the overall picture. I paint different details this way as long as possible without looking at the overall picture. The patterns are created while painting and they also change. Some pattern ideas are repeated. At some point, I will then examine the overall picture and begin combining the details with each other.
The theme will also appear at some point. The theme can turn out to be, for example, water. I am trying to see the theme as an area that I will fill with patterns without the patterns actually referring to the metaphor of water or trying to strengthen realism. Random surface and theme combinations may introduce levels that even the artist can only understand at the end. From the world of free form rises a mountain and from the mountain, human figures merge with each other and turn into water.
The starting point can also be, for example, a drawing of a mountain and I then begin to create patterns around it to fill the surface. Repeated line drawings act as the letters of pictorial language and tell about the world of the painting. I also refer to this line drawing technique as an embroidery technique due to its slowness.
I progress intuitively, which ensures that the freedom to think remains and the surprises and illogical aspects work. I often leave the background shape visible, so in a way I see the shapes as shadows. A picture is being born, taking shape or dying or just wearing out. By this I refer to the creation of an idea in one’s mind. I am interested in this moment of insight, the moment of creation. You are about to reach something, but you don’t know the entire truth yet. At this point everything is still possible.
manakkala(at)hotmail.com
p. 044-5888083
