Today Anna Emilia Saw

Good Monday morning friends. I have a two week break from my university course and I'm hoping to be around here during that time. I couldn't think of a better way to start the week. What a treat we have today! The wonderful Anna Emilia has kindly answered my many questions and drawn the most beautiful postcard for us. Every time I read Anna Emilia's blog I find myself imagining atmospheric scenes of nature. She has the ability to completely transport her readers to another world through both her paintings and her words. I'm so very pleased that Anna Emilia has taken the time to answer questions and paint a postcard. Thank you Anna Emilia!

Anna Emilia, please tell us about your postcard and what you have chosen to draw? Today I traveled by train from a small weekend trip and on the way I saw how the weather had changed the landscape while I was away. The snow was going away. There was some green grass on a field that was on a hill and a lot of streams of melted snow. Whiskers of the sun, as I like to call the sun rays, were tickling everything.

And, have you decided who you will be sending it to? It will be traveling to a dear friend in Edinburgh.

Please think of a journey that you take often. It can be long or short. What do you see on that journey? It is the way from my grandparents´ to a small forest pond. It is a small path in the forest, the most soft moss and pine tree needles are covering it. Curvy and high pine tree roots are making it a bit challenging. On both sides there are growing the sweetest blueberries. A cuckoo is singing in a tree.

One of my favourite things about reading your blog Anna Emilia, is that your words and images transport me to an atmospheric imagined world. Can you tell us what you see that inspires you to create this world for your readers? Thank you dearly Jill. As I call it "a small weather diary", I like to think it as a collection of different kinds of weathers. For me weather is something that is around everything in this world and that way the weather knows everything about this world. Through weather I try to find some of those stories happening in this world. If someone enjoys them with me, I am very happy.

Please describe the view from a window in your home. Behind my window is now a dark night, but in that darkness is a small lake, which is still frozen. Behind the lake is the town: it´s chimneys and towers. There is a wide starry sky and the rest of the whole universe behind that.

I often carry a notebook and pen with me, to take note of any interesting sights I see. Do you have any particular materials that you always take with you? There were times that I always kept a sketchbook and pens with me and we even went to draw together to coffee houses with a friend. Lately I have marked everything interesting into my mind. It might work better for me to carry thoughts longer in my mind and just before starting to work with a real painting I draw a sketch quickly on paper. Sometimes I just start to paint. But still I do carry always a pen with me just in case.

Whilst arranging this little ‘interview’ you mentioned that you were staying up late painting. Can you tell us about when you paint, do you make special time to paint each day? In the mornings is the best time to paint for me. Just now that it is spring, I feel more inspired. That evening I had heard a blackbird singing for the first time. Nothing is better than a bird singing behind your open balcony door during night. If they are working eagerly with their songs, then I love to work with my paintings too.

Could you describe some things you see every day that you feel are important to you and your life? Everything that happens in nature. It is lovely to observe small changes and how powerful things can happen with so little things like seeds or a few raindrops.

Weather and seasons play an important role in your work, can you tell us a little bit about why weather is so important to you? Perhaps how your environment changes through the seasons? My parents are farmers, so I grew up with the nature and the weather around me. In Finland the weather is not that gentle if one is cultivating strawberries, and most of my childhood memories are connected with the weather (and strawberries). I love to feel the nature around me, it is almost like a never ending story to read from a book. This year the winter was a long and cold one as in most of the Europe. But there are small flowers already even not all the snow left yet. This time of the year I wait eagerly that the grass grows and I can go to have small afternoon breaks in the botanical garden, to read or draw on the grass.

Please tell us what you see in the morning once you've got up. It is a tree that I have drawn with a ballpoint pen once in Iceland.

Please tell us one thing you saw recently which stayed in your memory. A woodpecker was making a hole in an alder tree some weeks ago on my afternoon walk. There I was watching him working, his only tool being his own beak. It made me to remember how good a simple and calm life is.

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Thank you so much Anna Emilia. You answers were so enjoyable to read. I always feel a calmness after reading your words and looking at your pictures. Thank you for taking the time to join us here.