By the mountain lake

I will talk a little about one of my last oilpaintings born at the beginning of 2024, which I named “By the mountain lake”

Of course, we could talk more about the relationship between the paintings and their titles. This is always a bit of a problem for me personally. Sometimes giving a name to a painting is easy and the title even seems to be the only option, but often enough it is just the opposite. 

It has become a tradition that every child has a name, and of course it is also a practical matter. Who would bother memorizing everything, for example, according to the numbers in the order of birth.

The painting in question was named after the principle – less is more. Because the characters, forms and colors of the work were quite varied, the name arose from the central landscape image of the painting – a portrait of a meditating man against a mountain lake.

I actually don’t really like to explain the the subjects of paintings very much, and that’s why all the titles seem a bit redundant.

If my usual painting practice has always been, so to speak, from the central image towards the sides, here things went in the opposite direction.

First, the surrounding less important figures were born during the plywood burning practice, and only then did the central balancing and summarizing core of the painting begin to emerge.

I have to mention again in this article how excited I am about the new possibilities I discovered for myself when I started using the burning technique. hurray!

Since I myself have been experimenting with various meditation practices for many years and am deeply interested in the deepest secrets of consciousness, so the characters meditating and reflecting on life are also natural guests in my paintings.

As difficult as it is to talk about the experience of meditation, it is also difficult to put it into language of painting. Besides, every experience tends to be different. One thing is certain, that anyone who has tried to observe the mind will very quickly meet personal “demons”. “Demon” is, of course, a figurative word. A corresponding non-religious term could be “mental noise” or “compulsive thinking”.

The public response to the painting in question has been very impressive. It seems that no one is left cold “By the mountain lake” – which is of course a good thing. I really appreciate the feedback I receive on my art and I always observe with great interest the self-reflections of viewers standing in front of the works.

The painting is currently exhibited in the personal exhibition PuuSüü in the Tartu Art House Estonia