Ever since I restarted this blogging, many of you have been fascinated by the various stages of the art created by Annikki that have appeared on my blogs.
To show you the various stages she went through I thought that I would do a series of blog entries which focuses on some of the more distinct phases of her art.
She was a born artist and could gauge perspective by just looking at someone or something. She is horrible in mathematics so she said she was like a cat which never misses a jump from one point to another.
Her art in the art school in London concentrated on drawing of models who posed for the class.
Here are some examples of that period. All the art were pencil sketches
Annikki’s London Art School Class -1964
The first crayon work she did was the house that I lived in in London. I had left for a holiday in the South of France with my friends. Annikki had finished her studies in London and was going to Germany. She stayed in my place till she left. Sitting in the back garden she made a chalk drawing of the back of my home.
7 Woodchurch Road, West Hampstead, London
In Germany, she did not do much art as she was concentrating on her skills of learning the German language. As she was looking after the three children of the Count and Countess von Schweiniz near Dusseldorf, she picked up German very quickly from them. (The Count was a heart specialist and one of his patients was the ex-Maharaja of Mysore who used to travel to London to consukt him.)
After Germany Annikki returned to Finland for a operiod and here she did some more pencil drawings and she did a duplicate using crayons.
Finnish forests 1965
When we got married and moved to a small house in Shawbury (near Birmingham) near my research centre, she did get time to do a couple of sketches of me, and our eldest daughter, Susanna, with me.
Me - 1967
Susanna with me - 1969
When we moved to India, although looking after four children. Annikki continued her art with pencil, crayon and her most famous work, a combination of appliqué and embroidery with wool, she made for my mother, Zebras on cloth!
Our Indian antiques
Daughter Susanna
Self portrait of Annikki with youngest son, Mika
My mother
Daughter Joanna
Ramnagaram hills
Embroidered appliqué Zebras which took Annikki 7 months to make for my mother in Bangalore in 1979.
When we returned to Finland, Annikki did a special set of paintings of flora and one of Mother Teresa for a talk I was doing about India to the English Club of Oulu in 1984.
Mother Teresa (1984)
She continued still life paintings whenever she got time from her many other activities.
When Annikki started showing signs of dementia in 2016, our elder daughter, Susanna visited her and tried to resurrect her atmosphere that Annikki would restart her art.
The art was still there but it was difficult for her to concentrate as can be seen from some of what she did with Susanna
The skill of an artist never goes away, even with dementia , but unfortunately she cannot concentrate for any length of time any more.
I thank our dear Lord for giving me such a beautiful collection of her art to live with us.
Annikki only sold just one of her art works, and even till today I regret having parted with it!
Part 2 of this series will highlight Annikki's creative designer of house interiors.
