About Me

Welcome to my website! I am a visual artist from Mänttä-Vilppula, Finland.

My story with art began in lower secondary school in 1987, where I consistently received top marks in art class. After upper secondary school, I considered applying to the University of Art and Design Helsinki. However, the odds of being accepted felt uncertain—I’ve never been able to draw well, and I have red-green color vision deficiency. Still, my art teacher encouraged me, reminding me that even some of the great painters, like Vincent van Gogh, were colorblind. In the end, I chose to apply to Tampere University of Technology—and was accepted.

My major at Tampere University of Technology was paper converting technology, which covered graphic technology: handling originals, printing theory, printing methods, and printing inks. I have spent my professional career in the software industry, touching on graphics. During my studies, I had a one-man advertising agency; I designed newspaper ads and websites. Additionally, I volunteered to layout a sports club's magazine for almost 10 years.

A New Beginning

In 2019, I began painting with acrylics. I hadn’t created a proper artwork in over 25 years and wanted to see if I could still do anything. I concluded that I couldn’t. I tried again in autumn 2023 and came to the same conclusion: it just wasn’t working. In December 2023, after clearing a backlog at my day job, I experimented with creating paintings using a graphic design program on my computer. To my surprise, digital graphic art started flowing almost like from an assembly line. During the winter of 2023–2024, I created around 50 digital artworks. I noticed that my pieces kept getting better, and I even ended up creating a few works that I personally consider masterpieces.

In spring 2024, I returned to painting with acrylics. The results were much better than in 2019. I came up with a mixed media technique: I first paint a base layer with acrylics, then photograph the painting, and finish it digitally.

In summer 2024, I started painting postcard-sized works on cardboard. My mixed media technique remained otherwise the same. In spring 2025, I expanded it to include ink pens, watercolor pencils, and oil pastels. I now finalize my works digitally less and less. For example, Sweet Banana Bar is simply a photograph of the piece, and in Café de l'Amour I’ve only adjusted the color tone. That said, I’m not deliberately avoiding digital finishing—or digital art in general.

Examples of My Artworks