IIA JÄNNES- Paintings
26.1. – 13.2.2011

Press Release

An exhibition, which became different, but the contents remain the same

This exhibition became actually very different from the one I was originally planning to build up.

The hiking trip last summer appeared to be fatal; I slipped on a cliff and broke my wrist. I had my right hand in a cast for nearly two months and I could not paint, and could not for a long time afterwards. I was not able to stretch on canvas...Fortunately I had a few oil paintings nearly ready.

I have a habit of doing sketches for my bigger paintings. Mostly I use oil pastells, which as a medium has become natural and familiar to me. The sketches were definitely my secrets, with the exception of my daughter, to whom I sometimes have shown them. She was the one who suggested: “Paint the whole exhibition full of pastell paintings...”

Whatever technique I use, the contents of my works remain the same. Light, silence, peace, the immaterial, these are the ingredients of my art. A painting is primarily a state of emotion, which does not refer to anything concrete. Also my little pastell works are born slowly layer by layer through meditation, just the same way as my big oil paintings.

Iia Jännes