Voice of Colour – Colours of the Voice III

art, recent work





Another three days passed. Each morning, the workshop started out by a quiet walk through the garden, followed by individual work on some chosen spots. Small sketches on paper transform into large collective paintings on silk screens, some placed outdoors and some in the music room.
The see!colour! exhibitions provides us with an excellent pedagogical instrument; within a few steps’ reach, we could meet the distinctive approaches of Hilma af Klint’s esoteric painting as well as the blackboard drawings of Rudolf Steiner.
On midsummer night’s eve, we spent a full two hours sitting or lying down in James Turrell’s Skyspace; experiencing a kind of illusionistic light-space where an opening above us turned into a floating coloured body, and the blue of the sky changed in turns into yellow, green or grey.
Thanks to Eva-Karin Planman, we could also bathe ourselves – morning and afternoon – in the living light of two stained glass windows at the nearby Vidar clinic; one green from iron, the other rose-purple from pure gold.


all photos by HHW.

Voice of Colour – Colours of the Voice II

art, recent work

Here we go – despite Sinikka’s falling ill, the workshop takes place more or less as planned.

We started out by a walk in the garden park in Ytterjärna, stopping by the different characteristic spaces – or ‘rooms’, even; the hilltop, the little islets in the system of ponds, the seashore and the rosegarden… finally ending up in Almandinen music room for tea and talk.
And then some basic colour exercises: collective painting with crayons on paper, where the materials and creative process itself  play the leading part – and our different  temperaments disclose themselves.
To finish, one participant suggested that we improvise singing in a similar way. And so we did.

I really look forward to see where the group will take this workshop…

Voice of Colour – Colours of the Voice

art, beauty, recent work

light falling through painted silk screens; photo by HHW.

And today is the grand opening day for see!colour! – a multiple exhibition in Järna with works by James Turrell, Hilma af Klint and Rudolf Steiner, along with colour experiments in the spirit of Goethe – all surrounded by Ytterjärna garden park by the Baltic Sea.

The four parallell exhibitions and the living light and spaces of the garden offer a range of experiences. I am very happy to be a part of this event; together with singer Sinikka Mikkola, I will stage two workshops where listening is the artistic core – Voice of Colour /Colours of the Voice; one at Midsummer, June 23 – 26, and one by the end of September.

Sinikka is a long-time experienced Werbeck singer and pedagogue. As for myself, I have carried out artistic works in different social settings since the mid ’90s – since 2007 documented on this website. Both of us aim to practise a listening mode in our professional fields, something we wish to develop further by this joint workshop.
In the mornings, we will practise to uncover the fullness of voice, individually and as a group. In the afternoons, we will explore the life of colours perceived through the personal temperaments, painting outdoors on large silk screens in the garden. For the evenings, there will be time for reflections and the deepening of artistic themes as well as for improvisational vocal music.

Interested to join?
Leave a comment below, and we’ll contact you for further information. Welcome!


calling Apollo; installation in Ytterjärna garden park 2008; HHW.

LICHTWECHSEL XV

art, beauty, recent work


light and shadows in the corridor; photos by HHW.

For three weeks, The Åbo Akademi University Business School became an art gallery: its walls mirroring an artistic journey through Europe, captured encounters of light, places and people.
The LICHTWECHSEL exhibition closed in April, but some of the works – among them Erika Lojen’s Das Licht das Ich Suche – will stay. And so will the memories, for all of us who were part of the process. Art comes to life in our minds, it is there whenever we recall it.

LICHTWECHSEL XIV

art, beauty, recent work

Orchestra rehearsal in Auditorium I; all photos by HHW.

In Auditorium I, the Academic Orchestra is rehearsing under Das Licht das Ich Suche – a photo series composed for this space by Erika Lojen.
The River, a piece by Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, searches its way through Sunday morning hours; begins, then halts to take another direction and unfold anew, over and over. As day turns towards afternoon, sun reaches in through large windows and the orchestra tunes their instruments for Claude Debussy’s La Mer.