Artist bio

I was born in 1955 in Tampere, Finland. The road I travelled to become a painter who makes salvation visible for the church has been a long one. It started when I was 9 years old. I come from a non-believing home. On my own I began to visit services in the Lutheran church near our home on Sunday mornings. I was impressed by the services, but even more so by the paintings and stained-glass windows. God put a seed of faith into my child’s heart, yet it took about 20 years before I got to know Jesus as my Saviour. This happened while I was studying art in Germany, just before my graduation. After moving back to Finland I worked as an art teacher, art therapist and painter. In 1999 I was given a grant to travel to Florence in Italy to study ecclesiastical art and theology for some months. Just before I set off, I had lost all my near relatives in a very short time. In the middle of deep sorrow and alone in a foreign country my only comfort and consolation were the paintings in the churches and convents that described Christ’s suffering and salvation. This is when I wanted to become a painter who makes visible God’s creation and salvation. To do so, I want to base my paintings on God’s Word. Also the tradition of images of the church – the inheritance of all Christians – is important to me. Recently I am also studying Jewish history and the art of the synagogue as I want to understand Jesus’ background as a Jew. I have been given the opportunity to paint several altar pieces for churches in Finland after winning some competitions. To paint to God’s glory has become my inner calling and vocation. I try to make his Word and mercy visible in the middle of this modern world, where we are surrounded by so many pictures that do not honour him. I teach and lecture about early to contemporary Christian art in various Christian schools and churches (my heart is ecumenical, even though I belong to a Lutheran church). I live and work in Tampere, Finland. About my work: For me painting is like breathing and a necessary part of self-reflection. I cannot exist without it. Painting helps me to process life’s realities, its cruelty and beauty. The painting process often springs from a challenge to solve a problem or the quest to find an answer to a question. It can also be a way to thank and praise the Lord for his merciful love and creation. My pictorial language is based on colour and light and fragmented colour surfaces, especially in the large wall paintings with cosmic blue underwater scenes. In my landscapes my brush work often transforms into pointillism. My own experience of life is expressed in the way I treat pictorial surfaces: the boundary line between life and transcendence is not sharp and clear, it is fragile and transparent. I wanted to express the reality of nature in my northern home country, where the winter and especially the long and cold polar night time last so long. The wild wolf in the painting is not just a romantic, symbolic figure. Wolves are on the increase in Finland. The wolf also symbolizes extreme loneliness, which is based on my own experiences in life. The painting has a simple style and composition and an extremely melancholic expression (with so much indigo blue). It is a personal portrait of my soul. However, the night is not completely dark: the stars are twinkling and pointing to God’s presence. Memberships: Finnish Painters`Union, www.painters.fi T ampere Artists´Association, www.tampereen-taiteilijaseura.fi CAF (Christian Artists of Finland) Finnish Art Therapy Association Exhibitions and collections: My works have been exhibited in many exhibits in Finland and abroad and they have found their way to many private and public collections in Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Japan and the USA. As to churches, they can be found in (among others) the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Tampere: Messukylä Church, Pispala Church, Chapel of Silence in University Hospital, Chapel of Silence in Viinikka Church, Cathedral Chapter of Tampere, congregational halls in Linnainmaa and Kaukajärvi; Hervanta Church, Ylöjärvi Congregation, Hämeenkyrö Church, Jyväskylä Church, Ikaalinen Church, Vantaa: Korso Church; Espoo: Leppävaara Church; Hämeenlinna: Church of penitentiary; Lieto: Home Church; Evangelical Institute Karkku; the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Kuopio and Lahti. Books: * Holy pictures - Salvation in Paintings (according the Lutheran church year), 192 pages, Publisher Kirjapaja, Helsinki, 2012 (www.kirjapaja.fi). * Lichterbögen-Hoffnung in tiefer Winterzeit, 2014, Heiner Labonde Verlag. * Lob der Schöpfung, Catalogue of my paintings, October 2014, Heiner Labonde Verlag. * Published in English: Praise of Creation. 2015

Title

By this sign, you are victorious 1

Medium/Genre

Painting

Artist Statement

The theme of competition is important and topical: The spiritual battle. The war in Ukraine, which started on the 24th of February, surprised us all. I spent many days just listening to the news, crying and wondering: How could this be still happening in Europe, in an almost neighboring country, after the Second World War and all that suffering?! It was comforting to be able to pray and start to think: how can I play a small part in supporting the suffering Ukrainian people? In these days I completed a painting called Wounded – The price of Freedom.

I have been studying a lot the about the picture heritage of the undived church from the first 1000 years after Christ, where the icons are one essential part
- so they also belong to the common picture inheritage of all Christians. My artworks are not (orthodox) icons, my work are oil on canvas.

Angels have a special task in the service of Tabernacle in the wilderness and later in Jerusalem temple - and also in the heavenly service in Revelation of John.

The second image shows this angel in the Altartriptychon at Pispala church in Tampere. Here the angels, Gabriel and Michael are serving the Almighty. In the final image, the angel is at the Helsinki cathedral crypta, a Lenten installation. Here the serving angels show the way to the Cross, "AMORE MIO". Beside the Crucified are the sorrowing angels ( in a spiritual world) - like in he Christmas night the angels were celebrating in a visible way about Messiah's birth.

How it fits into contest

Angel painting: “ By this sign, you are victorious” includes quotes from Ephesians 6: 10 – 18, the descriptions of the angels in the Book of Revelation as well as the fact, what the history of ecclesiastical art is telling of the emperor Constantine the Great. Before he became the Emperor of Rome and made Christianity the state religion, he had a challenging battle near Rome, the Battle of the Milvian Bridge against Maxentius on the 28th of October in 321. The number of the enemy was nearly four times more than the army of the Constantine, but in the end he won the battle. The night before, while preparing for the battle, it has been told that Constantine saw a vision in the sky. He saw the Greek letters X and P, which are the first two letters of Christ. At the same moment he also saw or heard a sentence: “In hoc signo vinces” (in Latin), “By this sign, you are victorious.” It has been told that Constantine ordered the soldiers to paint on their shields the letters X and P (Christ monogram, one of the first Christian symbols).

These words came to my mind while I have been anxiously thinking about the situation in Ukraine and they were transferred to my angel paintings, in the form of shields of faith. “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one “ (vers 16). Praying the miracle of God for Ukraine.

Just before Easter week 2022 I organized an art exhibition, which I had been planning for a long time, to be held in the Crypt of Helsinki Cathedral. The art exhibition was during the period of fasting, from the 27th of March until 10th of April and the theme is called: The Salvation. The exhibited paintings have been for decades the main theme of my image theological and historical study of ecclesiastical art.

My spiritual calling is to paint the main happenings in the life of Jesus and the main points in the history of salvation. My work has been influenced by the joint Christian pictures and paintings of the ecclesiastical art. In our time, we need the Word of God as well as art and pictures, inspired and committed from the Bible, a visuality, that makes God´s Word come alive. Music has had this kind of status for a longer time already, also in church services. God approaches each of us personally. I have been impassioned by: visions of His image, within a church building or during a church service. In my lonely childhood I didn´t have anybody, who could have told me about Jesus.

In my spiritual battle it has also been important for me to paint angels. In the Bible, starting from the Old Testament all the way up to the Book of Revelation, there have been many descriptions about angels. These servants of God, messengers and heavenly soldiers are all very different from New age characters.

Credits

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How to Purchase this Artwork

The paintings can be reserved by contacting me for example sending an e-mail: laineenannukka1@gmail.com. The final price depends on the postage and necessary insurance. After contact we agree on the terms of delivery. The price of the painting is 2.500 € not including the Vatt, which does not need to pay. The customer is committed to pay postage and insurance. The paintings will be safety packed and categorized as collis fragile.
Before sending the painting, we agree the delivery time, the total price and payment method, such as a secured prepayment by bank transfer.

Other Goods & Services Available from this Artist

Please see other options in the links.
1. Register of Finnish National Artists
https://kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi/taiteilija/annukka-laine

2. Tampere House of culture, Gallery Laikku. Paintings – “Before and After” 2019.
Excellent video - 16 minutes.
https://youtu.be/80ZxdA02ksM

3. Artway.eu https://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=1844&lang=en&action=show

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