LUUA

[Diesen Artikel gibt es nur auf Englisch.]
Symposium LUUA 2015/ Pargas/ Estland

Artist Marianne Gielen from Berlin arrived to art camp with her husband Michael. About Marianne we can say that her works are so colorful as her personality.

Last week could be seen painting people at Palamuse and Luua. The paintings of artists and art lovers from four countries were shown in express exhibition on Friday afternoon in Palamuse

4th summer art camps at Luua have been organized by the Jõgeva Watercolor Gallery. This time 23 professional and amateur artists had arrived from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Germany. Estonians had arrived from different locations: Jõgeva, Tallinn, Narva, Rakvere, Valga, Häädemeeste. Although the artists were so diffirent, the company was very friendly. They had great accommodation at hostel of Luua forestry school. Who wished could paint on their own, who needed got teaching. Last Tuesday, owner of the gallery „Kala“ and aquarellist Gennadi Lapin, took five or six novices in watercolor painting and dealt with them for seven hours: they spoke of the history and the principles of watercolors, showed a wide variety of techniques, and painted a picture of an exemplary one. For those who love to paint with acrylic paints, Gennadi Lapin invited from Tallinn to visit his good friend, artist Sergei Minin, who carried out acrylic painting master class last Monday. One of the important things he taught, was mixing colors. “Often, they tend to paint directly from the tube with “ raw “ acrylic paints. Unfortunately, it does not end with the best results, “said Gennadi Lapin.

Every evening they gathered at the school commonroom to review and analyze the paintings. Last Thursday, however, was a common outing to Jõgeva, to visit two exhibitions: the city library had pictures of Moscows and St. Petersburgs painters, and in cultural center there were Robert Suvi and his students’ works.

On Friday at Palamuse community center there was for five hours the exhibition of the art campers works. For locals it might have been nice to look at how the different countries artists see their home.

Wide profile tractor driver water colorist
Each camp participant deserves probably a separate newspaper story. Saima Jakobson living at Häädemeeste, this statement certainly applies. She has been a tractor driver for 24 years, participated in some plough competitions, raised eight children, and now, in retirement she has lot of hobbies: she deals with ceramics, sculpture and painting, sewing, crafted jewelry, etc. “Now I want to learn the techniques of watercolor,” said Saima. “Just because I know: it is a very difficult technique. A year ago, I went to one Finnish instructed watercolors workshop, but the language barrier proved to be too great. But yesterday it was all made so clear for us during these seven hours. When I work at home on and on, the hundredth picture might be some success.”

Piret Männiste, the tutor at Jõgeva hospital day care center, came to the camp of watercolors with no experience before. “I am completing the first watercolor picture, but I enjoy this process. I would definitely continue to deal with watercolors at home, if I find some time between the two jobs, children and the farm, “said Piret Männiste.

An engineer from Narva – Roman Hruljov – has been engaged seriously with art, but he also was a novice in the field of watercolors. “Here the camp is a very good opportunity to develop the area of watercolors. It works as a sort of art school, “said Hruljov. Gennadi Lapin, however, praised Romans pictures, and says that his development with aquacolors has been downright visible. Nordic light, low clouds “There are many motives to paint: a spacious landscape panorama, interesting old buildings, and others,” said Roman Hruljov.

The same mind had the artists who arrived from Berlin – Marianne Gielen, Renate Pfommer Lilo Gericke-Zaki. “Very good place to paint is the arboretum,” said Marianne Gielen. “Although my abstract acrylics do not constitute specific recognizable motifs, it can be said that they are affected by this context, because my works painted at home and here are different. The light and the mood here is quite different. Renate and Lilo also confirmed that
Estonia has differences from home – northern light and low clouds. And, therefore works become very different than at home.

Both artists felt that it was a pity they had to accommodate their ideas in fairly small size of paper: a larger paperfolios are not allowed to board the plane. “I have been a pretty long way from watercolors, but now I got “the taste “ again and surely will continue at home,” said Lilo. Renate added, that the camp of art is also good for interacting with artists from other countries – even with the hands and feet, if there are not enough words. “We laugh a lot during these days” said Renate Pfommer.

Jurga Sidabriene, who came from Vilnius, said that for her the summer is the most productive time of creation, as at other times, most of the time is spent on teaching: it is both the Vilnius Pedagogical University as well as a high school art teacher. “In the summer I try to unleash and paint all that accumulated during the year,” said Jurga. “It’s great to interact with peers in the camp: after all, many of them I know from the earlier camps. Here the camp is very well organized: we feel very comfortable here.”

The Luua art camp was supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the municipality of Jõgeva and the Jõgeva County Expert Group.