Lighthouses are so romantic.

Here is an early attempt at a landscape. Even though I'm completely disappointed with it overall, I think I learned a couple of useful things. First, I found out how using a sponge can create a different kind of texture for the painting, surprise surprise. Second, I found out how to make an object appear to be seen through mist.

So it's not all bad I guess. Besides, my mum likes it. And don't you just love the colours? But I wish I 'd left out that weird Sauron's searchlight thingy.

I visited the navigation administration in Turku in the summer this year. I'm not terribly excited about boats and ships and seafaring, but I got this great poster:

It's this 'legendary' drawing from 1910 of Finnish lighthouses. There are more of them now, of course. The newest lighthouse at that time was the lighthouse of Bengtskär. I've been there, and it was really cool! They had a maritime center there, and a cold water aquarium in the hall. There was a cute little baby flounder... but not cute enough to make me want to set up a cold water tank. Too tricky to keep it cool.

(PIcture removed)

I've also been to Loistokari, also in the archipelago of Turku, which doesn't have a lighthouse, but a house with a window where a beacon was lit when necessary. It looked like a pretty lonely place, but it was actually quite fun visiting it. Most of the other visitors in the group were middle-aged, but they really knew how to have fun after a few drinks! The food was delicious, anyway. We ate outside on the rock (the island was nothing more than that), and we had all kinds of fish and 'saaristolaisleipä' ('bread from archipelago', badly translated):

It's the most delicious bread in the world. Heavenly! I even got a recipe off the internet, but baking rye bread is a lot of work...but maybe some day.

But anyways, you might have guessed why I wanted the 1910 drawing of lighthouses. I'm going to use it as a model for my future endeavours at painting lighthouses. Some day.