Dining room by Satu Vartiainen

I absolutely love this Satu, it is so easy on the eye, a delight! Mary Fedden has long been a favourite of mine as well, I have been to her annual exhibitions at The Portland Gallery every year just to buy the catalogue as I could never afford the paintings! Her book Enigmas and Variations is a very interesting read about her artistic life with Julian Trevelyan and contains lots of images of her paintings. I agree that her style is liberating, I think you've inspired me too!

Great composition Satu

Lovely. Your background stripes are so clever, in my opinion, Satu. I have never heard of this artist so must look her up.

I always admire you Satu for producing such different work. I think you do actually inspire us as Christine says, to try something different. Have you ever used gouache paints. They'd be good for this sort of painting I think as they give a nice matt effect.

Thank you very much Christine, Sian, Michael and Louise for your lovely comments! Always much appreciated! Christine, I had a look at Portland Gallery and there is an exhibition starting the 4th of December. Louise, I have tried gouache paints and they are fine for smaller works on paper but I always paint on canvas or board and also quite big ( this is 60xm x 60xm) so gouache is not very practical. Thank you for suggesting it!

Love your abstract work Satu

"Liberating and fresh" - describes your art perfectly, Satu! This is lovely - love the composition and the very innovative use of shapes, textures and colors.

Thank you so much Petra and Seok!

A very clever painting, a great sense of light, love the fish..

Great one Satu, I like Mary Fedden's work too so vibrant!

A lovely composition, which has a reference to Mary Feddon, but which I think is all yours, and very good.

Superb Satu. Louise suggested gouache, have you tried Turner Acrylic Gouache? It's an acrylic paint but dries matt and can be used on canvas. Colours can be layered but won't lift like they can with ordinary gouache. I've just been given a set for my birthday so I'm busy experimenting with them at the moment :)

I do like this so much - strong shapes and bold colours. I liked the stylised and flattened shapes as they make such a statement. Sounds as if it was a really inspiring idea to have a go at Mary Fedden's style of working.

Sorry Satu, nearly missed this one. I've never heard of Mary Fedden but will certainly look her up after seeing your painting!

Thank you so much David, Carole, Shirley, Val, Thea and Debs for your encouraging comments! Val, I haven't heard of Turner Gouaches but they sound interesting and I'll have a look next time when I go to the art shop. Debs, do look at Mary Fedden's work, it's fascinating.

Hi Satu, Just like Mary, your style speaks for itself due to your clever juxtapositioning of shapes, and clean lines and confident colours that really work. A great picture that's both bold statement, and harmony. Fantastic.

Thank you very much Ian for your kind comment. Much appreciated!