South of Lieksa we visited the home of a famous Finish artist after we had explored the Patvinsuom NP close to the Russian border.
The Finish sculptress Eva Ryynänen (1915–2001) lived in a cottage south of Lieksa. She started to carve things from wood already as a child. With 18 she was accepted by the Fine Art Association’s school on the merits of her sculpture “Seven Brothers” depicting the characters of a Finish story by Aleksis Kivi.
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| House and church in Paateri |
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| Farm house where the couple lived since their marriage |
We could visit her house with many details made by her and the former cow shed which was converted into her atelier when she got successful with her art work. The lady from the ticket office offered to take us around, which was great as we got a deeper insight from her.
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| Our guide in a traditional Karelian dress |
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| Every piece of wood in the house was made or decorated by Eva |
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| A figure from a Karelian tale and in the back panels with cranes |
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| She used the structure and lines from the wood perfectly for her figures |
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| Face of an angle |
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| Dancing bear cubs |
Her masterpiece was a little church built on their land, which is a very magic place, still used for weddings. She had received a lot of big trees from Russia and when somebody mentioned that it would be enough to build a church, the idea started to develop from there.
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| Already the door is very special |
The big logs were used for the wall and also to make the benches, each out of one piece of log. The altar consists of the roots of a huge tree, and the whole church has a Christmas theme. The big windows in the front and the back let the light and the forest in.
We ended our visit at the little café, which was also built by Eva and her husband after the number of visitors to the church had grown immensely.
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| Very special door to the café |
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| Every piece of furniture was carved by Eva |
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| Leaving a trace in the guest book |
We had spent the night before at Patvinsuom National Park, where we went for a hike after the fog had lifted, and the sun came out.
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| It looks as if you could step into the “grass”, but the bog is very wet |
The landscape here was completely different to the endless forests we had visited before. In this park the bog was the dominating landscape and with a path of boards easy to traverse. Another special hike!!
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| Planks connected with wooden pegs |
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| Autumn leave of the Day |
