Made in Arles, Provance, South France. 2026 spring.

Available 9

At: 43.675835, 4.625914

Kevad 2001, 31 Mai
Vihmase ilmaga viisin pudelid taarapunkti ja värvi ostsin koolimajast.
Kollast ja valget ongi kõige rohkem läinud.
Suure lõuendiga sammusin mööda raudteed Emajõe suunas,
kuni leidsin vasakpoolses kaldas sobiva koha.
Õli lõuendil, 114 × 84 cm.

Sellest ajast on säilinud vaid väga üksikud maalid,  ühe käe sõrmedel loetavalt. Kuna need kuuluvad minu kunstnikutee kõige varasemate tööde hulka, hindan neid ka vastavalt, eelkõige südamega.

ROWERS ON THE EMAJÕGI

Spring 2001, 31 May

On a rainy day, I took some bottles to the recycling point and bought paint from the school building. Yellow and white were the colours I ended up using the most.

Carrying a large canvas, I walked along the railway towards the Emajõgi River until I found a suitable spot on the left bank.

Oil on canvas, 114 × 84 cm.

Only a very small number of paintings from that period have survived, few enough to count on one hand. As they belong to the very beginning of my journey as an artist, I value them accordingly, above all with my heart.

At the time, I did not own an easel, but there was a strong iron structure, almost like something growing out of the grass, that held up the canvas and, somehow, the whole atmosphere of that morning.

Then the sun rose.

Only a very small number of paintings from that period have survived, few enough to count on one hand. As they belong to the very beginning of my journey as an artist, I value them accordingly, above all with my heart.

Tartu, summer 2001.

Hommikul peale kella nelja, kui olin üle Anne kanali silla jalutanud (pruudi juurest, värskelt armunud..mina 20, tema vist 19), siis selle armu jõuga ronisin suure rohu sisse maalima. Käisin kiirel sammul veel kodust läbi lõuendi ja värvide järgi. Tollel ajal puudus molbert, aga raudne rohumoodi asi oli võimas ja tugev ning hoidis lõuendit ja kogu melu üleval. Tõusis päike.

Sellest ajast on säilinud vaid väga üksikud maalid,  ühe käe sõrmedel loetavalt. Kuna need kuuluvad minu kunstnikutee kõige varasemate tööde hulka, hindan neid ka vastavalt, eelkõige südamega.

Tartu, 2001, suvi.

Painted from a live model.

Currently on exhibition and available for purchase at Haus Gallery from 17 September 2026.

In Titian’s painting, Venus looks directly at us. In my work, the figure appears instead to withdraw into herself. The gaze no longer commands the viewer, and the erotic becomes less demonstrative, more intimate and psychological.

The relationship between the two works might be summed up in this way: Titian paints a woman whom we observe. I paint a state of being into which both the woman and the viewer are drawn.

The original composition remains recognisable, yet it no longer dominates. As an artist, I am less interested in repeating Titian’s motif than in shifting it into a contemporary painterly space, where body, colour and atmosphere begin to merge into one another — closer, perhaps, to the sensibility of Bonnard or the late Matisse.

The work was created in dialogue with Titian’s Venus of Urbino (Venere di Urbino, 1538).