Kaija Savinainen received her art education at the University of Lethbridge, focusing on painting, printmaking and drawing. For her academic and creative efforts, she earned the prestigious President’s Gold Medal. During her university tenure she also received several studio awards, including a printmaking commission for the University of Lethbridge. She also earned a Bachelor of Education from Ottawa University with a specialist in Visual Art education.
She brings her Nordic roots to her expressive and emotionally striking oils. Inspiration comes from her upbringing in Finland and Sweden, her connection to the land, waterways, and forests. Northern Canadian landscapes and its inhabitants continue to inspire her painting practise.
Artistic influences include Finnish painters of the early 20th Century – Akslei Galle-Kallela, Eero Järnefelt, Emily Carr, Helen McNicoll, and Mary Ryder Hamilton and the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc.
Searching for, bringing an awareness to the rapidly disappearing landscape, nature’s vulnerability, the link between nature, home, place. “In doing so, I hope to stimulate the viewer’s sense of where we are going with what nature has bestowed upon us and which is all around us. Nature needs our respect, and care more than ever these days, and I challenge us all to be mindful of this through my art”.
“We are inundated with news of conflict and negativity. I want to shift our collective attention to what is around us – the colours, the light, and the uplifting energy that nature gives to us. My work challenges the viewer to motivated to get out and experience nature – to breathe, see, listen, inhale and regain one’s senses of our privileged time on this earth”.
