Granite Porhyry, 2021
Egg tempera on canvas
The painting is part of the series “Erratic Boulders.” Humans are not the only wanderers. Over the past quarter of a million years, three glacial periods have occurred in what is now Estonia. During the most recent one, glacial tongues extended as far as present-day Ukraine. These glaciations were interspersed with interglacial periods marked by distinctive environments, followed again by new advances of ice and the movement of moraine masses.
Each of these glacial waves left behind a unique composition of erratic boulders, which are difficult to distinguish from one another. Most of the rocks that reached Estonia originated in Southern Finland and include nearly all types of igneous and metamorphic rocks—mainly various types of granite, with smaller amounts of granodiorite, quartz diorite, and diorite. These rock types vary in crystal density and color. Their long formation deep within the Earth and diverse composition give them a striking and painterly appearance.
In this painting series, earth-toned pigments were used to mimic the visual richness of these stone giants formed through complex geological processes.