ANNA OTSOLAINEN. THE SECRET GARDEN

The Secret Garden is a place to appreciate plant aesthetics.

Plants have been important to humans – for survival, for reflection, and for experiencing visual beauty and peace of mind. The focus of the exhibition is on plant associations and portraits, through which the viewer enters an imaginary garden where all seasons meet: a blueberry grows together with a blooming snowdrop and a wilting tulip.

A garden is a place that is born in cooperation between human and nature. Thanks to human care and attention, plants have enough light, water and space, they can grow and flourish. In return, a person gets the opportunity to create, notice, care for and value the rhythm and life cycles of nature: sprouting, growing, blooming, withering and withering.

The drawings and flower arrangements in the exhibition are inspired by the aesthetic values ​​of ikebana, which emphasize the charm of simplicity, respect for nature, and the ability to create harmonious compositions based on the natural growth direction and form of plants. In the case of Ikebana, a person does not try to control nature, but brings out the existing personality of plants and their mutual harmony – taking into account the proportions, forms, colors, air and surrounding space of both the plant and the vessel.

This exhibition invites the viewer to slow down and give themselves time to notice the fragile beauty that the plant world offers.

Anna Otsolainen (b. 1994) is an Estonian artist and art teacher. She graduated the Latvian Academy of Arts in 2019, and the continuing studies in design graphics and illustration of the Tartu Art School in 2022. She has completed an internship in Iceland. Currently, she focuses on illustration and drawing, inspired by nature, especially plants. Has participated in several international and national symposiums and in recent years also in several group exhibitions in Estonia.

Author of flower arrangements Leili Alaoja-Rein: Graduated from Tartu Flower School; flower arrangement school Pillerkaar and completed various flower arrangement trainings. Work experience: University of Tartu Botanical Garden, flower shop Laia Leili Lilled manager. Instructor of flower arrangement courses at the Tartu Folk High School and since 2005 has been working as a vocational teacher at the Räpina Horticultural School. Leili has been elected Teacher of the Year at Tartu People’s University 2017 and Teacher of the Year at the Räpina School of Horticulture 2024.

More info:
Anna Otsolainen otsolainenkunst@gmail.com