Surrealism Begins with Curiosity
Surrealism begins with curiosity. In this post, I share the story behind Inner Cosmos, a large mixed media painting built with layers of paint, pastel, gold, texture, and intuition.
I reflect on experimentation, knowing when to stop, and the hidden inner worlds that may float inside the same endless cosmic sea.
What Is an Inner Cosmos?
What is an inner cosmos? In this post, I reflect on the cosmos as both an outer universe and an inner world of dreams, symbols, memory and colour. Featuring my unfinished painting The Deer Constellation (Peuratähtikuvio), where two deer look up at a constellation inspired by the Big Dipper.
Art With Me: A Small Coloring Experiment
A small Art With Me experiment: I turned my original painting series The Cosmic Deer Herd into free printable coloring pages. Download the mini-book, choose your own colors and create your own cosmic version.
Botanical Printing: Letting Nature Begin the Painting
A quiet outdoor painting process with flowering branches, color, gold, texture, and the first marks of nature on canvas. Art process video showing bird cherry branches placed on a large canvas, layers of fabric spray paint, acrylic colors, golden ink splashes, handmade textures, and the final botanical printed background after the branches are removed.
When Nature Becomes Part of the Painting
A short reflection on using fern leaf botanical printing to bring new movement, texture, and inspiration into an unfinished raven painting.
Pause for Small Wonders
A quiet Finnish spring morning with birdsong, blue sky, fresh greenery, and a slow coffee moment with my Wonders of Gaia fine art mug. A small reminder to notice everyday beauty and pause for small wonders.
My First Exhibition Journey to Riga
What began with nervousness became a beautiful adventure through art, Riga, new meetings, and shared inspiration. I loved walking through the city, discovering its strong old soul, and meeting fellow travelers on this artistic path.
Slow Steps, Quiet Wonders: Opening My Art Shop
I opened my little art shop today. It took more work than I expected, but it also feels exciting, imperfect, and alive — one slow step at a time.
A Dream Becoming Real: Seeing My Artwork in the Biennale Catalogue
A personal artist moment: seeing my Cosmic Deer Herd artwork in the Riga Contemporary Surrealism Biennale 2026 catalogue and virtual exhibition, and feeling a long-time dream become real.
A first glimpse of what’s coming to Cosmica Elina.
A softer side of the upcoming collection.
Created to bring warmth, stillness and atmosphere into your space.
Introducing the Cosmic Deer Herd Collection
A short preview of my Cosmic Deer Herd canvas art series — five nature-inspired artworks featuring deer, botanical textures, soft light, and quiet surreal mystery.
From Painting to Mug: Testing My First Wonders of Gaia Enamel Mug
I turned my nature-inspired Wonders of Gaia artwork into my first self-designed enamel mug. This first test piece is still in progress, but it already feels light, nostalgic, beautiful, and full of quiet wonder.
Forget the Blank Canvas Fear — Have fun with the Background
A playful look into my Have Fun Art process — using acrylic markers, pastels, pencils, plant printing, spray paints, inks and whatever inspires the moment to create intuitive painting backgrounds.
The Cosmic Deer Herd on Its Way to Riga!
The Cosmic Deer Herd has begun its journey to Riga Biennale.
For the trip, I found an old aluminium case at a flea market and built the interior by hand so the paintings could travel safely.
It is exciting to see them on their way, but also a little strange. For so long, they have lived here on my wall, and now the room already feels emptier without them.
Inside of the Galactic Dream
There are moments when art stops being something we look at and becomes something we enter. Here, I stepped inside my own surreal creation — part dream, part self-portrait, part myth — and for a moment, I belonged entirely to that painted universe.
Where Spring Touches the Ice
Winter does not disappear all at once — it softens under light, quietly, almost tenderly. In the shimmer of the ice, the first spring sun feels like a promise: cold still holding on, beauty already beginning to let go.
The Sea Carrying Winter Away
At the Shoreline, winter is never still.
Ice drifts slowly in the sunlight, the water glimmers beneath it, and everything feels suspended between seasons — as if the sea itself were gently carrying the last fragments of winter toward spring.
