Art for those
who dare to dream

My name is Kaisa Vanhala. I am a Finnish artist thoroughly enthralled by the transformative experience of beauty. Colour, to me, is a vessel of story; its ability to convey emotion and share meaning fascinates me deeply.

I believe beauty is a window through which we reach for what matters most. My art therefore draws from themes like relationships, emotions, memory and the magnificent capacity for hope hidden inside of us; I like to think of it as both a study and a celebration of the human heart.

On this page you’ll find more information on my journey and my vision. You can also explore the gallery page and learn about custom work.

Welcome! If there’s anything you’d like to ask about, do not hesitate to contact me!

Newest Releases:
never lose your sense of wonder

My first collection of fall 2021 is now ready…!

These nine paintings are born out of my love for fairy tales; they are studies of how the world of fairy tales makes me feel like, and why I believe losing oneself occasionally in the world of the unbelievable and beautiful is crucially important in the lives of us grown ups too.

Fairy tales have always meant a lot to me. They remind me of how hope is possible. That it is possible to stumble into a new world through a wardrobe, fall into a rabbit hole, get lost in wonders. Fairy tales keep the longing for beauty alive in me, the longing for wonder. They nourish that child-like mind in me, where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible; the sense of wonder I don’t think we can really live without.

reframing. reclaiming.

every story has beauty to reveal.

I love stories - the real, living stories from our lives with their joys and sorrows. I believe every story deserves to be told, and that there’s a special kind of magic in re-framing our stories. I believe every story can be told from the perspective of hope and beauty. My passion is in exploring this empowering element of having your story painted into something beautiful; I believe it helps us to reframe our stories, reclaim our narratives, and reconcile ourselves with our histories.

Because of this, I absolutely love working with commissioned pieces. Do contact me if you’d like to enquire about a custom painting…!

Collection // Spring 2021

What does it mean to be a dreamer in a world
where dreams are often endangered?
*

The word “nubivagant” means “the one who wanders in the clouds”. It’s derived from the Latin word nubes, meaning “cloud”, and vagari, meaning “wandering”.

We sometimes speak of dreamers in a contemptuous way. In Finnish the words “taivaanrannan maalari” would be translated in “the one who paints the horizon” - which stands for someone who mostly does idle woolgathering and loses time in daydreaming. We also have a phrase “tuulen tavoittelu”, chasing the wind, and it’s used to describe useless, vain attempts at something.

The idea behind the Nubivagant Collection is the opposite: what if it’s precisely moving in the clouds, flying with the wind that is most important? It wishes to point out that every good thing in the world was born from the dreams of someone. We dream of things that are good. It’s the very nature of dreaming to aim towards goodness; urges reaching for things that are not good are called with other names. Therefore, dreaming must be a vessel of hope. And hope is what the world needs most - even if its builders are sometimes frowned upon.

Nubivagant, to me, stands for a person who has the courage to dream in a world where dreams are often endangered. For it’s the risktakers, the bold dreamers who change the world.

my vision

Beauty heals. Beauty helps us see more clearly. Beauty is a window through which we reach for what matters most.

My passion is in the magic that happens when someone’s story is interpreted through the beauty that is hidden within. I believe art has a special empowering quality when it meets with storytelling - especially with the stories of our lives.

I stumbled on this idea of empowering art rather accidentally: my own artist’s journey begun as a result of a life crisis when several family members fell seriously ill within just a few years. The tumult of it all pushed me over an edge in my life, and after hitting rock bottom mentally and spiritually I had to re-negotiate my relationship with hope, trust and joy - and with God.

Out of the blue, surprising me completely, the concept of beauty came to my salvation. In the midst of the crisis, beauty started speaking to me in new, surprising ways. The experience was very profound and became a turning point in my life. Experiences of beauty spoke to some deeper levels of my being, even when my rational mind was struggling.

Beauty felt like hope. Like a promise of a wholeness my heart longed for. Beauty was a window through which I could see the future.

When I speak of beauty I don’t only mean aesthetic beauty; beauty, to me, is essentially an experience of wholeness, of truth, of healing. Beauty speaks of hope - it believes everything will eventually be made good once again, and that wounds will heal, and life will flow again.

My longing for beauty has been a deeply spiritual process for me, and even if I previously never thought I’d become an artist, my longing led me to experience with the arts - and in painting I’ve found my home.

I believe beauty holds restorative power. Every story can be interpreted through its hidden beauty and through the eyes of hope. This is why working with real, living life stories inspires me most.

There’s a special kind of magic that can happen when a story is rewritten with beauty. My question is this: what might happen when someone’s story is heard and seen, and turned into something unexpected and beautiful? What might happen when that story then is given back to its owner - how will this rewriting of their story change their relationship with it?

I’ve had the joy to work with customers who’ve shared pieces of their stories with me. Creating paintings that symbolised their journeys has been absolutely fascinating - and I’m excited to explore it more.

My work tends to gravitate towards vivid, intense colours and strong, flowing movement; I aim to capture moments of emotion and change, moments that are packed with meaning and weight.

I love combining abstract and figurative elements. The abstract style is, to me, like painted poetry in its complexity; figurative elements allow me to add even more symbolism and interpretational depth to my paintings.

In the Gallery page you can see all my work. My pieces tend to carry with themselves a text or a poem, like an another layer of colour added to the piece, just painted in words; this story of each painting can be found in their specific pages.

In the Gallery you can also see my available paintings.