On the journey in Africa

Paintings with African themes by Kati Kaulio-Kuikka.

The works talk about a journey in Africa, Kenya. The exhibition is a drawn and painted picture book, a story, a recording of views, which gradually turns into a product of one's own mind; animals, trees savanna, Africans. During the process of making the works, the images began to live their own lives, they detached from the African landscape and became part of the artist's images, thoughts, and moods in forms and colors. The images were no longer part of Africa, but they began to be part of the artist's painting process, seeking and searching for new forms, new expressions. At this point, the focus was no longer on the subject itself, but on what the image is born from, what it is built on, what is the soul of the image. The soul is found in the form, by drawing, by looking carefully at what one sees and perceives, or the soul is found in the color, in the mood created by the color, in the light and shadow. Making the images has been a journey into the theme and its variations, a pleasant one. During the spring of 2026, there was an opportunity to try, play, search and find without haste, without hurry, returning to the work rested for a few days and seeing the work with new eyes. During the process, there was a certainty that the works are not bad or good, successful or unsuccessful, but that they are always both. In every work there lies the possibility of making it according to the goals by carrying the work forward.