Kaisla Kujanpää:
"Painting has completely swept me away."

At the Free Art School, Kaisla Kujanpää felt she had found the right place to study painting.

She is currently in her fourth year of study and is due to graduate as a painter in spring 2027.

She previously trained as an industrial designer at the Lahti Institute of Design.

What made you apply to study at the Free Art School?

Before coming to the Free Art School, I studied design at the Lahti Institute of Design, but I never really found my place there. I noticed that what I enjoyed most were the art courses, so after graduating, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I decided to apply to art school. I wanted to immerse myself in painting and learn to work with oils, so I applied to the Free Art School. Already during the entrance exams, I felt I had found the right place for me.

What are your sources of inspiration?

Adventure, wandering and marvelling at the world. Lately I have been wondering about things like plant roots, the wind, and the sea and its currents. I’m also often drawn to old devices and technology, even when I don’t fully understand how they work. Sometimes I look for real answers to my questions, but you don’t always have to understand. That sense of wonder continues in my paintings.

Exploring different materials and combining the textures of various brush marks and painting surfaces is currently an important part of my painting process. I enjoy how different materials bring variety to my work.

I get excited about unexpected discoveries. If I come across, say, a nice block of wood or something interesting that could serve as a painting surface, I take it with me and think later about how I want to use it. Finds like these can open up something new in my work, something I might never otherwise have thought to try.

What fascinates me about new experiments is the element of surprise. Painting is an endless journey of exploration, and the outcome is always unknown at the start.

What does painting mean to you?

Making art brings me a great deal of joy. It means endless possibilities, the freedom to do anything at all, without rules. It gives me permission to play and be silly, and the chance to keep learning something new and to grow in new directions. Painting is a journey into the unknown, filled with the excitement of never knowing what the next work will look like until you have made it. That’s why I always have to make the next one, and the next. Painting is an important way for me to communicate, in its own mysterious language. Painting also means focus and calm for me. When I paint, my other thoughts settle down and I don’t long for anything else.

What has studying at the Free Art School given you?

The Free Art School has opened up a whole new world for me, one where I feel I belong and am at home. I have gained an important community and got to know other artists and the art world. I have learned a great deal from my teachers as well as from my classmates and other students, which has given me new perspectives on looking at paintings and on working methods. I have found materials that suit me, and through them my own expression has developed, loosened up and become more varied. Painting has completely swept me away.