A year spent in Bretagne was a time of intense studio work for Lilja, who had relocated to France with her partner and was struggling to settle into her new surroundings. Although she was quickly adopted by a local art association, Lilja spent much of her time working in her home studio, on colourful, comfortable subjects that reminded her of Finland as well as the time spent in Scotland, selecting only a handful of French items that ever made it on canvas.
She developed her relationship with iconic brands further while beginning to introduce more colour and pattern, working on small scale, only once returning to her preferred 100x120cm format in “1958” – a portrait of a Finnish pack of Cigarettes dedicated to the artists father who had discovered the empty pack while renovating an attic of a late 1950’s apartment building.
tiina lilja 