Artists > Katja Hannula
Katja Hannula (1972) is a professional equine artist from Finland. She received her artist's training from the famous Japanese Art Painter, Tatsuo Hoshika who trained at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Her passion into the motive for painting horses, rises from her childhood experiences with horses which later rather tragically was to turn into an allergy towards them. But thankfully this was overcome and today her love and understanding of this magnificent beast has been restored and she has found the balance with animals again and enjoys her life amongst her own horses in Finland.
The focus of Katja's work is in the feeling one has when spending time with a horse as she feels these animals are innocent beings in complete harmony with nature. Through her paintings katja is giving us a small piece of the serenity and the peace of mind in a horse's makeup. In attempting to convey and emphasise the spiritual aspect of her subject matter, Katja often depicts animals in non-naturalistic colours in a similar manner to the great German equestrian painter, Franz Marc.
Marc co-founded with Kandinsky and Paul Klee the famous expressionist group, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) who believed that the spiritual aspect of art was perhaps more concerned with representing the inner being. Katja's use of non-representational colours used in her horse paintings may be an attempt at stepping away from the material world and identifying the need to use non-worldly colours in order to portray the spiritual being. Like Marc, Katja paints as if she was in the body of the animal she paints, she is the soul of the horse.
Hannula has had many exhibitions in Europe, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium, UK ( Hickstead) Canada and the US., but this is the first major where she has exhibited at a private gallery in England.
2008 Exhibition, Horses with Heart, Gallery LeFort, Bath, U.K.
Solo Exhibition, Brussels, Belgium
Mural Musaic Project, Canada
Exhibitor with sculptor Yanina Antschulevitsch, Helsinki, Finland.
2007 Solo Exhibition, Turku, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Hickstead, Great Britain
Solo Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
2006 Solo Exhibition, Kuopio, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Alpo Jaakolan patsaspuisto, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Ypaja, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
2005 Solo Exhibition, Goteborg, Sweden
Solo Exhibition, Ypaja, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Lahti, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
2004 Solo Exhibition, Turku, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Ypaja, Finland
2003 Group exhibition, Loimaa, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Ypaja, Finland
Solo Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
2002 Group Exhibition, Loimaa, Finland
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