Hello Dear Visitor! I am the painter Aili Vint (Sarv) from Estonia, I come from the middle of the last century (born in 1941), but still paint the Sea the old-fashioned way. Miles and miles of it, from the home shore to the horizon..— It is not just a saying that in your future you meet your past. Look at the huge collages recycled from my own pictures created in different techniques since 1962 to 2019. From the MENU of this site you will find my oil on canvas seascapes, pop art (abstract paintings) and sensual graphic.
Heie Treier, Estonian artkritic: Aili Vint has not tied herself to any particular line, although her work is full of quotations of pop and op-art and tiny etchings transform. But she always keeps returning to the Sea. The Sea is in eternal motion and the details, which the artist perceives at a blink, - something mesmerizing, existential and quintessential,—is gone with the next moment. All that remains is an experience of a person who is able to revive and magnify this on a canvas. This is quite a direct approach to the subject of art and the result of which allows contact with the most diverse audience — an unusual phenomenon in contemporary high art at all.
MY CONCEPT IS NOW
Upon reviewing the work I've done throughout my lifetime, I had a new idea of recycling my sea paintings and gouache paintings – of putting them together as large collages in a totally new awareness. Now my tiny gouache paintings are as big as my seascapes. In my virtual installations they represent the moods and whims of the Sea. My goal is to reveal the soul of the Sea that hovers around the seascapes. — It could be perfectly done with a hologram.
So my concept is now to create a perception of a new reality, one that is not actually real and not perceivable to the eye. It is intended to be a story of the Sea as a living entity. I feel, therefore, that my three "genres" (marine paintings, gouache paintings, digi-collages) should be displayed with equal emphasis. Then it will be possible to experience the exhibit like a story, even a novel, which the pictures all together tell.
Aili Vint: Variety offers fun. Now, in virtual reality I can do anything better than me. It's my passion today to be again in these Golden Sixties.: .— CHEERFUL POP FOREVER! — It’s just like opening an old bottle of high quality wine.
STORIES ABOUT MY PICTURES
My life’s first magical touch of the sun
Why did I become an artist?— Because I promised!
I remember I was no longer a small child, when I suddenly found myself standing in front of a real Sea. The Sea was incredibly vast and open and the bluest of blue. Before the Sun went down I watched, mesmerized, as Sun picked sunset colors and started painting on the Sea. Suddenly the world became unbelievably colorful. A powerful glow of colors was in front of me and behind me, above me and below me; I even felt it under my feet. At that moment I was sure that there wasn’t one painter who could paint like that —-''When I grow up I will paint a Sun so, so red hot, that when you look at it, you'll be dripping with sweat!", I boasted to the other children. —Yes, I will be an artist! — I am painting!
Now I am an artist and I will show you this glorious moment, my life's first magical touch of the Sun.
The virtual story of the primeval call of the sea: SO SO RED HOT II 2018
SO SO RED HOT II 2018 Digital collage combined original works: by AILI VINT.: SO RED HOT SUN 1967 Gouache painting 28. x 20 cm, artist’s collection + SUNSET FLASH 2011 Oil on canvas, 110 x 191 cm and could be designed on the whole room as large as the exhibition space allows, even on the ceiling and the floor — As an installation.
HOW TO DESCRIBE THE SOUL OF THE SEA
2. magical touch of the sun: UNBEARABLE BEAUTY AND INEXPLICABLE PAIN 2018
Aili Vint current focus is VR and digital light installations inspired by water. The latest piece “Farewell” is a memorial designed for the sinking of MS Estonia on the Baltic Sea, September 28th, 1994. Claiming 852 lives, it was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. Playing with perception of horizons, the artwork calls upon the human experience as a commemoration of those lost at sea.
Aesthetica Magazine, December 2018 http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/profile/aili-vint/
BEAUTY AND LOSS 2018 Digital collage combined from AILI VINT’S original works: SUNSET 1969 Detail of gouache painting, 75 x 63 cm + Wrench 1970 gouache painting, 75 x 63 cm + GlLIMMERING WATER 2000 Oil on painting, 192 x 115 cm
Estonian Writer Jaan Kruusvall: The world that Aili Vint create while painting the Sea is fragile and elusive, easily vulnerable. Just like the rest of the world. Like the inner world of a person.
Aili Vint: For those of you who do not know, the sinking of the MS Estonia on September 28th 1994 claimed 852 lives and was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. Before The Sun is going down, I sense both beauty and loss today. I feel insignificance, sorrow, even inexplicable pain. Come back tomorrow –The Sun taught me to wait and forgiveness.
A story of asking for forgiveness
By Aili Vint, from The Seabook
I will never forget the sea the day after the sinking of the "Estonia". We were at our summer home, electricity was not available, we did not know anything. When we went to the sea to see the storm, I could not understand what had happened to the sea. The sea was frenzied, desperately lost and confused. It was as if it was seeking something that cannot be found, and thus anguished. It alternately moaned and sighed. My sea seemed to me to be a never- seen muddy colour, with too sharply and carelessly drawn lines. It was deathly tired, but would not abate. It was not until just before sunset, when an enormous dark wall of clouds came and cast a heavy shadow over the sea like a blanket, that it calmed a bit.
In the evening, at a neighboring dairy farm where we went to get milk was when we heard that the sea was writhing in the throes of asking forgiveness. It had taken into itself too many lives at once.
A year later, riding to Pirita on the bus, I suddenly heard an old woman sigh to herself, "I hate the sea." and I felt pain again. I saw how she turned her back to the sea. But on this day the sea was so calm and placid. Beautiful and delicate. I got off the bus and asked forgiveness of the sea.
Serene Sea 1982 oil on canvas 120 x150 cm, Tartu Art Museum Estonia
I SENCE BOTH BEAUTY AND LOSS 2018 Digital collage combined from AILI VINT’S original works: Mouring 1970 Gouache painting + Stormy mood 1972 Gouache painting 35,5 x 35 cm
Pale sea 1975 Oil on canvas 92 x 115 cm Kumu Art Museum
FAREWELL 2018
MEMORIAL CEREMONIAL 2018 Time- and Space- Specific Light Installation That virtual story of the PRIMEVAL CALL could be designed on the whole room as large as the exhibition space allows, even on the ceiling and the floor.
II Time- and space- specific light installation: MEMORIAL CEREMONIAL
Every year on September 28th, in the countries that the victims were from, memorial ceremonies could take place. In exhibition halls the light would be turned off for the day. In the centre of the hall, in the middle of the current exhibit, a white cube within a cube is put up with light and images inside it.
When you first peek into the white cube, the glow of light creates a feeling of total emptiness. This is where the time stops and you will meet timeless.
And when you step into the inner cube you find yourself suddenly in the middle of the fiery sunset! You are completely immersed in it. A powerful glow of colors is in front of you and behind you, above you and below you; You even felt it under you feet. You feel the warm touch of the Sun and its magical peace in your soul.
Aili Vint: That VIRTUAL STORY OF THE PRIMEVAL CALL could be designed on the whole cube as large as the exhibition space allows, even on the ceiling and the floor — As an installation and hologram.
A true story:“Your picture saved my life, you know”
By Aili Vint, from The Seabook
One day, when I was painting stony and translucent water, I suddenly received shocking news that a young acquaintance of mine had taken her own life. While painting the picture, I remember wondering whether this profound angst I felt at the time would remain trapped in that picture.
Years later I received an answer. — A complete stranger came up to me, started scolding me for no longer painting the sea. Then she went on, searching for words: ”Your picture saved my life, you know…” She told me that she had wanted to end her life, to give herself to the sea. But a friend took her to the Kadriorg Art Museum to see one of my seascapes. The painting had mesmerized her, calling her back again and again. It offered her unaccountable consolation, until it finally calmed her down. This painting was The Stony Sea.
“Your picture saved my life, you know“ 2019 Digital collage, what combined from Aili Vint’s original paintings:
Stony Sea 1976 Oil on canvas, 92 x 115 cm, Kumu Art Museum + Moment 1970 Gouache 75 x 63 cm Kumu Art Museum +
Detail from Transparent Sea I 2015 Oil on canvas, 92 x 115 cm, artist collection
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Sea &Woman