Riitta Nelimarkka
Professor Riitta Nelimarkka (born 1948) is a distinctive and versatile artist whose repertoire includes graphic art, animated films, paintings, art and poetry books, textile art, and extensive exhibition entities. She has doctor´s degree in the arts (DA at UIAH, Helsinki) and has studied painting in Paris, photography, film and art education at the Konstfacken, Academy of Art in Stockholm and piano playing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Her art is characterized by brilliant colors and innovative irony. In recent years, her production has centered on comprehensive collections of drawings, photographs, velvet pictures and woolen reliefs. She has also been commissioned a great number of works, including the large-scale “Con Calore” woolen carpets for the official residence of the President of Finland. Her artworks, illustrations and animated films have been presented at various international festivals and biennals. She has been awarded numerous prizes and honorary mentions for her works.
Links:
Illustrated by Riitta Nelimarkka
Big and Small in Space
Use your imagination to travel through space in the company of Big and Small.
Riitta Nelimarkka’s fast-paced picture book in verse form describes the adventures of Big and Small in space.
Big and Small are a pair of amusing chums, one small and the other one big. They explore space by means of all sorts of equipment – a flying carpet, a giant chewing gum, a grand piano – and come across hilarious space creatures.
The second revised edition of the picture book, originally published in 1982, plays with language, images and the concepts of dream and reality and sweeps through the universe with irresistible joyousness.
Illustrated by Riitta Nelimarkka
Seven Brothers
An enjoyable rendering of Aleksis Kivi’s classic novel Seitsemän veljestä (Seven brothers) by Aleksis Kivi is the most outstanding literary work in Finland’s history. It is the first novel that was ever written and published in Finnish – not Swedish, Latin or any other language of the educated and upper class. It is considered the most important novel for Finnish people and culture.
Around 100 years after the publishing of the original novel, in 1979, artists Riitta Nelimarkka and Jaakko Seeck made a children’s animated film “Seitsemän veljestä”, which has won many film awards both internationally and in Finland. The following year the film was turned into an illustrated book. It was very popular in the 1980’s and holds a classic status now. Last year Tammi Publishers took the 6th print run to bring back this classic.
Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency Oy Ltd.
info(at)ahlbackagency.com | +358 400 512 101 | www.ahlbackagency.com | Korkeavuorenkatu 37, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland
