About Sabine

The world is full of beauty – and that's what I prefer to paint.
I was born in Finland, the country of forests, sea and a thousand lakes, and here I started to draw as a child, when my father first gave me pencils to play with. In Helsinki I studied and graduated in Industrial Design and Applied Arts at Aalto University.

In the beginning I worked as a designer, mainly of fashion and prints, and moved to Florence in Italy while very young. I missed nature a lot, so after a few years I found my home outside the city, in the Chianti region, where I still live with my family; my husband, two sons and two cats!

My love for watercolors started here in Italy. My boyfriend – now husband - gave me my very first watercolor box as a present. It wasn't really love at first sight. I loved bold and strong paintings, while the watercolor paintings I had seen, and managed to paint, would not be like that. But I didn't give up and continued to paint occasionally. Finally I decided to take some lessons - and a passion was born! Now I paint daily and teach watercolor classes and workshops in Tuscany and abroad.

I have participated in various exhibitions and impromptu painting events, also winning several awards. In Italy the exhibitions have been in Florence, Chianti, Milan, Fabriano, Acri and Palermo, Sicily. I have represented Italy abroad in exhibitions in Spain, Jordan, Bulgaria, Australia, Finland and Albany.

My paintings are also present in private and public collections in Europe, Asia and America. I think you never stop learning, so I continue to learn and study with various international Artists. I want to promote contemporary and modern watercolor painting, and feel that my mission is to inspire and bring art into everybody's life!

How I paint.
I mainly paint to express myself and my feelings of the moment. I love colors and my style is loose and bold. I'm a very prolific and fast painter – I paint intuitively, and will often do a few different variations where I explore the possibilities, instead of deciding too much in advance.

I adore the fluidity of watercolors, letting the pigments flow on a wet paper expressing emotions and atmosphere, but I also continue experimenting with other mediums. I regularly do life drawing and join fellow artist to paint together 'en plein air' or Urban Sketching in and around Florence.

These moments of study and sharing are very inspiring, and give a welcome break, as a most of my paintings are done in solitude. I find inspiration mostly in nature – during walks in the hills of Chianti, exploring Tuscany or travelling, or just observing the changes in my garden. What captures my attention is the light and the changing seasons. I want to express my inner vision, not copy exactly what I see.