Estonian artist enjoys the Palos Verdes sunshine.

By Tom Fitt

Southern Californians take a lot for granted: the weather, the beach, wonderful restaurants that offer fresh and healthy cuisine of all sorts, the friendliness of a citizenry that comfortably wear jeans and running shoes, a laissez faire attitude that even the traffic on PCH cannot undermine.

Sometimes, though, it takes a newcomer to slap us out of the la-la of LA living. “The best thing is the light,” says Aapo Pukk, reflecting on what he considers to be the primary advantage of living in his new (two months) home on Palos Verdes. Oh sure, he appreciates all the other obvious benefits. But given Pukk’s profession and the section of the world from he emigrated, one can easily understand his affection for the bright sun that bathes the Peninsula most days of the year.

Aapo Pukk, 44, is an artist – a portrait artist, more specifically, though his body of work certainly is not limited to the smiling faces of rich people who want an oil likeness hanging above their hearth. After about seven years of visiting the United States for artists’ conferences and competitions, Pukk and wife Helge two months ago moved their meager belonging to America and just two weeks ago set up housekeeping in a rented duplex near Malaga Cove library. To some, the home/studio with a paint-stained tarp draped over the living room/studio sofa may appear modest. But, just as Pukk is enthusiastic about the natural light that greets his every day, so is he thrilled with his new digs.

“Look,” he beams as he leads a fast-paced tour of his new domain, “We have a window all our own. And, outside the door, we have this,” he points to the brick walkway that runs about eight feet from the front door to the curb. “And a garage, we have a garage.”

The Pukks didn’t know such luxury in their native Estonia. A one-time state of the USSR. Estonia is a small country – “about 1.4 million people in the whole nation,” says Pukk – just 80 kilometers south of Finland. Before you go running to try – in vain, no doubt – to find the new republic on your inevitably dated globe, suffice it to say that Estonia is Northern Europe. It’s cold. And, much to the dismay of an artit trying to make a living, it’s dark for about half the year. Colors on palates tend to reflect the dominant color of the personality of the populace – gray.

“Life for the Estonian people,” says Pukk, his accent broad, but his conversational English structure excellent , “is that something will be coming in the future. Everything is based on hope. Here in America, all things around me are ready, they’re here already, we don’t have to live for the future.”

Pukk was born to be an artist. His mother ran a children’s art school in his hometown of Tartu. Paints, pastels, charcoal sticks were around this only son from the beginning of his life. “Painting was like mother’s milk,“ smiles Pukk upon reflection his early years. He entered formal art school at an early age and continued his training through six years at university where “six days a week, we drew people in the morning, then we painted people in the afternoon,” says Pukk.

While attending carnivale in Finland as a teenager, Pukk had a conversation with one of his teachers that started him along the path of portraiture. “My teacher knew my training. I was trying to decide what I was going to do, and he simple said ‘Just paint people’,” says Pukk. His first paying job followed shortly thereafter. “For 10 Finnish marks – not very much money – I’d draw you.”

Pukk’s skills, clientele and fees improved in short time. Before long, he was painting government officials, church elders, many of the important people in Estonia. His work started to become known in America, through shows and competitions.

One fortuitous meeting for Pukk and his wife came seven years ago when Palos Verdes native Diane Van, while visiting relatives in Sweden, mentioned to her cousin that she’d like to have portraits of her children painted.  “My cousin knew Aapo, so we took the boat ride over to Estonia to meet him,” says Van. “His talent was immediately obvious.”

It was the friendship between the Pukks and Van that eventually let to the couple’s choosing Palos Verdes for their American residence. “We visited Diane every time I came to the U.S for a show,” says Pukk. “I always knew I wanted to come to America. When I was 16, I made a list of all the things we didn’t have in Estonia. It started with the toilet paper. Then jeans – if you had a pair of jeans, you were considered too much of a capitalist.”

He sees Palos Verdes as “a small model of America. Every day there are new things. Nature and ocean is good. Here, I see real waves; I can draw dolphins jumping and pelicans lying in the same picture.

“Peacocks, too. The only time I ever saw a peacock before I came here was in a botanical garden. They had one. Here, they are like chickens in the street. Peacocks are too much; I think God wasted too much beauty on the peacock; the blue is so perfect,” muses Pukk.

Thought painting portraits is Pukk’s livelihood, he still draws and paints landscapes. “God’s colors are always right,” he says. When Pukk is between portrait assignments, he takes his gear to the beach and works. “I have to be working all the time,” he admits.  

One of his favorite places in Southern California is Venice Beach. “I go there about once a month to see all the different types of people. Everyone is there. I don’t want to be there all the time, but every few weeks is good. “

And, though most clients come to Pukk for a sitting, the artist is not uncomfortable approaching complete strangers he might find interesting. “I go up to people in the street and say, ‘You have a good face. Can I draw you?’ I met one bearded man at a show who was just looking around. I found him so interesting, I had him sit for me and I painted five different styles of portraits of him in one day.”

When Pukk does a portrait he gets to know the subject and, by doing so, he strives to bring the work to life. “When people know the person I’ve painted, I want them to look at the portrait and feel like the person is in the room talking to them,” he says. ‘Painting a portrait presents a window to the world for me. Every new portrait brings more new information about the whole human kind.”

There will be an Aapo Pukk show this spring at the home of his friend, Diane Van. They haven’t set the date yet, but Pukk promises “good food and music” to accompany the many paintings which he will display. In the meantime, if a slender, well-groomed, accented man with a beautiful blond wife at his side approaches you and asks if he can draw you, get comfortable and let Aapo Pukk work his magic.