I found this magazine, Ilutegija (Maker of Beauty), at a vintage bookseller's stall in Balti Jaam, Tallinn, just before leaving Estonia. Ilutegija began publication before Estonia's 1991 restoration of independence from the USSR; this issue was published at the start of 1992. Though I found it in Tallinn, it was published in Pärnu - where my Estonian residency was located. Due to the timing of my finding it, however, this is actually the first of the paintings made at my second residency this summer: Takt in Berlin, Germany.
The page is an embroidery pattern for bullfinches on a pine branch (the Eurasian or common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, on a Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris). Rather than follow the stitching instructions, I painted a realistic male bullfinch and pine branch directly over the simplified pattern for him, leaving the original female bullfinch and the rest of the printed branch untouched, so the pattern and the painting sit side by side.
The bullfinch is a songbird, and in regional folklore it's tied to steadfast winter cheer. Estonia sang its way to independence in the Singing Revolution.
This is Breaking the Pattern, acrylic on Estonian embroidery-pattern page from 1992, 11.6x8.06”, 2026.