Press Kit — Keili Major

Short bio

Keili Major is an Estonian painter based in Garessio, in the Italian Ligurian Alps. She paints directly on canvas with her fingers — the finger painting technique — using oil colours — a technique she discovered in 2018 while working on a koi fish painting, when the brushes “weren't enough.” She also teaches private painting lessons. keilimajorartist.com

Standard bio

Keili Major is an Estonian painter based in Garessio, in the Italian Ligurian Alps, who works directly with her fingers, oil on canvas. Born in a small village in southern Estonia, she lived seven years in Queensland, Australia (2015–2021), where she trained under Australian painter Bill Mackay and won her first art prize in 2016.

She returned to Italy at the end of 2021 and moved to Garessio in 2023, where her studio is today. She began finger painting in 2018: placing her finger on the canvas, she felt “two puzzle pieces clicking into place.”

Her work spans the landscapes of Australia, the forests of Estonia, and the Italian Ligurian Alps, including private commissions and permanent exhibitions. She also teaches private painting lessons for adults and children, from beginner to advanced level.

Her permanent exhibition at the La Fabbrica del Cotone restaurant in Garessio opened in May 2026.

Long bio

Keili Major is an Estonian visual artist based in Garessio, in the Italian Ligurian Alps. Born in a small border village in southern Estonia, surrounded by forests, she spent her summers at her grandmother's house picking redcurrants and blueberries before breakfast. By the age of thirteen she had already felt within her a deep passion for painting and art in general. She attended high school, but her dream was to attend art school.

The dream returned with full force in 2015, when Keili and her partner Claudio moved to Australia, in search of an English-speaking country where she could finally pursue her dream. They lived there for seven years, mostly in Queensland; for several months they lived in a van that became her first “travelling gallery.” It was in Australia that her painting blew open: the turquoise of the ocean, the palm trees, the beaches and the intense light transformed her artistic language. There she met her master, Australian painter Bill Mackay, and in 2016 she won her first art prize with Watermelon Stand at Coalstoun Lakes, an oil painting depicting a roadside fruit stand with watermelons in Australia.

In 2018, while working on a large koi fish painting (one metre by one), frustrated by brushes that “never seemed enough,” she tried finger painting for the first time. Placing her finger on the canvas, she felt an immediate deep connection, described as “two puzzle pieces clicking into place.” Since then, finger painting in oil on canvas has become her signature technique, alongside realistic painting with water-mixable oils.

At the end of 2021 Keili and Claudio returned to Italy and chose Garessio — one of “I Borghi più belli d'Italia” (Italy's most beautiful villages) and named most beautiful historic village in Piedmont in 2018 — after seeing only a few photographs and a video of the town. Today Keili paints daily from her atelier in Regione Sparvaira 14, a peaceful haven surrounded by nature. Her subjects range from the Australian coast to the forests of Estonia, to the rivers and mountains of the Tanaro Valley, as in the 2026 painting Tanaro, born after an extraordinary snowfall that turned the river into “deep blue and frozen turquoise.”

Alongside her artistic practice, teaching has always been central to her path. From her first students in Queensland to the private lessons she now gives in Garessio, Keili works with adults and children, beginners and advanced students, in Italian, English and Estonian.

In May 2026 she opened a permanent exhibition of nine original works at the La Fabbrica del Cotone restaurant in Garessio: a permanent gallery accessible only to restaurant guests during lunch or dinner, where each work is accompanied by a QR code linking to its full story online. Works are available both on commission and for direct purchase.

Today Keili continues to paint, teach, and welcome visitors to her studio by appointment.