The French realist style appears in the skillful composition of Oijustiessä (The Short Cut). The random-looking boards and logs front and center help build the whole composition of the painting and draw the eye to the stream, but at the same time the viewer’s gaze is drawn away from the path towards the background of the red and gray clusters of houses. In the foreground the woman’s gaze turns back towards the viewer before the creek crossing as an invitation to take a deeper look at the painting. Pekka Halonen painted this work in Karelia close to the home of his future wife, Maija Mäkinen, near the Sortavalsky mill village. Oijustie spoke to Halonen`s contemporaries Kasimir Leino and Arvid Järnefelt, who both wrote favorably of the painting. (http://www.alternativefinland.com/art-pekka-halonen/)