Holztiger

Happy birthday house :-)

2012-01-18T18:35:00.003+01:00

This year, my house is getting 140 years old. I don´t know the exact month, of course. To much time passed by, but it´s something to know the year. A lot of records got lost at WW II, but here and there things were found. So I know it´s the house of the architect and that´s the reason it´s the largest house here (and the most beautiful I have to admit). After the whole village burned down in 1871, it was build anew only a year later. The speciality was the colourfulness of every house. It was public in this area. I found some pigments, but I didn´t know if it was original, but it´s similar to it´s new paint. It looks totally changed now. Of some kind I miss the shabby look, on the other side it was important to rescue the substance. It´s not getting better. And after some years it will look kind of normal, not that ... uh new. :-)

Trilogy

2011-11-03T15:06:00.007+01:00

Heartcore I-III
egg tempera & oil on stretched canvas (linen)
each 18 x 12 cm
2011

Yesterday I finished the third picture of a little trilogy. Hearts in different variations and states. The first one I wanted to show sunk into the earth, but I heard some music (as always) and at the very moment I painted the "earth" I heard a song about the sea. Well, I was lost in thoughts and painted water. Whatever. I think it suits it.
The next heart is in a preserving jar. My friend Zia told me about it as she´d read this stuff in a fairytale. I was intrigued and made a little sketch to remember it. Thanks Zia for this nice idea :-)
The third heart is from one of my older pictures, and I thought it would be nice to use it on it´s own ... not in a whole content, only the heart itself. The poor one is constricted, but I think, it´ll live. All of them ;-)

Night hike and twilight

2011-09-28T14:52:00.004+02:00

Nachtwanderung ( night hike)
egg tempera & oil on stretched canvas (linen)
100 x 80 cm
2011

Wow,that picture really took it´s time. I wanted to finish it in August, but time flies and has it´s own rules, so September ends in some days and it took 2 months to paint this work of art.
As always I painted some of my dreams plus sections from fairytales and other ideas to create this one. In this picture you can read the words Colonialwaaren, Kaffee & Tee, Roentgen. It´s not that visible on the photo. I´ve seen it once at an old house, kind of bizarre, hm? It means general store, coffee & tea, x-ray.

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Zwielicht
Öl auf Leinen
18 x 16 cm
2011

That one I painted in July but. It shows a Pantodon buchholzi. Schmetterlingsfisch in German. Butterfly-fish? ... Whatever, because of the name it´s a hermaphrodite between butterfly and fish.

Happy birthday Loki!

2011-06-22T14:49:00.003+02:00

Today my Sheltie Loki is 1 year old. How time flies! He´s beautiful, isn´t he? :-)

Nightly visitations and the lady in a red dress

2011-06-13T23:30:00.007+02:00

Der Waldspaziergang
The Forest Walk
oil on stretched canvas
100 x 60 cm
2011

The idea for this picture came out of nothing. One minute I walked with my dog, the other I had it before my inner eye. An absurd situation, because the red dress (inspired by Hieronymus Bosch) is impractical for such a venture. And the lady had to wear this beak mask I have a soft spot for. The title came with this idea and normally I don´t know a title in the beginning. Sometimes I know it during my work, sometimes I have to think about it very hard. I never knew it at such an early stage. The lilly is a lilium regale and even this detail was important with its florid scent. The background is only black (two kinds of black) and white, even it looks a little bluish.
After this swift idea I had to prime my stretched canvas, so no working on my picture the same day. That was torture! I went to sleep late at night, but I couldn´t sleep. All the time same picture danced before my inner eye, told me the title so I don´t forget it. I did roll my eyes because after this attack I would never forget what I want to paint and how to name it.
Late the next evening I could sketch the figure on the canvas, but that wasn´t enough. I couldn´t sleep again and when I slept I dreamt of painting this picture. I had the feeling my mind had a life of one´s own and I couldn´t do anything about it. I don´t even know why I was so besotted of this picture.
Boy was I grateful to make the first stroke of the brush. The nightly visitation ended at this time and after painting like a maniac its finished now. I like it, really, and I have to grin every time I look at it.

open studio

2011-05-11T14:03:00.018+02:00

Last weekend I opened my studio for visitors. The sun was shining, it was warm, so a lot of people decided to visit me to look at my pictures and the art of Jan (the other artist), enjoy the garden and eat some cake. It was beautiful.

my little studio, here I work - in the attic I work, too, but here it is all creative energy

some art in the living room

one of the bedrooms

same bedroom from the other side

in the attic

here some pictures on the old smokehouse

another part of the attic

Jan´s bugs *ggg*

a quiet place for thinking

Jan´s bird houses

in the garden

for the hungry guests

that´s me

Jan and Andra - Andra was giving a little garden concert

some of the guests - it was hard for me to find a chair *ggg*

the concert - my mum is on the left

Place of oblivion

2011-05-01T18:43:00.002+02:00

The place of oblivion
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
46 x 46 cm
2011

A place somewhere deep underwater, a water nymph sitting there with a dreamy look on her face. In front of her an eye-clock. A place no one knows about, because we´ve all forgotten about it. A place of myths and fairy tales that have no room in our world anymore – some people, of course, know this place, but their talk about it only in their dreams. It´s oblivious to people who don´t believe in the old things that were important centuries ago.
Is that clock working? I´m not sure of it, the pendulum seems stuck in the corner of the clock. It´s a place without time, without traces and it holds all the wisdom of the world. You only know about this place somewhere in the dark, if you believe in the magic of the world. Maybe the water nymph awakes and decides to talk to you – if she´ll like you. Try to find it, it´s worth the effort.

fleeting visit

2011-03-26T17:44:00.005+01:00

Die Observatin II
The Observation II
egg tempera and oil on stretched canvas (linen)
14 x 12 cm
2011

That little one is a variation to my other observation picture I painted in 2007. It has only a short intermezzo in my studio, because even finished it goes away. It´s fidgety and fond of traveling, it seems.
I changed the theme a little bit, so it doesn´t perforate a playing card, but all in all it´s more fiery. Which is the nicer one of the two picture is still in the eye of the beholder.

*************************************************
The next picture I finished today:

Der Abyssus
The Abyss
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
30 x 30 cm
2011

Last year I took a photo of an iris and it reminded me so much of a mouth, that an idea formed in my mind. You never know, what´s behind such a big mouth. It inspired this picture - my own kind of flower picture. Normally I don´t paint flowers and landscapes - don´t know, I can´t seem to get warm with this part of painting, but in this form it´s OK for me.

Imago

2011-02-15T18:28:00.002+01:00

Imago
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
80 x 90 cm
2011

I had this picture a long time in my mind, but there was an aspect in it, I changed a lot of times. It was difficult to find the right form of it. One morning I knew how to do it, but even then it needed some more months to actually paint it. In between the layers it looked terrible, I hated the colours. Much more intense it was. Fortunately I knew that with some more layers it would be alright. Phhh. Now it´s ready and done and I like it. Especially in the evening and at night it´s very telling. I don´t know why, maybe it likes the darkness ...

2011-01-28T15:02:00.006+01:00

All-gegenwärtig
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
18 x 12 cm
2011

Allgegenwärtig means ubiquitous, omnipresent. But "All" is even the german word for space, cosmos, universe and I did a wordplay again. I was inspired by the hourglass nebula (as I love all variants of galaxies, nebulas and so on), it looked like some kind of eye in the middle of it and my imagination was animated. So I had to use the eye of Horus again. I love that symbol and I can´t get enough of it, it seems. That is my variation of an fascinating phenomenon.

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And now something else. My beautiful friend Drachenfrau makes phantastic earrings and so on. See my last post about her Valentine´s giveaway.
That one makes me wacky. The colour is ... fantastic:

That´s my idea about submarine colour, the ocean and, and, and. Not blue, exactly THAT colour. I´m excited.
If you want to see more of her jewellery look here:

Drachenfrau at etsy

:-)

Drachenfrau´s Valentine´s giveaway

2011-01-24T14:39:00.004+01:00

Drachenfrau makes precious earrings and I adore her work. This giveaway looks all fragile and like made of gemstones, who spend most of their time under the earth to come now into light to bring fortune and beauty.

Have a look at it here: Drachenfrau´s Valentine´s giveaway

It´s worth to try one´s luck ;-)

Long time no see

2011-01-09T15:01:00.007+01:00

Die offensichtlichen Dinge des Lebens
(The obvious things of life)
30 x 30 cm
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
2011

In february my beloved dog died at age 13. I was so sad about it and couldn´t bring myself to much creativity. A long time I wasn´t sure to have a new dog, but in september a puppy came into my life. I couldn´t paint at this time, because he made so much nonsens ;-)
But now I´m back. It´s a small picture and it was nice to paint again. It´s another dream related theme. All nice pink. I don´t like pink that much, but ... uh ... it´s OK in this picture *ggg*

2010-06-04T23:00:00.001+02:00

Das Ende der Zeit
(The end of the time)
oil on stretched canvas
80 x 120 cm
2010

That one took a long time. I had some other things to do, so unfortunately this picture had to wait.
The picture plays with the elements, sometimes it´s openly to see, sometimes it´s quite symbolic. And under all these things, who act like a layer and show a first interpretation, lies another layer of meaning. Like always.

day of the open studio

2010-04-26T18:24:00.002+02:00

On the 1. and 2. May I open my studio for interested people. Time: 12.00 - 17.00.

Last year was great, a lot of people visited me. They came from this district an Berlin. Even the weather was beautiful.

painted bookcase

2010-02-19T19:43:00.005+01:00

I decided to paint my bookcase. It was painted in black when I bought it several years ago, and now I wanted to leave something from me - and it looks good:

Now it looks that way. I like it.

The quinces

And the pomegranates

new lady in the boudoir noir

2010-01-07T17:55:00.002+01:00

Marte A.
egg tempera & oil on stretched canvas (linen)
100 x 50 cm

2009-10-27T12:38:00.004+01:00

The Merman
egg tempera & oil on stretched canvas (linen)
75 x 57 cm
2009

Finally I finished a picture yesterday. A merman, of course. Can´t seem to get rid of them. This one was inspired by a poem of Lord Alfred Tennyson I´ve found some time ago. But as a matter of course the merman mixed with another ... uh ... individual I´ve once dreamed of. My dreams are kind of strange sometimes and my pictures generate some kind of independent existence.
I swear every time I walk by he´s grinning smugly at me, like he knows something I don´t. That´s devastating ...

2009-07-11T18:29:00.002+02:00

Pupated
Oil on stretched canvas (linen)
30 x 25 cm

This little mummy will transform into some kind of butterfly. At the moment it´s helpless, cocooned into itself, can philosophize about life and death and has to wait to become a higher being than it´s former shape. At this stage it´s not for sure that there´ll be a transformation, it´s somewhat uncertain, at least for the mummy. But that something´ll happen is visible from the outside. All that matters is the perspective. Who wants to know, doesn´t always know these things that help to relax a little bit (that´s a shame!). And who doesn´t care, because other stuff is more important does look with virgin eyes and hidden things are visible, even it isn´t significant at the moment.
I did always wonder, if egyptian mummies are in a metamorphosis …

Medusa

2009-05-20T22:42:00.007+02:00

Medusa
egg tempera and oil on stretched canvas (linen)
150 x 90 cm

My interpretation of the goddess Medusa. The model is my best friend. Of course she hasn´t a snake´s tail in reality (but who knows for sure) ...
Now I could post a lot of information of Medusa, but I´m not in the right mood at the moment. It´s far to much.

The next thing is an exhibition in Berlin with 99 other artists. I don´t know if I´ll like it, but hey, visitors can watch a lot of picture and it´s interesting to observe other artists. ;-)

download 100
30.05.2009 - 01.06.2009
11:00 - 18:00

Vernissage:
Friday, 29.05.2009; 19:00 - 21:00
with live music and performance

place:
Hetzer GmbH & Co Automobil KG . Hauptsitz Opel Hetzer
Knobelsdorffstrasse 63, 14059 Berlin (Charlottenburg)/Germany

But maybe it´ll be fun if some friends come with me ...

Inuit goddess

2009-03-05T23:08:00.008+01:00

Sedna
egg tempera and oil on stretched canvas (linen)
180 x 55 cm

Now it´s done, I´m proud. It was difficult to paint, because the size of the stretched canvas is large. My way to paint ranged between standing on a stool and lying on the floor. But that´s OK. Sedna was a great model and very kind. ;-)

Here a picture of her face (and again the layout is a mess *hmpf*):

2009-01-30T15:42:00.002+01:00

Johanna
oil and egg tempera an stretched canvas (linen)
90 x 70 cm

Hmmm, I don´t know why, but I can´t get my postings in the right form anymore. Months ago it was easy to do so, but than something changed and now my writing lies around like someone has thrown it without care. That gets on my nerves, really!

Oh, and that´s the picture that needed so much time. Lot of times I felt the urge to repaint it. But I have this feeling very often, so it´s better to ignore it. As the eyes were finished I liked that picture much better ...

it´s been a while ...

2009-01-19T15:26:00.002+01:00

Voodoo for beginners
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
20 x 20 cm

I was really busy the last months. The chinese painters visited Germany, and it´s typical for Chineses, to change the date every minute. ;-)
But a had a free ride to Cologne, so I could visit my best friend Drachenfrau. It was a nice time, lot of fun etc. pp.
But it was a stressful period and I hadn´t time to paint something, even all sketches were ready and a picture still in progress (it isn´t finished yet, because "Voodoo for beginners meandered it´s way to my fully attention).

But back to the picture. It´s part of a new series called "Entpuppt". Means something like "turning out to be". The word Puppe means pupa - but it´s the same word for doll, so it can be used this way, too. Like the end of the life of a doll. Yeah, there is my dislike for dolls again (some days ago I saw one hell of an ugly doll on etsy - uaaaaah). XD But I have to admit, I like my painted dolls much more than real dolls.

So I put "Dolly" and another one in this category. It suits them better than the portraits series, because the portraits are real persons - Dolly is not. And that new plan for painting dolls began with Dolly either, so I think it´s a good decision and it doesn´t look so empty.

I hope I have more time for painting the next weeks.

Yesterday ...

2008-11-29T18:34:00.003+01:00

I sold two pictures. The byer viewed all my art, asked about the prices etc. pp. She loved the Merman in the green robe really much, because it´s such a handsome man ... ;-) Maybe one day she´ll buy that one, too.
Then she said: Well, I´ll take that and that. She pointed at a bigger one and ... at my Hieronymus. You can see a part of him on my about-me-picture. I never, ever wanted to sell that one, but yesterday I decided to let it hang and not to take it into my bedroom, where no potential buyer could see it. Maybe it was time for him to go. I´m really sad, but sold it for a really good price, of course (that was no hindrance for the buyer).
Now I have a nice amount of money and my beloved Hieronymus only as postcards and a print *sniff*

I could use some more of these kind of buyers. They know, what they want and are willing to expend the money without asking: Do I get a discount when I buy two pictures?

*takes a last long look at Hieronymus*

next picture

2008-10-14T16:55:00.003+02:00

Ich-Universum
oil and egg tempera on stretched canvas (linen)
54 x 35 cm

Some kind of self-centered universe. Almost everyone lives in a comfort zone, where it is cosy, everything well known etc. It´s difficult to leave this zone, because no one knows what to expect. This is like a foreign country with a language you don´t speak. But like someone in this zone sees the things in his own way, so do other people in their self-centered universes as well. It´s an easy way to put other people in some kind of drawers, because "you know everything about him or her, you know what they fancy, what they´re doing, what they´re dreaming". But other people see you the same way. Bad, huh?
So this zone is like a little kingdom with a curtain to shut out the world, but in reality it´s nothing more than a cardbox, that looks a little bit like a puppet theatre.

between two vernissages

2008-09-17T16:01:00.006+02:00

Wasserreich
oil and egg tempera on stretched canvas (linen)
115 x 90 cm

One vernissage is over, the next one is tomorrow. In between I found some time to end a picture, that I ended one and a half year ago. It was important for me to change some things in it, especially the king. He´s one of the mermans that came into my life last year, even I haven´t seen it the first time ;-)
The original robe was white and very boring, so even the king looked pale and impatient. Now it´s rich with little fish tails (can I say a fish has a tail?) instead of ermine. The crown is much bigger, too, and even he looks still impatient (that´s characteristic of mermans) he looks much more better.
The title I can´t translate. I don´t know an exact word for it. Wasserreich has two meanings. On one side you think of an empire under water, on the other side it can mean an area that´s not arid. I haven´t found a word for that.

working in another genre

2008-08-20T18:32:00.005+02:00

Last year in China I´ve worked in the studios of the painters with chinese ink. That was something new for me. First I was a little bit ... clumsy, but in the end it was a lot of fun to paint with it. Unfortunately the pictures are in China in the studios.
One of the paintes gave me 5 kg of finest 10 years old rice paper from Hongkong. It´s strong and has a really good structure, a little bit rough and you can even paint aggressiv without destroying it ;-)
Today I´ve decided to try it again. I´ve only had black ink, so I´ve took my old watercolors (I normally hate watercolors) to give it more life (I´ve painted with red, of course, love that color). It was a lot of fun again, even I did miss the beautiful ink colors ...
To take a photo was a pain in the a..

O.T. (without title)
chinese ink and watercolors on chinese rice paper
ca. 70 x 135 cm

Melodie

2008-07-30T16:09:00.004+02:00

Melodie E. J.
egg tempera and oil on canvas (linen)
70 x 45 cm

That´s another good friend. She´s an artist, too, and originally she´s born in the USA, her mother is from the UK and she´s grown up in the Caribbean (the Dutch part). Now she lives not far from me, but unfortunately she decided to go to the UK. But hey, so I have a place to stay.

And today I´ve received a small parcel. Hmmmm, I´ll not open it before one minute after midnight. It´s not easy. It looks so interesting. Thanks Drachenfrau! *hugs*

these and that

2008-07-17T15:49:00.004+02:00

Today I´ve varnished some of my pictures. It´s about time, they´re dry now and I want some protection. And because I was to lazy to do that the last weeks, I have to varnish 11 more. Mph. I´ll do that the next days.

And at the moment there´s a little exhibition of our club. Now my picture "Submerged" is insured with 4000,00 €! My, my. A good friend of mine, A., had that idea, because her father was a well known artist in East Germany. And he told his daughter this amount insured for the exhibition, he said, if something happens he has good money. And because A. loves my pictures and means, they´re similar to her father´s, she decided to specify that amount insured for my picture, too.
She told me that last week. She had a little trouble about it with the director of that institution, but she says that´s normal if you want to show professional art.
OK, I don´t know what to say about it. It´s really nice, of course, that she values my art that high. If it would show the next time on my bank account ... ;-)
I guess that director now looks with horror to my exhibition in september. More than one picture ... *coughs* So they´ll look properly after the pictures. *shrugs*

new picture

2008-07-12T19:03:00.003+02:00

Andra Barz
oil, egg tempera, acrylic on stretched canvas (linen)
105 x 120 cm

Now the picture is ready and I didn´t show other progress pictures. I did it on my german blog, but I have to admit, I was quite to lazy to do that here, too.

It´s a portrait of a good friend. She´s a singer, mainly Jazz, but sometimes she sings to my pictures ;-) Her feelings about it or what she thinks, when she looks at it. That´s really exciting.

I´ve decided to paint her in art deco style. I like that time and it suits her, too. It´s noble and faded, lascivious and cool, livelily and dead. You never know, what´s the facade and what´s real.

still in progress

2008-06-25T18:43:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I´ve began a new picture - the portrait of a good friend. So today I´ve used some egg tempera for the background ... again I´ve had so much, that three other ones became a new colour.
Normally I don´t post pictures still in progress, so that´s an exception. I don´t know, if I´ll show such a glimpse again. Maybe ... maybe when it´s ready.

Chinese invasion

2008-06-15T23:05:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I was at the home of befriended artists, because next week we have a symposium there. My friend Andra was with me and we helped a little bit. Anette, one of the artists, has a lot of contacts to China. So they had guests - three chinese women, one was an artist, too. We had a nice talk, good food, and all in all it was such a nice day. I invited her to come to my home to have a look into my studio. So we decided to do it today.
Well ... today I had a chinese invasion ;-) They always know a lot of people, which came too. Some of them work at the embassy of China here in Berlin. We all had a funny afternoon together.
Later that day I talked with Anette. She told me I´ll probably have an exhibition in China next year ... and that the nice artist from China is really influential. Wow, I was kind of speechless.
So I´ll see what brings next year. But that would be so cool, because since my time in China last year it´s my wish to have an exhibition in there. Especially in Beijing.

But now I´m far to tired to think to much about it.

New Boudoir Queen

2008-06-04T14:21:00.008+02:00

Manon G.
oil and egg tempera on canvas (linen)
100 x 50 cm

Eventually I´ve painted this new person. I´m not even sure, if it is a woman or a man - maybe a drag queen? Hmmmm. But it´s not really necessary to know the truth about her/him.

The colors in the original are more bright and of course the details are better to see. But that photo is only an impression, a glimpse over my shoulder.

At the moment I´m more in the garden than in front of my easel. It´s so sunny and hot, the roses burst into bloom, so I like to be outside.

Undercoat, base coat, primary coat?

2008-05-20T18:02:00.002+02:00

Whatever the right translation is, today I´ve experimented a little bit. I´ve assembled some strecher frame and I had to ground it, of course. My Gesso is nearly empty, so it was a good way to try it.
Yesterday I´ve cooked some animal glue made from little and cute animals. Rabbits f.e. I´ve put it on the linen. So today I´ve made the undercoat. I´ve found some old prescription. Normally it´s made with white lead, but ... ugh. The base was something similar to egg tempera. And that glue of cute animals. It has looked so yummy and creamy. I´ve used champagne-colored chalk and a little bit of titanium white pigment. Better than toxic lead.
I´m satisfied with the result. It looks good, not to blend white, even and without this little hills I always had with Gesso.

China again

2008-05-08T15:57:00.002+02:00

Peking duck
Chinaesk
oil on canvas (linen)
80 x 60 cm

I love Peking duck, it´s so decilious. You eat the skin only. It´s served with some kind of thin pancake, a special sauce and vegetables. You roll everything in that pancake and eat it.

Hanging animals was a normal picture in China. You can see all the stages till the meal so to speak. It´s natural, nothing hidden.
And chinese people have every situation in their mind. Good meal, loving people and so on ;-)

Here I am

2008-05-03T15:24:00.003+02:00

Dolly
oil, egg tempera, acrylic on canvas (linen)
60 x 45 cm

She´s not as scary as before. I´ve changed her, because I didn´t like the troublesome eyes she had at a former stage. Now I can live with her, I even like her a little bit.
Why Dolly? Well, my first intention was a doll. This Dolly-doll has spooked inside my head for quite a while. I don´t like dolls, never have, even as a child I preferred cars and such things. Dolls where scary, especially at night. I´ve always had the image of some living individual that stared with wide open eyes and whispered.
Later I´ve read that dolls symbolized other people and were used for magic. They weren´t toys.
Hmmmm ... that was a good explanation for me. For me dolls weren´t toys either.
So I had to paint something like a doll even she isn´t a normal doll. And she had to look a little run-down, used. Whatever.

Currently ...

2008-04-30T23:56:00.004+02:00

I´m working on two pictures. The bigger one is chinaesk, the small one a portrait.
I don´t have a clue which way the portrait will lead me. The woman in the picture looks a bit scary with a ... hmmm ... naked face. Don´t know how to explain it. I always hate portraits at this stage. Only some layers, ridiculous colours, not enough light and shadow and starring fishy eyes. Disgusting. It´s the last phase before I´ll compose the face in the way it should be. The composing I adore very much. Love it, really. It´s getting the right colour so the still to bright red will fade to a nicer shade.
And the scary thing ... well, that was my intention I´ll explain when it´s ready. But I´m not sure at the moment ... I can´t stand it.

My chinaesk-picture I like ... even at this stage. There´s no face, that´s the reason I guess. Though it´s a bit mean. Nothing for vegetarians, but I can´t show considerations for wispy sentiments. Don´t like, don´t look.

new picture

2008-04-20T15:30:00.004+02:00

Submerged
egg tempera and oil on canvas (linen)
100 x 70 cm

It´s from my reflection-series. It was not my intention to paint a new one in this series in the next weeks or months, because there are more important projects at the moment.
Of course it´s not that worse till I need more pictures there, too. In this reflection-series some kind of subseries has arised. Maybe I have an obsession with watermen? I`ve liked that kind of humanoid being since I was a child. And after a funny dream some months ago I had to paint something like that ... again and again.
And during working my hands and face were green. Normally I´m not that bad when I´m working. I don´t need work clothes, but this time, well, I wasn´t able to put the oil paint only on the picture.

The german word for submerged has some other meanings, too. Disappear for example.

new picture again

2008-03-17T14:29:00.008+01:00

Resurrection
oil, eggtempera and acrylic on canvas (linen)
90 x 45 cm

Another one in my chinaesk-series. A lot of Chineses are buddhists - this religion didn`t die, it lived in
the underground, sunken into fog of privacy, unforgotten.
And now the people can show it openly. It´s growing and growing.
The old temples are getting restored and monks live there again. In Hangzhou you can find a mountain with a lot of buddhas, bashed into the stone. And opposite is one of the revived temples.
I loved it.

Dimensions

2008-03-04T17:44:00.005+01:00

Dimensions
oil and egg tempera on canvas (linen)
95 x 105 cm

I´ve finished this picture today. Finally.
In China in the old gardens you can find a lot of these gates. It´s called moongate. It´s round for good chi and is a beautiful frame for everything behind. There are other forms, too. Like vases for wealth for example. But the moongates are the most beautiful ones. So I´ve choosen this for the picture.
A friend said the picture reminds her of blood and womanhood. That was not my intention, but it sounds good, of course. For me it´s a gate to other dimensions. You never know what awaits you behind.

Portraits and other stuff

2008-02-22T18:01:00.001+01:00

I haven't done much the last days. Again I had a cold ... I take all colds I can get this year. Hmpf. And that happens every time I paint on my new chinaesk-picture. Maybe I should throw it away? Nah, I'll not do that, but I should begin another one.

It's my way to paint different pictures at the same time. It's good to have some distance between the layers, to have a look on it again to make modifications. When you sit right in front of a picture with your nose in the linen you have only a small space your looking at. So if I'm getting to bed I see the picture again and again and can decide if I like it or not. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to painting, even I adore chaos in my studio ... and other rooms ... That's the reason I need so long for my pictures. It has to grow, I don't have a colour concept in the beginning. I put layer over layer and the colours change, getting luminous. Vandyckbrown over mauve it's not the same like mauve over vandyckbrown. You can change a colour so it shines in another way. Of course on a photograph you can't see the colour in a proper way. Only if you take a look at the original you can spot the fine nuances.

But what I really wanted to say: I have a new idea. A portrait of course ... I love it to paint faces. And I hope I can paint my pictures and I'm not getting sick again.

in the end ...

2008-02-05T15:14:00.000+01:00

Now a picture is ready I've began five months ago right before China. After China I've painted four other pictures and began a fifth one before I decided to end this now. Sometimes it needs time.
It shows a dream of me again. Not really the dream, but a episode of it. I'll not tell the meaning of this dream, because I never tell such things openly. It's much to personal. Plus I was a man in it ... again. I've changed it to.
So it shows a jigsaw piece with a lot of symbolism. But even that symbolism will have a different meaning for everyone.

The name of the picture is in English: "The dream of the samurai"

new picture

2008-02-01T18:25:00.000+01:00

Not really a new picture, because it´s ready since the end of November. Today I took a photo of it.
I made a new category. It´s called "Chinaesk" - a wordplay: China and grotesk (engl: grotesque).
When I was in China, I saw a lot of lotus flowers. The flowers were withered and I could see the seeds. I´ve got the impression of eyes, which followed me around. So that inspired me of the picture "September".
The sketch to that picture I´ve made in China and I´ve given it as a present to a chinese artist. Her name is Zuo Hong - she is such a kind woman. She was like a second mother to me ;-)

This picture can be found here, too:

click

So, I'm back ...

2008-01-29T18:38:00.000+01:00

since Tuesday last week *uhum*
It was so nice to be back in Cologne. It could have been some more days. We had a lot of fun, and Drachenfrau and her Sweetie made sushi. OK, it was made with kippered salmon, so I couldn't eat the nigiri - quite to salty *sniffs*, but the maki was eatable. But I think that was the reason why I had to eat real sushi with raw tunny today. Delicious ;-)
Oh, and we ate mochis. I love mochis! With black sesame. Yummy.
On monday we went to the Linkin Park concert. It was great. A little drafty, but after some songs it was warm. Only the woman beside Drachenfrau was confusing. She jumped like a rabid monkey. I've never seen such an old woman behaving like a schoolgirl - screaming, out of her mind and such things. Hmmmm.

So, have I forgotten anything? ...

Cologne

2008-01-17T22:30:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I'll go to Cologne by train. I'm so glad. I've visited my friend two years ago, that's a long time. To long, because that lazy a** (same friend) is never visiting me :-P I'll change it in the future. Hehe.

The bad thing about that journey is, that I'll get up at 7 am :-O That's nothing for sensitive artists.

one, two, three ...

2008-01-12T14:06:00.000+01:00

I've made an "inventory" of my pictures I've painted in 2007, because then I have the feeling I'm doing something useful *ggg*
I've painted 19 pictures. OK, these are the pictures I've finished. The twentieth one I`ve began before China - it's nearly ready, only some days of work to do. It's not that difficult to paint, but some pictures need time. And it's one of it.
And I didn't mention the 2 or 3 ones I've made for a protest campaign or directly for someone. I only wanted to count the "important" pictures, the series and so on.

I hope I can paint in the near future. I'm beginning to feel impatient, I have some ideas, unfinished pictures, I wanna paint! But I have to wait a little bit. To work with turpentine oil and cadmium yellow for example isn't to good for my conjunctivitis *sighs*

:-/

sick

2008-01-11T23:04:00.000+01:00

The last days I couldn't paint anything, because I'm sick. But it's not so bad. Now I can read all the books lying on my couch.
And next week I want to go to Cologne. I'll visit Drachenfrau and we'll go to a Linkin Park concert. Well, I want to, but I don't know, if there'll be any train, who brings me in that town. Month after month is strike in the air. I even was in China some weeks, and when I came back, it was all the same here. So I'd my own thoughts about obstinacy and the lack of will to change situations.
That makes me angry. Ph.

So I can say at the moment I have the feeling I manage nothing. Is that to pessimistic?

OK, I'll go and read a little bit.

Today ...

2008-01-01T17:27:00.000+01:00

I've painted with egg tempera. It's the first layer, before I'll work with oil-paint. I've changed the ingredients of the egg tempera a little bit. First I used only egg and oil in it, but it was so viscous. I wasn't pleased with the result, even the pigments were bright.

Today I've put linseed oil, dammar varnish, some drops of the ethereal oil of clove and water in my shaken egg. Now my arm hurts from shaking ...
It was definitely a good decision to change my ingredients. It was easy to paint and not so erratic. I even could paint a second layer over it without disturbing the first one. That's good! Most of time I'd wait some days - and then the egg tempera is spoiled most of time. And that really smells terrible *coughs*

Finally another post

2007-12-29T19:23:00.000+01:00

I guess I'm a little bit lazy at the moment.
Today I looked at a mixture from two weeks ago, if it is ready for using. It was. Turpentine and ... hmmm ... I really don't know the word in English and can't find it in any dictionaries. It's called Dammar. I need this mixture for my egg tempera. So in the next days I'll begin to paint a new picture, but now I have to wait, because tomorrow I'll go to my brother and sister-in-law. She'll cook nabe. That I like really much. I ate it once in Osaka with her parents and in September in Nanjing (China). Yeah.

So now I've written something and my friend can't complain anymore, that I don't write anything, hehe.

Well ...

2007-12-18T14:53:00.000+01:00

I'm crazy. Another Blog ... in English! But it's a good way to improve my English. So if someone finds some mistakes, take them and make an exhibition ... whatever.

edit: I changed the blog's name from "The Artangel" to "Holztiger", because there could be a discrepancy to my website (it has the same name). Uh ... especially when I know how to make the blog taking my linklist over ... without disappearing into nirwana after saving. What a Schlamassel