Zia

Zia
oil on stretched canvas (linen)
100 x 80 cm
2012


I had the new (old) idea to portrait people in their vocation. First I deliberated who to paint, then I had a flash of genius. Hey, I know some really interesting people, why not paint them? So Zia ist one of my first. As always in my painting it´s not that clear what exactly she´s doing. That´s me and my way to picture things. Not able to fathom at the very first sight what it is. It needs some more sights. Zia is a genius with plants. She sells them, she designs gardens, she has a unique way in this area. It was inevitable to paint her as some kind of goddess *ggg* When I look at this picture I think: Gaia. But of course she has an evil side just like everyone. She loves murdering. No, not by herself. She leaves that to other talented persons in form of books and movies. She loves murder mysteries. So don´t read the book as an ... uh ... unkind word. That´s only in English that way ;-) It´s not a bad word at all but a poison. So I decided to chain the very important aspects: plants and murder. The link is a very harmless looking plant in her hand, all beautiful and so deadly. It´s linked to greek mythology, it´s linked to poison and the book title and it´s linked to plants. Aconitum napellus. I hope Zia appreciates this picture, she was so kind to give permission to paint her. She didn´t even know the outcome of this all, it was all in my evil hand. ;-)

Happy birthday house :-)

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

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

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!

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

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

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