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

Place of oblivion

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

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

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 ...

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.

*****************************************************

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

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 ;-)