Monday, April 30, 2012

Bornplatz, Hamburg

My intention was to kind of sum up the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, St. Marc's in Venice and other Roman buildings and transcend them.This is not the building that used to stand on Bornplatz, Hamburg, Germany, but happened to be quite similar to this temple in my hometown.
Bornplatz today
The building is gone, the square shows the former ground plan. It is my idea of a temple where spiritual growth takes place. The pyramids are still integrated as a symbol of a rise step by step. Is it one's own effort that carries us higher? I believe so.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Finished -- and yet a new Start

I'm aware that I'm walking in Paul Klee's footsteps! But this all is a heap of details. What is missing is a composition. This is all much too chaotic. I'll start anew. What I like about it is the water color look. Painting with gouaches doesn't favour the variations of intensity, light and dark as you can see in the copper roof parts of the painting. Water color is translucient. This requires a different technique; I paint on white paper and mount it on the black background. The title is "A Temple for All".

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Cut and Paste or Cut and Waste?

Painted a watercolor with thousands of details. Wanted to apply some space-breaking techniques like neglecting perspective and reaching an "each-side-up"-feel. I was close to finishing, only very few white spots to be done.
I was not happy with the result, took scissors and chopped that thing. Then I remembered I had not recorded my work. I put the pieces back in order on a black paper and took a picture.
Then I started working according to the Rayna-Gillman-Method, rearranging the bits and pieces. I came to the conclusion that the copper roof did not work upside down (such a sophisticated idea that it just could not work). I pushed the bits here and there.
At last I glued them onto the background, joined some white pieces into the scene und started painting some more.
The adventure isn't over yet. WIP -- waste in proposal.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Our doll house is finished. A new print over the sofa, Kandinsky in Paris 1935. Can modernism be nostalgic? In a way yes. Having tea in the new surrounding. Now I hope to have the time to be creative again. But now we have a problem: We had a jungle of big green plants which we quite liked, but now we found out we are much happier without most of them! 4 of  5 are sitting on the balcony now, and we are not taking them in. One tall ficus will do. Would you be able to throw plants away?
I'm 63 today. Went out for lunch with Yael's lovely tiger backpack. Mind my new singlasses -- no, funglasses for 5$. Can you see the stars on the frame?

Friday, April 13, 2012

Work Is Done

 New paint, new carpet.  New boards, put up and screwed together by my husband who has been working like mad.


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Offline for a few days

Due to our renovation, we have to unplug our internet connection. See you after painting our home!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Renovation Overdue


For a few (quite a few) years we have lived in this home, the flat we took when my dhJ and I moved together and before we got married. It is quite a big decision to pick the largest room apart and push the whole stuff into another room (the place where I paint). We chose red then, and we have loved it. Guess which color will be next: the same one. Red is never boring! J said the color restores his energy when he comes home from his tiring job. Incredible how the sun has bleached the paint! Now J is unscrewing the furniture, and on Tuesday my brother will come to help J with the paint.
Here you see my brother years ago, as he was doing the first strokes, then he turned to me and said: "Still time to change your mind!" No, we didn't.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

New Painting

Every 2 or 3 days, a new painting pops out of my studio. Gouache, 8.3x11.7"
Title: "Stabbing Mother Earth II".
The Tibetans believed that mining is no good; it might stir up negative forces from inside the earth. They would only take what the earth gave them. Even benevolent observers like Heinrich Harrer smiled about this naive attitude.