more hands

Great grand-mother's hands No2
Mixed media and collage 21x29cm

hands

Where I come from.
My grandfather ( from my mothers side ) is the first boy on the left side.

I love this photo... It shows such an old time, that really doesn't exist anymore, and it is not thaaaaaat long time ago. Where families got done a photo maybe once in their life time. No smiling.... carrying a flower... in contrast to our 'overload ' of photos ! I am fascinated by their faces and trying to read into them . And there she is: my great grand-mother with these unbelievable rough hands.... and her eyes ! Will do a little bit of work about that ! Now during the holidays is a good time. It won't be anything big and loud... Maybe just few drawings !

Great grand-mother's hands. drawing on paper. 20x20cm.

bad mood

Bad mood. sketch and collage on paper. 14x21cm.

.... Even in his new happy bathrobe, he was miserable.....
This is the picture that gets the most 'hits' on Redbubble.... It seems, that everybody knows this mood :-))

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everybody .... 

May 2011 be the year of love, freedom, happiness, peace and creativity !!!

portrait

Portrait of somebody I have never met 
mixed media ( collage, ink, coffee, whitening ) on paper. 25x25cm.

Just playing with paper, coffee, pen and whitening.... and having a little break from  shopping and baking cookies !

the spirit is .... one

The Spirit is (g) one Collage. 18x24cm.

It started with doing little  angels for the Christmas tree out of old notes and books. But than the negative shape was too good to just throw away ! So my little play ended up with a little play with words. 'the spirit is one'.... but now around Christmas time ( especially in the shopping centres), it feels more like the spirit is gone... !
But maybe it is also just me... missing a German Christmas with cold and snow and darkness.  Christmas in summer still doesn't really work for me ( not that it is hot here anyway... so that is not tooo bad :-)

where the wind takes me

Where the wind takes me Mixed media on paper ( 30x30cm.) 

This is also one painting of the 'the travel' series. It has been the idea of the work "the light in the distance beckons" that I painted after this one. I often work first small in sketchbooks or just on ' leftover' papers with no value, and when I like the result I paint it in bigger on 'serious' canvas. But often the 'translation ' doesn't work... I wonder why.... I suppose, because the spontaneity is lost, the feelings might be lost too.  Sometimes it works, but just if I am flexible enough to change even the idea....

The light in the distance beckons
Encaustic on linen 70x100cm.

A not very good photo of the work.... the suitcases are actually in rust ... I find encaustic extremely difficult to photograph ... sorry !!

the sea

Sea Triptych  Mixed media and encaustic on linen. 80x25cm.

Today something different... the sea again ! This one is done mostly in encaustic, as I try to express the movement of the sea through the roughness of the lines that I scratch into the melted wax. The next one , will be much bigger on more panels ... but different :-)

Receiving

Receiving
24x37cm. Mixed media on paper

Healer

Healer
Mixed media ( coffee, ink and acrylic ) + collage on paper
 42x28cm.

Sticky fingers the whole day ...:-)

portrait

Portrait in black and white (and a little bit red) 
21x29cm.
Mixed media + mixed feelings + collage on paper.

Thinking about getting into linocut again .... yes, good idea... linocut mixed with collage ..... mmm inspiring !!!

ja- nein

Ja-nein. Mixed media on paper. 21x29cm.

For a whole day I was thinking about putting this image here..... As it is a very personal image.... and than again   :  Most of my work is personal. When I studied I was taught very much to just paint what I really feel or have experienced myself. I was in that time always tempted to paint 'old masters themes' like 'the death and the girl' or other art historical very heavy 'stuff' .
 Later on , I understood more what my  teachers  meant, as these paintings often stay on the surface, because you just 'technically' paint the painting and your feelings stay outside of the work.

another collage

HEAL. 
Mixed media and collage on paper. 21x29 cm.

This is about the journey that I am just going through.... about ... waiting , resting, hoping and finally :

 h e a l i n g

collage

'I will teach you about the world' 
Mixed media and collage on paper. 

 At the moment , I just love to have glue on my hands.... Starting with just a feeling and working with sticky fingers until it's finished. I always used to look a bit ' down ' to collage, I don't even know why !
Funny , that all my work in the last 5 years (at least) always was done on a collage. I always 'work' on the canvas or paper before I actually paint on it . Because I dislike white paper or even worse white canvas. So I always glue newspaper and leftover canvas  pieces on it , before painting. And true: I some times enjoy doing that more , than the actual painting... So maybe I should stay with collage for a while ! :-)

bowl

Bowl. 25x25cm. sketch

Inner Freedom

Inner Freedom N°2.
Mixed media on material+panel. 

60x90cm.           

I am just coming back from a small exhibition of my work at the East Language Centre in Melbourne. It is always such a pleasure to have people really looking at your work and also so tense. And of course a lot of questions..... questions that are easy to answer and questions that are impossible to answer. A lot of
"why's?".... and some times I have to say : " I don't know, it just happened that way ..." And than I have to think of this artist ( can not remember WHO it was ... maybe someone can help me here ) :
" It might be coincidence that it got onto the painting , but it is NOT a coincidence  that it stayed there" ...

Discovering Melbourne's secrets

Discovering Melbourne's secrets.
18x108cm. Mixed media on paper.

The 15 works together ( few of them I had shown over the last couple of weeks. ) for the art show named 
'the secret life of the city' .
I chose some of Melbourne's secrets ( well secrets in my eyes ) or the different sides that makes Melbourne Melbourne !!!

Portrait

Portrait . 25x25cm. Mixed media and collage on paper.

I have always liked to draw faces, old faces and faces with 'life traces'. I like to 'scribble' faces and the face suddenly appears out of the lines. Sometimes I am even surprised  myself who appears out of this nearly 'meditative' drawings.

'Dreaming Phantasy Bird' 
50x 80 cm. Mixed media + collage  on paper

"Charlotte wished to fly" Mixed media on paper.  70x100cm ( framed )

The paper used, is the paper that protected my working table for a couple of months ! The coffee stains and working traces just take the 'fear of the good white empty' paper away and gives me inspiration….

Madame Papillon  21x 30cm. Acrylic on paper.

element fire

Element Fire Encautic, collage  and acrylic on linen . 76x76cm.

Landscape

Landscape. Mixed media on paper.

This is the sort of work I would like to do more again in future. 

Nest

Nest No 1. Encaustic on paper. 28x39cm.

Something a little bit different today. That was the original first bird's nest. done in Encaustic on paper. I just liked to reheat the wax and to scratch inside it. A try..... but I could imagine a series of them . 5 or 6 together all in different colours , but always with the same square with words in different languages and a drawing inside the wax.

collage

'Come and let's have some fun on the weekend'

Mixed media and collage on paper. 20x14cm.

Today just some 'fun work' ( nooooooooooo painting is not all the time fun !!!) This collage was just about glueing, cutting, enjoying and no intention or 'trying to same something' except for : Come and let's have fun on the weekend.... yes, actually WHAT should I do on the weekend ??

2 more sketches ....

Kookaburra. Mixed media on paper. 15x15cm.

Degrave Str. Sketch on paper. 15x15cm

Well I have done the 15 paintings of 'discovering Melbourne's secret for the upcoming show 'the secret life of the city' I will just have to put them together and cutting the mat board ! Which is going to be a real task .... 15 windows in order ( well, as straight as possible...) will see will see......

Schutzschild

Schutzschild. Mixed media and collage on paper . 25x25cm

Not a very friendly painting today....  'Schutzschild' meaning a protection shield in english ! But I like that in German it is ONE word. The brown paper is actually my lunch bag ! And I don't think I have to explain the painting...

sketches

Ned was here.... 15x15cm sketch

Collingwood 15x15cm. sketch

On the run. 15x15cm. Mixed media 

Meet me there. 15x15cm. Mixed media 

Cup. 15x15cm. Mixed media

Wires. 15x15 cm

skyline. 15x15cm

Letters.15x15cm. 

tower and fed square....

'Tower' sketch on old book. 15x15cm.

     Actually, it is not just a tower, but the Melbourne Central. I am 

     working  on  15 sketches that will hang together in one frame. It

      is for  'the secret life of the city'  art award at  69 Smith Street

     Gallery.  I have so far 8.... 7 more to go !

Number 7 . sketch and collage on paper (15x15cm)

Raven

Raven. Mixed pens and pencils on coffee stained paper. ( 62x33cm.) 

'St Kilda palm trees'. 15x15cm.

This is the first of 15 small sketches that will belong together ! More about it later on...

angel and traveller

Too much luggage. Ink and Charcoal on paper. 25x25cm.


An older drawing of the series 'travel' . A human travelling.... not only with it's suitcases , but with weight of memories and history on it's shoulders....

communication No 3

Communication No 3. Pigment and collage on paper ( 67x47 cm.)

This will be the last one of the series Communication . This one is about ' talking down to people'

The next ones I plan to work on, will be more about language than the communication itself. 

I started to do a little bit of research about old symbols , where our alphabet is coming from.  Like the Sumerian Alphabet (here already in the background)

Communication No 2

I have finished the painting 'Communication No 2' 

there is ALWAYS this stage while I am painting, that I think " Now  I destroyed it , painting lost " but I mostly overcome that stage... Or : I paint UNTIL I overcome it .....

Communication No 2. Collage, mixed media and gold on canvas ( 35x70cm.) 

communication No2

Detail from today's work. Communication No 2 . With coffee, collage and gold . It might go somewhere totally different tomorrow though.....

Communication

Communication No 1. Collage ,material and acrylic on wood. 60x90 cm.

Preparing for an exhibition in a language centre.... 

Language has always be 'my theme' .  Having words in different languages in  a painting, without these words being an explanation of the work ( If the painting needs an explanation  the painting has failed !) 

Here the letters are not even words anymore, but  just symbols of our  base of  communication. 

'The Crow'

' The Crow'.  87x102 cm. Mixed media on linen

In the last year, my theme was 'befluegelte Wesen' that you could translate with 'winged creatures' . I must say, that in German , it does not sound so much like words from a horror show !

One of my first pieces was  "The Crow, inspired by a landing of these huge birds on the power cords while I was walking the street. It was a very strong image, a bit uncomfortable too .... Some people find also the painting 'uneasy' .

Drawings

Few drawings on one page... Actually this is the back of the menu in the restaurant !
There are all from different sketchbooks, but I like to have them all  together.