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 ! :-)