Vergangene Woche war ich auf Reisen, für ein paar Tage war ich in der Stadt in der ich aufgewachsen bin. Ich habe meinen Vater besucht und zwei Tage, nahezu ununterbrochen, mit ihm über sein Leben, seine Lebensgeschichte und die seiner/unserer Familie gesprochen. Unsere Familiengeschichte ist beeinflußt durch dramatische Ereignisse, eine Geschichte verpaßter und nicht vorhandener Möglichkeiten, von Krieg und Gewalt. Das hat alle Mitglieder dieser Familie über Generationen hinweg geprägt.
April 2018
For a new painting I left a bit my usual way of mixing natural pigments with different media to create in-depth nuances of one or two colours.
Making that painting was a real struggle for me, on the one hand technically and on the other hand emotionally.
I used different blue pigments in different solvents which still reacted with each other long time after I decided the painting is ready, but not in the desired way. The components changed colours and structures and I needed to find out what happened to be able to correct it e.g. use it. Thus I tried different compositions on smaller canvas which resulted in a little series of blue-greens.
There are places in this world, I have to go there again and again and so I went last Friday. Roussillon, more precisely, the Conservatoire des ocres et de la couleur is such a place. Here I learned all the old techniques of wall plastering, here I always buy pigments and tools for my paintings and wall design, here I get advice and answers to technical questions.
This is such a beautiful place, it is so pleasant to stroll through the rooms of the old ochre mill and get inspired by all these wonderful colours.