Portrait of an Artist

Well, it's only been a few hours since my last post. But I wanted to show you the portrait I did of a fellow artist as part of the Portrait Exchange Challenge over at "Different Strokes from Different Folks".

As I said in my last post, I was struggling to find the time to paint this. I actually planned to do only the underpainting in acrylics and then switch to oils, but decided to stay with acrylics. So while this portrait does not have the lush oil finish, it feels fresh and almost like a sketch.
One thing I did not really master in the last two years is taking a photograph of my artwork.

So here's my portrait of Vern.

"Vern"
Acrylic on canvas bord,
28x30 cm

And since likeness is always 'good to have' when painting a portrait, I'll post the reference I got from Vern - and thank you for the great photo to work from!

Happy New Year!

Two Years Later....

Well... the last sentence in this blog was "I'll update again once I'm back...".

I did not spend two years away, but somehow did not get to update this blog for such a long time. But many things kept me from blogging. Work life has been busy, I bought a flat and moved this summer. And at the beginning of this year I finally found my own studio - together with my good friend and painting buddy Sonja. So now I finally have the place to work on bigger pieces!

And in the summer - just before moving - we had our first exhibition and it was a great success.
Just to show you some of the newer paintings - click here!


Hopefully things will settle down a bit in the new year and I'll get around to posting again. Probably not a painting a week though...

One thing I meant to do for a long time now was taking part in the great experience that is "Different Strokes from Different Folks", a blog by Karin Jurick. Karin posts a photograph about every two weeks, and everybody who wants to can paint from this photo in his / her own style. Digital pictures of the artwork can then be sent to Karin and she posts it on the blog. A great way to show how different folks see and interpret the same photo and how different the results can be.
This year end challenge was sending a self-portrait photograph to Karin who sends you a photograph of someone else to paint! Definitely a challenge!

I got a great picture to paint, and was getting desperate to find enough time to paint it. I'm glad to say I finished in time, all that's left is to get a picture of it and send it to Karin. I'll post it here as well of course.

The photo of myself that I sent to Karin was very similar to one that I had used before for painting a self-portrait. I'll post this one here now, you'll see what my 'portrait challenge partner' did from his photo once I post the link to it.

Here's my self-portrait (first try, there will be more I'm sure...)


I'll post again soon - but first: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On the road again....

I know I haven't been around lately - after I got back from France things have been rather hectic and then I left again, this time for the US.

I spent one week attending a business workshop and now I'm on vacation - one week in Montana and another on the road back to New York, painting on the way.

So I'll update again once I'm back...

Technorati tags: US - travel

Just a short note...

Just a short note to say I'm leaving on a short vacation this morning.

I'm soooo excited to go to France and all the way to the Loire Valley:

Loire Valley (French: Vallée de la Loire) is known as the Garden of France and the Cradle of the French Language. It is also noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours, but in particular for its world-famous castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau.

So there's everything: beautiful landscape, an impressive river running through it, historic towns (with nice coffee shops and good restaurants!) - and of course the famous Châteaux of the Loire Valley!

Just to give you an idea, this is Château de Chenonceau...


I'll take my painting gear along and hope to do at least some studies... and take a lot of pictures like this ...



So I'll be back end of next week....


Technorati tags: France - travel - Castle

Experimenting - My First Collage Work

Experimenting is just so much fun!
I've thought about trying a collage piece for some time now, but never got motivated to really give it a go. Some weeks ago I took some great photos of my little niece, catching her personality, but unfortunately a little out of focus - she's definitely quicker then my digital camera!
So I used a 'reclaimed' canvas, acrylic paint, photocopies, Neocolor II (water-soluble wax pastels) and coloured pencils... et voilà!
I really enjoyed working with the different media, and composing a collage piece as compared to a plein air painting is very liberating and... inspiring.

"Flutterby"
Mixed media and collage on canvas,
30x30 cm
Ich wollte schon seit längerem eine Collage machen, und vor ein paar Wochen habe ich die richtige Inspiration gefunden: einige Photos von meiner kleinen Nichte, die leider unscharf wurden.
Also habe meinen Akrylfarben genommen, dazu Neocolor II (wasserlösliche Wachspastelle), Farbstifte sowie einige Fotokopien - et voilà, meine erste Collage!

Ich habe das Bild "Flutterby" genannt, auf deutsch wäre das wohl ein "Metterschling" - frei nach dem Gedicht "Der verdrehte Schmetterling" von Mira Lobe:

Ein Metterschling mit flauen Bügeln
log durch die Fluft.
Er war einem Computer entnommen,
dem war das durcheinandergekommen,
irgendein Drähtchen, irgendein Rädchen.
Und als man es merkte, da war´s schon zu spätchen,
da war der Metterschling schon feit wort, wanz geit.
Mir lut er teid.

Technorati tags: acrylic collage mixed media portrait

Pass me the Soup, please....

The painting I showed you in my last post was rather green... and while part of the intensity on screen is due to the difficulty of getting a decent photo on-line I must admit that it is still rather vibrant in real life.
I don't mind 'vibrant' and 'intense', but wanted to try to achieve a more subtle look. And since I was too lazy to go paint outside last Sunday I painted a second version of last week's piece!

This was also the perfect occasion to try out what I read on Larry Seilers blog post on Pigment Soup which is (in his words): "to mix up a hue (color) and then mix a bit of that color into every color mix used on the palette for the painting."
So I got out a tub of Davy's Grey, warmed it with a little Naples Yellow and used that as my pigment soup. This may not have been the best choice since the Davy's Grey that I used is absolutely transparent (more of a glaze) and rather sticky...

Apart form the Davy's Grey I used a limited palette of Cobalt Blue, Cad Red, Naples Yellow, Cad Yellow, Quin Violet and White.
Here's the result - I must say I like this version better than the first and I'm interested to here your thoughts on that! (and at the risk of repeating myself: it does look better in real life...)

"Weiningen, 6:01pm"
acrylics on canvas panel,
30x24 cm
Das heutige Bild ist eine neue Version von "Weinigen, 6pm" von letzter Woche. Mein Ziel war, das intensive Grün der Wiese und der Bäume etwas zurück zu nehmen und eine harmonische Farbgebung zu finden. Dazu benutze die Idee der "Pigment Soup" - eine Grundfarbe, die in klein(st)en Mengen jeder anderen benutzen Farbe beigemischt wird. In meinem Fall war das "Davy's Grey", einer neutralen/gräulichen Farbe, die ich mit Nepalgelb etwas 'angewärmt' habe.
Mir gefällt diese zweite Version besser - und Euch?

Technorati tags: acrylic acrylic painting plein air landscape Switzerland Color Colour