The way of painting

The delicacy of a blossom, the sound of the sea or the joy at the sight of something that makes me marvel are the beginning of every painting.

In short: it is the contact with nature.

Sometimes I see the white canvas first and feel directly which impressions I want to immortalize on it. I only feel and don't have a concrete image in mind. Other times I am somewhere outside and sense that one day I will call up this mood and paint it.

Not knowing the outcome of the painting, I begin to apply all the colors I have to the palette.

The rest happens by itself, or rather through me.

I like to dilute the oil paints with a little linseed oil. Then I briefly lay out the areas that I think convey the feeling of a landscape or an impression well. This involves rough color families and the lay out of light and shadow. Most of the time, however, the painting has its own ideas of how it wants to become in the process - and so the brush leads me away from my head and my own actions into serving, executing and receiving inspiration.

This is the magical moment when the colors really flow.

There are no thoughts, no conscious actions, no control.

Occasionally several brushes slip into my hand at the same time. Sometimes this confuses me a little, as does the rapid speed that often occurs when painting. It feels as if my hands are being directed. The flow of life, the application of paint, the connection, the emotional world and the world of color become one.

The forms emerge. Some are repeatedly painted over or covered by others, so that I wonder myself how often the picture changes.

It is flow and it streams like a river, sweeping everything along,

so that a picture I painted yesterday can become completely different today. And tomorrow it may shine with a new energy.

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I prefer to paint constantly out of one mood, out of a single cast, but because of the size of the canvas - and the larger I paint, the freer I feel - life plays a part in the painting process.
A lot of canvas requires a lot of time and dedication. And in addition to a normal family routine, it can happen that the paintings are sometimes delayed for a few days or weeks.

I used to resist these phases. I thought I could only paint while the oil color was still wet. Today, I integrate this phase and trust that it is also part of the flow of the painting. Dried structures create beautiful effects, and new moods in which to create often give the artwork an unexpected appearance and effect.

I would love to be able to describe my painting style or technique.
Unfortunately, I can't, except to say:

I surrender to every impulse, every feeling, every brushstroke,

and to the course of events that is not in my hands

but that my soul follows.

And everything that shows itself

is allowed to be.