Harpy, calmly resting on branch Painting

Bastian Raiss was born in Hamburg/Germany in the early 1950's. His parents moved to Brazil when this first child of their's was barely half a year old. Even though the first 17 years of his life were spent in Rio de Janeiro and later Sao Paulo, formal education took place in local British schools. This was followed by two years in boarding school in Wales ("A" Levels). The lad's path then led him to Nashville, Tennessee, where he acquired Bachelor and Master Degrees in the field of Economics. Intellectual involvement and practical dabbling with the arts - drawing and painting as well as first exhibits - started during the last university years. An eighteen month stint at an aluminum foundry back in Brazil only confirmed that Bastian's future was not to be in the business world. But all's well that ends well: he has now been living and working as an artist in Hamburg/Germany for well over 25 years. A fellow artist once used the term "painted philosophy" to describe Bastian's work. The addressee has yet to decide whether that was meant as a compliment or as a criticism. Be that as it may, the phrase sounds good and helps explain, at least in part, what the painter's intentions are. On a second level, separate from any statement the individual painting may or may not make, lies the desire to produce an aesthetically (close to) perfect piece of art. "Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine", as Mr. Zimmerman once wrote. As far as the creative process goes, doodles are the initial spark for all further work. Even though the finished work of art seems to have been meticulously planned from the very start, chance and serendipity play the lead role. The artist himself is notoriously evasive when it comes to answering questions on the "meanings", "intentions" or "interpretations" of the going-ons covering his canvases. Fact is, that he himself is happiest when confused and dazzled by his own efforts, hopefully confused and dazzled in different shades over the course of time. He hopes that others come to accept and appreciate this approach and come to their own conclusions, some of which might be just as valid than those of the artist who actually created the paintings.