OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER Painting

OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER 2018 350 (w) x 215 (h) cm 138 (w) x 85 (h) inch acrylic and oil on canvas Wake me gently Before darkness When love still lives Before eventide Before twilight Kiss me softly Before we fall When hope still burns Before autumn Before first frost Touch me deeply Whisper quietly A forever poem Of love and hope When summer ends. CB/2018 * * * background information OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER -- a commissioned work for a collector in UK -- is a very large-sized giant painting on pure linen canvas, finished after two creative and challenging month in summer 2018. It is always an exciting and satisfying process to work in such giant sizes. Really one of my favorites and one more piece showing proof that my painting and artist's statement (also) accord with very large-sized dimensions. I'm really thankful. And very interested in new exciting commissions (please contact Saatchi Art for details). * * * about the painting OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER Central topic of the painting is light: brightness as a symbol that stands for the beginning, the morning, the pureness and birth, the ease and light-heartedness. In other words: innocence. And this innocence is beautiful, perfect and immortal. This innocence is emotional; it touches deeply and is a promise. OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER and its affirmative colours and layers are a stark contrast to the daily madness and confusions around us. Of course there’s a drop of bitterness. Because light also creates shadows. We aren’t always able to control what we’ve started. Nothing is only good. Maybe at the beginning, in the first moments of a genesis but time corrupts. The unpolluted pureness, the complete good remains a longing, an objective and an illusion at the same time. We all have to stand this cognition. Every summer has to end. OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER tells something about these moments when the wind changes and suddenly there are first clouds in our summer sky. We don’t want the summer and sunny light to end but late summer turns to autumn, and the winter is just a question of time. It’s a slow process with countless steps from the light into the dark. The sun already descents but we want to resist, we want to stop the run of the sun, and if it’s only for a little while. But we are no gods. We are not immortal. And hope and love are the answers that help us through darker hours. We smile and kiss and drink and remember Dylan Thomas: we don’t go gentle into that good night. There is no real final, we are just a small part of the circle. OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER has this described thoughtful undertone. It doesn’t derogate the positive prevailing mood of the painting but the other side of the coin is always present, this latent danger of bittersweet melancholia and an approaching light that cannot warm us any longer. And if you want so, you can transfer the topic of light and shadow to an affair/relationship and its periods from the beginning to an unlucky ending. Furthermore I've written a melancholical poem especially for this painting. Please understand these lyrical words as an additional part of the artwork. * * * During the commission process I've painted three different studies dealing with colours, layers, proportions and the later transformation of the best results on a giant landscape format. These studies are for sale as single pieces and as triptych here at Saatchi Art. studies: FROM SUMMER TO FALL I (study) OF LOVE AND HOPE AT THE END OF SUMMER (study) FROM SUMMER TO FALL II (study) triptych: LATE IN SUMMER (3 studies) Thanks so much for taking an interest in my work. Warm wishes, Christian