Somewhere - Irgendwo Painting

Color areas and figures are essentially the content of my paintings. In their reducedness, they enter into a symbiosis and interweave with each other, demarcate and create a sensitive atmosphere of disappearance and presence. My pictures tell of insecurity, vulnerability, doubt, dignity, pride. My figures are often fleeting, non-binding, reveal little, sometimes define themselves more through their surroundings, withdraw, step out of the picture, float, lose their feet on the ground or linger in themselves. I explore the boundary between recognisability and abstraction. The figure becomes almost secondary. If the figure first drew attention to itself and showed the viewer the way into the picture, it now withdraws, blends into the play of line and surface and interweaves itself. The soft colors, the peculiarity of the forms, fine, subtle structures and lines that connect and separate and penetrate, this is my feast for the senses. Eugene Delacroix says: "It is the first duty of a picture to be a feast for the eyes."[1] I weave a web of harmony out of fragments, enigmas, ignorance, fuzziness and ambiguity and give this to the viewer as a positive sign to take with them. For the image finding, I superimpose sketches, photo templates or my own works. I break up existing color surfaces, connect different levels with each other and thereby give the figures something strange, enigmatic, immaterial. Overlays, transparencies and a layered structure make up my pictures. Egg tempera is my favorite medium. Materiality is of great importance in my paintings. This begins with the preparation of the painting grounds. I also bring my primers with a high chalk content into the painting process again and again in order to retain the absorbent property that ensures the pastel and airy character of the colors.