RAGE Painting

I was born in the late 60’s and grew up close to Munich in a rural area of Bavaria, working now as an engineer at a high-tech company in Munich. When I finished high-school I wanted to study something related to art: either architecture or industrial design. To qualify for such a degree course it was required to provide first sketches, drawings, paintings, etc. I was not brave enough to provide something I already had. My father told me: get an education where you earn your money. So I decided to become an engineer. In Germany there is always a job being an engineer. I finished as a physics engineer with focus on semiconductor physics in Munich. It was fun and interesting, but not really creative. During my time in the university I already started my first paintings. Strongly impressed with an exhibition of Jasper Johns in Cologne. My first attempts were oil on canvas. Of course using a brush. For several years brush. I never really felt comfortable using a brush. Too much of disability and not enough coincidence. I trained hard but was never satisfied with what I saw on the canvas. Having seen paintings from Jackson Pollock at MoMa in New York changed everything: Painting without using any dedicated material only color, canvas and action. It was a great new experience and fun to drip and rinse any kind of liquid material on the canvas and wait to see the result. At this stage I was completely into acrylic color. An enormous variety of colors, fast drying, easy and quick wet in wet techniques with immediate results. I started a phase which lasted many fantastic years using acrylic colors. But dripping wasn’t the whole story, I started to pour lots of color on the canvas. Varying speed and amount to generate texture, a mix of colors, depth and contrast. Splashing acrylic color on the canvas was fun! Sometimes the result surpassed my expectations…….Sometimes. Something needed to change. I needed education. I needed at least a little technique and knowledge about materials and how to use them. Some kind of theory besides all the self-education. No sooner said than done. I booked a course: abstract painting on large scale canvases. I took it serious. At that point in time we had a Land Rover Defender with a roof girder. Easy to fix really large canvases! I bought my 2x1.5 m canvas, stuffed all my equipment and color into the car and drove to my evening class. Long story short: My canvas was the largest one.