Virginia Orbon Retzmann

I was born in 1947 in Iriga City, a small town in the Philippines. I now live in Friedrichsdorf in Germany close to Frankfurt. I am married, I have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. I studied chemistry in Manila and lived in Hong Kong for over 20 years, where I worked in the catering industry and in hotel management.I started painting shortly after I came to Germany, just like that, to make use of my spare time. I went to water colour courses and after a short time I began to like what I was doing. Soon my family and friends became impressed with my work and they and also my teacher encouraged me to carry on. In 1994 I had my first single exhibition at the City Library in Frankfurt which was very successful, and the reviews in the Frankfurt newspapers were really encouraging. Since then I had over 30, mostly single exhibitions. In 1994 I started painting in acrylic on canvas. I also draw, I use charcoal, ink, pastels, I sometimes paint on wood, on chinese paper, I use sand, sawdust, wire, my husband's old shirts, actually anything I can think of which may be appropriate for my work. I do enjoy experimenting, I do not necessarily stick to rules. I am happy, if others like my work and even more happy, if someone wants to acquire a pain...

My first teacher was Hille Koch, who was an expert teacher and a brilliant water colour painter herself. Later, I joined the Frankfurt Malakademie, where I mainly concentrated on painting in acrylic. I stayed there for over 10 years. I also took workshops at the Summer Academy of the renowned Frankfurt Staedelschule and the European Academy of Fine Arts in Trier. Since 2005 I have been attending courses in life drawing and painting at the Slade in London. Recently I started working with Michael Siegel, who is also a teacher at the Frankfurt Staedelschule, in his studio in Frankfurt.Since 1994 I had many exhibitions in the Frankfurt region but also in Yorkshire and in Arizona,

In September 2011, I had an exhibition at the KTC, in Königstein/Germany. This is a large event hotel and conference centre of Commerzbank Frankfurt, the second largest bank in Germany. In April 2013 I had an exhibition of
my newest water colour painting at the Haus der Volksarbeit, which could be described as the most appropriate exhibition place in Frankfurt due to it large white walls and excellent daylight conditions due to its large windows.
In January 2014 I had an exhibition at the OLG Frankfurt (State High Court of Hesse) in which I showed water colour and acrylic paintings. This exhibition was open to the public for three months
On 1 March this year will be the opening of my exhibition "Paintings of People and Places" at Friedrichsdorf town hall. It will be my 4th exhibition in that place. I am extremely grateful to the Mayor and the Council that I am given this opportunity again.