""Acta Botanica, Figure 3. Harnomy"." Print

After graduating, I worked for many years in the classical style, creating paintings for the Catholic Church. My paintings can be found in churches in the USA, in almost all European countries and also in the Vatican. Lately I have been focusing more on my own themes and techniques, and in my work I am exploring tradition and modernism, feminism and multiculturalism, and how they can be interwoven, and if they can. Techtique I am inspired by early medieval painting with its simplicity and seeming unreality. I work using old techniques of Flemish painting, a system involving many transparent and translucent layers of paint, allowing for a sense of saturation, depth and a glow of light from within the picture. This creates an aura of mystery. At the same time, I try to include a contemporary element in my art, to reveal something new, to create portraits that are not merely images from long ago, but speak to us in the here and now. Lately I have been increasingly attracted to rich, colorful and positive pop art. Which is however very critical as a concept. Accessibility I believe that art should be accessible to everyone. That's why I take part in events and exhibitions promoting art in the UK, where I lived after university, and in Germany. These experiences were the main motivation to open an art school for children and adults, first in Berlin and later in Bremen: Das Kunsthaus. Outside the Art Studio In my private life, I am married and we have three sons (all of them in my art school, of course 🙃️). We moved to Bremen because Simon got a professorship at the University of Bremen (Institute for European Studies). Bremen inspires me a lot: it is an old and beautiful, free and harmonious city. I hope to become a worthy citizen and contribute to its beauty every day.