plein air watercolour, Margate, Harbour Arm Print

Born and raised in Vienna, I was trained at the "Künstlerische Volkshochschule Lazarettgasse" in naturalistic, portrait and figure drawing for several years, and was taught oil as well as watercolour painting techniques. Later, I studied Classical Philology and Philosophy at the University of Vienna. My two great passions are visual art and literature. Having said that, I think it necessary to say that I do not mix up my interests in literature with my painting, but rather let them stand and thrive separately. Yet, although my literary and theoretical training may not have an impact on my visual artworks, it plays a crucial role in my artistic thinking, for it helps me to find a way through the sheer impenetrable jungle of contemporary art theories, concepts and ideas that shape our modern thinking of what "good" art is or ought to be. Even if I use a variety of different media and materials, I have a unique and very deep passion for watercolour. This is the medium I discovered first as a child, this is the medium I learned with how to represent reality. Since then, of course, my style expanded beyond realism. Now and then, however, I return to it. But my love for watercolour is still the same. It is my aspiration to find a completely new form, a new visual language for watercolour, as it were, because, looking at watercolour painting today, I surmise that most of it seems stuck somewhere between a formulaic form of realism and an odd revival of expressionism.