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Studio. . .
. . . the place of the alchemist
A visit to my studio is always interesting. A special working area resembles a laboratory with countless vials, paint pots, pipettes, vials and sometimes strongly scented liquids. I often spend days experimenting with, for example, fine-grained pigments and sands, stains, types of hematite, sawdust and stone powder, various binders and solvents and their interactions with each other.
For example, the following materials are used: tree resins, various types of wax, (spray) varnish, self-coloured shellac types, alcohols, tar, corundum, rust, ammonia, casein (milk protein), glues (wood glues, methyl cellulose glues), various acrylic binders and oils (e.g. linseed and poppy seed oil), turpentine types, ox bile and many other substances.
a look behind the scenes
Image carrier and frame
I usually paint on canvases, some of which I make from stretcher frames and then cover with various fabrics (linen, cotton mixtures, jute and also the heavy bitumen material).
But I also use wood, wood fibre and plastic panels, not only because you can be "fiercer" on them with tools like spatulas, but also because each surface has its own individual properties. For example, different lacquers etch into plastic surfaces, which creates an interesting effect that would not be possible on other surfaces.
I like to build the frames for my finished works on panels myself - usually from oak wood - because I believe that framing them myself is part of the successful finishing touch to my paintings.
I deliberately do not frame works on "canvases", however, as I generally prefer deep stretcher frames whose canvas edges can be wonderfully designed along with them and thus make an important contribution to the effect of my works.
Materials and Techniques
There are many tools and techniques that can be used to apply paint, varnishes, resins, oils, waxes, structural gels, malleable masses, powdery substances, binders, etc. to picture supports.
For my abstract and semi-abstract works, I experiment with different materials and their exciting chemical and physical properties on the above-mentioned picture supports.
Sometimes I let nature itself "pre-treat" the canvases or other textile substrates before I work on them further. For example, I place them for weeks in streams, under trees, on forest paths, in cowsheds or bury them, thereby exposing them to various elements such as smoke, heat, cold, rain, vacuum, ice, water or mechanical stresses.
Painting techniques that are used are e.g. Spatula techniques, acrylic painting, dripping, scratching, collage, glaze, adhesion technique, airbrush, encaustic, wet-on-wet, mixed media, etc.
