Necla in Pastel

t the moment I try to do some portraits. The most difficult part of portrait painting for me is to reach the similarity to the person you are painting. You can read about the general outline of faces and figures, you can draw the outline of the faces and still do not get the similarity you want. To my opinion the most important features of a portrait and the similarity is to get the light and shadows in a face right. If these are correct you can identify the person.

These paintings were done on watercolor paper. After sketching the outlines I did a watercolor underpainting of the subjects. This underpainting gives a general color scheme to establish the mood of the picture. After the color was dry again I continued with the application of pastel and followed the value scheme of the underpainting. In this way you still have the possibility to change the colors the way you want.

Thunderstorm coming

This painting relies very much on the presentation of the thunderstorm cloud. This could be done nicely in oil or acrylics, but at the moment i am interested in pastel painting and tried to capture the mood of the coming thunderstorm in this work. The landscape is around Munich and I personally experienced this thunderstorm during a bike ride. To remember the scene, I took a photo with my smart phone camera and altered the scene to give a nice composition.

Pastel paintings

After many month of watercolor painting, I thought I had to do something different. Changing the medium gives you a fresh momentum and gets you out of your routine. You have to learn a lot about the new technique. It starts by selecting the right paper and also important the color of the paper for creating harmony or contrast. The paintings shown above are done on Canson tinted paper. The pastels I used are Pan pastel, Jaxon Soft pastels and Van Gogh semi soft pastels for making lines and smaller marks. The advantage of this technique, you do not need any brushes and take care of drying time for color and brushes. You can stop painting any time and resume as often as you like. The only thing you have to do is wash your hands. The disadvantage of this technique to my opinion is the dust you produce by applying the color to the paper. You have to protect the ground, since a lot of pigment follows gravity and collects on the ground. Since the dust is very fine there is also a danger to breath it in. Pastel painters sometimes use a mask for protection and gloves for blending. But the colors are very bright and the method is like drawing. If something is not as you like, you can easily change things later.

Shanghai

This is a picture of Shanghai and I found the contrast of the modern glass buildings and the old chinese wooden building fascinating. It realy shows how China is entering the modern world and there symbols. Since there were so many details to paint i did this painting on a full sheet of watercolor paper from Fabriano. There were no big washes to do mainly detail work, so 300 gr paper was good enough.

Lucca Streetscene

This is another painting done from the sketches I did during our last stay in Lucca Toscana. The sun was very bright and cast sharp shadows on the walls in the narrow streets. The brightest spot in this painting is the direct sunlight on the street and the building on the left side. This difference between the bright sunlight and the dark shadows is the mood I tried to capture in this painting. It was done on Hahnemühle 600 gr rough paper in the size of 38x56cm.

Lucca backyard

This year we went to Lucca Italy once more and I wanted to make several sketches in the beautiful old medival town. We rented an apartment directly in the pedestrian area of the city near piazza bernadini. The weather in the beginning was quite rainy, so I made a sketch out of the living room window looking at the small piazza. From my memory and the drawing from my sketchbook I produced the above painting pretending it was a sunny cloudless day. The painting was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 36x48cm. Shown is also the drawing from my sketchbook.

Paintings of this week

It seems a good average to do two paintings a week for me. I started with an idea I got from one of my last paintings of a church and wanted to do that in a more abstract form. I started by wetting the paper and pouring and dropping differnt colours on the paper. When this was dry, the two church shapes were cut from adhesive film and „Moor Lauge“ was poured around those covered shapes. After this was dry again all the details were added.
The second painting is an impression of a market place in Antalya Turkey.

Rainy day

I am now recovering from the ablation of the retina in my left eye. Its getting better every day and the interest in painting is coming back more and more. This is a street scene I have done before, but the colors I used before did not satisfy me anymore. So I tried this scene of a rainy day in the city again  with more light and shadows cast by the wet streets. The painting was done on Hahnemühle 600 gr rough paper in the size of 56x38cm.

Painting with one eye

During my last holiday in Lucca Italy I suddenly suffered from an ablation of the retina in my left eye. We immediately returned to Munich and I got this fixed in the university hospital. The eye was filled with gas to press the retina against the background. But through this gas you cannot see much until the gas is absorbed again. So I had to paint only with my right eye. All three paintings above were done handicaped in this way. The first two were done after the indian painters Ejoumale and Abel. The last one ist a scene inside an Augsburg church. The paper was Hahnemühle 600 gr rough paper and Waterford 300 gr rough paper in the size of 38x56cm.

To the light

This painting was inspired by an Indian painter I recently found in the web. His name is Ejoumale and I never had heared of him before. But If you go to his website there are  beautiful decent paintings. I like his style very much and tried to do one of his paintings in my own way. I think the impression of light is working quite well. The painting was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 48x36cm.

Thin paper paintings

Again I tried to paint on the thin 100 gr Ingres paper. Last time I really had trouble to get the paper off the drawing board. I nearly damaged everything and could remove the paper only by making it humid again. This time i tried to use a more thinner adhesive, but again it was difficult to tear off the paper. I think painting on that thin paper is not for me, I will use again only at least 300gr watercolor paper. The first painting is of a castle in Unterschleißheim near Munich. It is called Lustheim. The second painting is again pretty abstract. Just throwing paint on the paper and wetting it carefully. The Moorlauge was injected with a pipette and let it move. If the paper was dry, I used a stencil, to remove the paint. Both painting were done on paper of size 48x32cm.

Still life and abstract painting

These two paintings were generated during a sunday workshop with Lydia Leydolf. The speciality of Lydia is to paint on very thin paper. The paper, an 100gr Ingres half sheet, is glued to a board with a thinned adhesive. After a short drying time one can work very wet with watercolor on this surface. If the painting is done and dried over night, it should realy be dry, you can tear off the paper from the board by loosening the edges. The painting then is glued to a white sheet of paper board for support. The still life is watercolor (mainly ultra marine) and burned sienna ink, which was poured into the very wet color. The second painting is just pouring color and „moorlauge“ on very wet paper. After everything was dry, the roofs and housed were washed out.
Both paintings are of size 48x32cm.

Hope

If you paint in watercolor the paper plays an important role. Usually I paint on Arches or Hahnemühle rough paper and got pretty used to the behaviour of the color on that paper. This time I tried to do a painting of the Greifswald harbour on a very smooth paper. I used Fabriano Artistico satine and immediately got problems with the behaviour of the color. You can not move the color on the paper like on a Arches, no dry brush strokes and so on. But nevertheless it was an interesting experience to get out of what you are used to. The picture was taken in Greifswald at the museum harbour with a boat called „Hoffnung“ (hope).  The size of the paper is 56x38cm.

Australian Town

Last week I got a DVD of watercolor artist Ross Patterson. APV films in England distributes all kind of painting instructions on DVD‘s from artists mainly from the UK and Australia. Ross Patterson is one of those well known watercolor artist from Australia and he shows his way to bring the hot australian landscape to paper. One of those demonstrations is of a small old town in Victoria. I took a screenshot of the town and from that I did my own painting. This is the result of my interpretation. It was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 48x36cm.

Greifswald houses

If you walk in Greifswald along the river to the Wieck harbour you see on the left side of the river this nice row of houses. They are prette colorful and nearly look like norwegian houses with their small fronts and steep roofs. In front of the houses there is a jetty for sailing boats. I think these boxes belong to the houses in the back. On this day only very few boats were parked here and I further reduced the number to get a good focal area in the picture. This painting was done with acrylic color on a pretty dark underpainting. I used watercolor paper 300gr with the size of 56x42cm.

Watersports in Greifswald

On an evening walk from Greifswald to Wieck along the Ryck river, I met this group of people. The boat looked very large for me and needed a lot of people to be moved by rowing. Here they are trying to move the boat up the river banks and get it to the boat house. I especially liked the grouping of the people and the mood after the activity. The painting was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 48x36cm.

We have been in Gazianteb at the beginning of this year. It is one of the major towns in eastern turkey near the syrian border. We were quite surprised by the impression of this city since we expected a very traditional behaviour. But we found a quite modern city with nice cafes and beautiful town houses. The scene in the painting was taken on a rainy day on a walk to the citadell of Anteb which is on the right side of the street. The painting was done on Hahnemühle 600 gr rough paper in the size of 56x38cm.

Sulzemoos

This was the first time in this year I went out for plein air painting. Two days painting with Jürgen Pichler at the Gut Sulzemoos near the highway from Munich to Augsburg. It was partly sunny but on both days pretty cold and windy. Some clouds finally developed rain and I could not find shelter fast enough, so that some drops fell into the still humid color. This can be seen on the top right picture, but it does not ruin the painting. The Gut Sulzemoos is pretty old and goes bach to about 800, when it was in posession of the Karolinger kings. As paper I used Waterford 300gr rough in the size of 38x56cm.

Tuscan villa

With this painting I was trying to extend my acrylic experience. I took an old photo of a tuscan villa near Lucca and tried to only take the abstract shapes of houses and trees to form a nice composition. I started by covering the whole paper with fine structure paste. The shapes of the houses and trees were drawn with black watercolor pen and slightly dissolved with water in the shades. Color was only used sparingly. The size of the watercolor paper was 56x42cm.

Boats

At the moment i am fascinated by the power und the color of acylics. This painting was done with an underpainting of dark blue, cadmium red and at the bottom with some burnt siena. After the underpainting was dry i did a rough drawing of the scene with a white watercolor pencil. A great deal of the painting was done with opaque color but in some places the unterpainting shines through. The painting was done on watercolor paper of size 42x56cm.

This is another painting from the Greifswald series. If you walk along the harbour to the Greifswalder Bodden along the small river (Ryck) you wil see many boats and places to rest. If you not here in the summer time the area is very calm and it is easy to relax. This scene is a typical view you will find with the wide landscape and boats waiting for their next trip. This is a watercolor painting done on Hahnemühle 640 gr paper in the size of 56x38cm.

Shopping

I found the contrast of the covered ladies and the colorful shirts interesting and tried to show this in this acrylic painting. It was done on paper in the size of 56x42cm.

Breitenstein

My last painting of a similar subject was ment as a present and therefore not available any more. I decided to do a comparable scene on another mountain for my gallery. This time the peak of the mountain was more rocky and this should be visible in the painting. Again the people are pretty realistic and the rest of the scene is interpreted in an abstract manor. The painting was done in acrylics on watercolor paper with the size of 42x56cm.

Risserkogel

One of my colleagues is becoming 60 years this month and I was asked to make a painting of one of our mountain excursions we normally do once a year. This will be a present for his birthday and will be given during the party. So I looked at my old photos taken some years ago and found a nice example containing most of the people. This is not an exact copy of the situation. I did the people realy realistic but the rest of the painting is done abstract, giving only an impression ot the moutain top. The painting was done in acrylics on paper with the size of 42x56cm.

Usedom

This is again a watercolor painting from the famous beach of Usedom. Usedom is a Peninsula in the northern part of Germany near to the polish border and long known for hosting many people in the summer time. This is a view to the Seebad Ahlbeck along the long wooden bridge to a nice cafe at the end. The painting was done on Arches rough paper in the size of 38x56cm.

Antalya Bazar

After all the time painting with watercolor I had the feeling I should do something different. I only work from time to time with acrylic colors and every time I do, I have to learn how to handle this material. It is quite a difference to watercolor and in the beginning I tried to use acrylics very liquid, but the handling was to difficult. I then switched to a opaque and oil like handling and that is the result. The scene I used is constructed from photos I took from a typical turkish bazar in Antalya, where lots of fruits and vegetables are offered by farmers from the surrounding area. The painting was done on watercolor paper in the size of 46x52cm.

This is another street scene from Greifswald. I did a similar scene in one of my last paintings, but this time it is from a different angle and again shows the pedestrian area. There is so much to paint in this nice little town, so many narrow streets with beautiful buildings. I think there are some more to come. This painting was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 46x61cm.

Greifswald harbour

Most of the boats in the harbour are only used for recreation. Some of the bigger ones are used as restaurants. To day the harbour is mainly a museum of ships and their equipment. This is a view of the harbour with the modern marina in the background. It was painted on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size of 48x36cm.

Greifswald at the Ryck

Greifswald as an old city of the medival Hanse needs of course a connection to the sea. There is am small river leading from Greifswald to the little town Wieck, directly at the Baltic Sea. In Greifswald this river is used as harbour, to day mainly for historic boats. But there is also a modern yacht club, which can be seen on the left side of the painting. The painting shows the road leading to Wieck along the river. It was done on Arches 300gr rouph paper in the size of 56x38cm.

Greifswald III

This is another painting of my Greifswald series. At the moment I try to work on all the photos I took some time ago when I had to work in Greifswald. I hope I could give an impression of the nice old town houses surrounding the market place in the center. There are much more photos that look interesting to be painted. Since Greifswald connected to the Baltic sea and has a nice harbour, there are also many old boats to be painted. I will see what comes next. This painting was done on Canson 300gr rough paper in the size of 38x56cm.

Greifswald market place II

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I was not satisfied with the first painting. This time I tried to keep the colors in a similar range and I believe this time the result looks better. The painting was done on Canson 300gr hot pressed paper in the size of 56x38cm.

Greifswald market place

The market place is the central place in downtown Greifswald. The place is surrounded by old and picturesk town houses. The red building is one of the houses and at the moment it houses the tourist center. This time I tried to do the painting in a loose Victoria Prischedko style. I am not very satisfied with the result. Especially the colors I choose are not right. The red building should not be red, it disturbs the harmony. I should try the painting again. It was done on Arches 300gr rough paper in the size 36x48cm.

Greifswald fishermen fountain

This painting is another one of the Greifswald photo series I took some time ago. This time my main interest were the reflections in the fountain water und the water color. Again the painting was done on Arches rough 300gr paper in the size of 61x46cm.

Greifswald II

Every time I have to visit Greifswald, I walk around the city to take photos of this nice old town and the beautiful town houses. I did this during all seasons and time of the day with the intention to use one of these photos later to produce a painting. This time I worked on a street scene and tried to capture the early glow of the day. The painting was done on Arches 300 gr rough paper and the size of 61 x 46 cm.

Greifswald

Greifswald in the northern part of Germany at the Baltic sea is one of the places I have visited professionally very often. But until now I never found the time to use one of the photos I have taken during my stays. Greifswald is a very old town belonging to the Hanse in the medival times. It has beautiful houses and places. This scene was taken from the center town looking to the pedestrian area. The painting was done on Hahnemühle Leonardo rough paper 600 gr and in the size of 76x56cm.

Mosque Adana

In the beginning of this year we went for holidays to Antalya Turkey. From Antalya we travelled by car to Antakya near the Syrian border and then to Gazi Antep. It was a very long tour along the southern coast of Turkey. On the way to Antakya you have to pass through Adana, one of the biggest cities in this area. This mosque can be seen nearly all over the place, it is huge with the six minarettes. I took a phote of the site and tried to capture the size and quiet place at the river. This painting was done on 300 gr Arches rough paper in the size of 31x76 cm.

Victoria Prischedko style painting

Victoria Prischedkos paintings are really wonderful. She paints in a loose and wet style. Most of the scene is done wet on wet and has no sharp edges, but wonderful colors. The mixing of colors and the soft edges combined with some sharp lines and edges is really impressive. In this painting of a phantasy street scene i tried to copy her style and did most of the painting wet on wet. Only the figures and the trees were done after the first wash was dry.