Space to store my paintings wasnât a real problem as I nearly sold everything after a short while, but not all, of course đ
Those paintings which are still with me I put back in big cartons and shuffled them around in our cave. But then, we had a water problem and it was just in the last-minute I rescued my paintings for being destroyed.
Wir haben einen Garten hinter unserem Haus und an diesem bauen wir nun schon seit ungefĂ€hr sechs Jahren herum. Er liegt am Hang und war fĂŒnfzehn Jahre sich selbst ĂŒberlassen. Alle Terrassenmauern waren eingestĂŒrzt und bis zur unteren Gartengrenze heruntergerutscht. Die Pflanzen wegzumachen, die den Eingang wie bei Dornröschen zugewuchert haben hat allein einen Tag gedauert. Aber dann konnten wir endlich eintreten und das Disaster begutachten.
After a long pause, caused by a water damage in my little atelier and due to lots of renovation work, I started painting again.
This time, I layered oil paints over ash and washed them away again and again to create subtle effects. Itâs a play of appearing and disappearing, of strong presence and nebulous absence. Like memories, they come and go, sometimes they are very clear and sometimes you wondering if an event really happened or if it is just in your imagination.
Many years ago, when we restored our house, I plastered my very first walls ever in our living room. I just came back from a one week training course where I learned the basics of wall plastering with lime, sand and marble powder. These walls were in a very rough condition, we had removed the old plaster, closed some holes with natural stones and here I came, ready to build up all the layers necessary before the final one could be done. Back then, I used sieved sand with lime and troweled it off.