About summer flowers and other passions

The week was less stingy with summer stimuli than the previous ones and I finally found enough time to pursue making art.

The bright blue sky at the beginning of the week was the trigger for a brilliant start out of bed and straight into nature. The fact that it had happened so rarely before made me really enjoy the perfect summer morning. I wanted to go to the duck pond in the Lange Erlen and capture the morning atmosphere there. Also because the heat would be too much to go jogging later on, I set off right after sunrise. Wonderful. This piece of natural oasis isn’t very big and the city is always visible, but it’s enough to make you feel like you’re in a different world and to take your mind off everyday life. The deep yellow barley field had so much of summer in it which I missed deplorably and the first rays of sunshine caused a light morning mist to rise. It was a beautiful run that provided energy and good vibrations.

Let the sun work for me

The bright sunshine was also ideal for making two new cyanotypes that I had been wanting to do for some time. Over the last few weeks, the ideal weather constellation was simply missing, as it was always cloudy. So I dropped everything, turned my studio into a darkroom and prepared the papers that I had already stretched out months ago. When the sun shone on the sidewalk in front of the studio in the afternoon, I was able to expose the motifs and had realized my work within a very short time.

True passion as the source of happiness

Tuesday was also a perfect summer’s day. Still enthusiastic about the cyanotypes I had made the day before, I decided to have another art day and postpone everything else until later. So I hid in my studio in the hot 32° C / 90° F weather and devoted myself to painting glaciated mountain peaks. After such a long time, I was a bit out of practice emotionally. The fear of the first brushstroke. Of deciding which color to use where. I prepare everything, but just to be on the safe side, I check again to see if there is anything else I need to do to find a reason not to start. I change my clothes, get my brushes, rollers and paints ready. And I go back to the computer, realize that it’s actually time for a coffee and have one. And then I take the plunge. Mixing the paint, sticking on the first surface. The smell, the feel of the brush in my hand, the first painted surface. And then it’s there, this connection between me and the painting. A bilateral exchange. Taking a step forward, receiving feedback, reacting to it. And the happiness spreads. This special happiness that I really only feel when I paint. A feeling of everything is good. In me, in the room, in the whole universe… And so the picture in front of me is becoming complete. More by feeling than by thinking. The technique is in place after all these years. Everything is under control and I can really only rely on my intuition. That’s what makes it work and triggers this peace in me. Letting myself fall into the work while something new, something beautiful emerges. Something that didn’t exist before. No matter how many people feel the need to stir up and destroy hatred, my place is definitely on the other side, where love and creativity are at home.

Conversation among artists

A visit to my current exhibition in Laufen took me out of town, apart from the time with my father on Thursday. I met up with an artist who will be exhibiting after me. We talked about our artistic experiences, which is always very exciting and inspiring. You can learn new things and reflect on your own views after input from someone with similar backgrounds.

Wild flowers, unleashed beauty

Filled with contentment, I was unperturbed by the rather changeable rest of the week and did what can always be done: enjoy everything as it is. The exuberant abundance of wild summer flowers blooming everywhere makes me very happy on my jogs along the Rhine. And even on my balcony, which has been somewhat affected by the prolonged wet weather, everything is in full bloom. It’s my favorite place to read after work and spend the evenings among the countless screeching swifts that flit around the houses like arrows.

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