In March 2011 I asked Roland to appear in one of my paintings.
Fortunately he agreed and came to my studio. I gave him a top hat and white gloves
and asked him to act as a magician, who lets levitate something between his hands.
This photo I selected from the session as the paintings draft.
Before starting to paint it is strictly recommended to construct a stretcher.
To stabilize the frame I screw some masonite triangles on the backside.
The canvas is being cut out, sticked with thumbtacks and undercoated with glue.
After coating with two layers of white acrylic paint,
the canvas is stretched and fixed with a stapler and coated two times again.
What you see right on the floor is the pickup of the goblins who are living in my studio
What you see right on the floor is the pickup of the goblins who are living in my studio
and always like to hide away my tools or other needful things.
As a tradition in german painting I mix the base coat in re-usable containers of potato salad or if not available kraut.
The final base coat. I usually prefer a shade of light red/orange.
The midwives of painting: Palette and brushes.
I started painting on the canvas (size 100cm x 130cm) in April 2011.
At this time I had no idea what will be seen in the background.
But I knew what levitates between Roland's hands, a convolved armadillo.
You know how difficult it is to catch an armadillo in Germany? I got help by photoshop.
In jumping on the canvas it became a little bit smaller.
A few weeks later I got an idea about the background,
I decided to hang an old fashioned map of Europe on the wall behind Roland.
I browsed the web to look out for some examples of styles and illustrations
as you can see here.
I made a photoshoped draft to adjust the map into the painting.
The map was added in June 2011.
The colors used in this early state: Rose madder, sienna, naples yellow.
Detail
Appearance of blue.
Detail
Background became darker.
July 2011
November 2011
On this detail you see the difficulties of taking photos of oil paintings,
the structure of the canvas often causes reflections.
December 2011
January 2012. I put some letterings on Europe.
February 2012
One of the seamonsters disappeared.
During the work on this painting a friend of Roland asked me to create a small version of his magic pose to make him a gift. I made this oil painting on cardboard sized 44cm x 28cm.
July 2012. I retouched the letterings.
The compass rose got a face. It reminds me of Harpo Marx.
The last step was to give the wall a grey paint in September 2012.
Flying armadillo and Flying Dutch.
The white animal supposes to be the sneaking leading actor of the scene.
My girlfriend likes it very much and calls it the hamster from the passport office.
Before I show you the entire finished work I give you an impression of framing.
Voilà!
The very last step: Title and signature on the backside:
KÜNSTLER SIND AUSTAUSCHBAR
(ARTISTS ARE REPLACEABLE)
Pretending is an important feature of my artistic work.
My figurative paintings show things which are not there,
my objects are mock ups of not existing things.
So keep in mind, that perhaps what you see here didn't really happen,
and I actually create my paintings in a different way.
