Category: Stories

By chance I dug up this lino printing plate again. I think the motif (plate mirrored here) fits in well with our times: “Three come over a mountain”.
This motif was created in the mid-nineties. At that time, I often commuted between Dubrovnik and my studio, which was still located in the tranquil Würmtal valley near Pforzheim.
“Drei kommen über einen Berg” humorously reflects the confidence to overcome a mountain that seems insurmountable with united forces.

As I pull into the yard to park the car, I am greeted by the barking of a dog. I get out of the car and Tatze comes running towards me to greet me. We haven’t seen each other for a long time.

It’s been a few years now since I was commissioned by the art-collecting couple to paint a portrait of their family dog Tatze.

Tatze is not only a family dog but also a talented entertainer.

So, Tatze was able to fit in the moment when he had everyone’s attention. First he laid out his red play bone on the living room carpet. Then he threw himself backwards onto the carpet and began to rub himself against it. After a while, he jumped up again, ran to an armchair with a chrome armrest and then approached the steel pipe with his nose until it tingled. A ritual he probably repeated again and again.

As I watched Tatze like this, I decided on a comic-cubist depiction.

And just as I enter the house, Tatze greets me a second time, this time winking at me from the picture on the wall.

It’s a moving moment to see Padfoot and all the other pictures I once painted in the house. Beautifully framed and each in a special place, they are a collection of works from all the creative periods of my life up to the present day.

It’s good that there are art collectors and friends.

The idea for this picture came from a mountain hike. A small group of cows were on their way to their home farm. They stopped on the village road and waited for a passing vehicle, then hurried across the road with swinging udders.

This picture is still available.

Draw around a bit, think about Goethe and Newton and the relationship between freedom and patience.

And I remember a feeling I had when I was standing on the platform at a station waiting for a local train to take us from the station, which we reached by bus, to the town where our grammar school was.

Instead of the train I was expecting, a freight train came roaring through the station. I clearly remember the smell of iron and asbestos, and the wind that whipped up my long, thick hair. I also remember the shiver that ran down my spine at that moment – loneliness.

And yet yes, at that moment there was such a feeling of freedom.

A stay on Sylt in spring 2017. The AWI research station. The Wadden Sea. Dykes and salt marshes. An island rich in contrast in every respect.

The flat land in the north of Germany allows a wide view. But the landscape is never boring. Wind and weather give it a constantly changing face. The North Sea with its high and low tides also plays its part. Low tide and high tide in turn are a prerequisite for the formation of salt marshes. The salt marshes are often used as grazing areas for salt marsh sheep.

On Sylt, luxury brands meet pure nature. The island is not only rich in contrasts for the painter’s eye.

The first sketches for the painting “Das Duttenkragentier” (see article image) were quickly created, initially without the circle in the background. The painting developed over a fairly long period of time, culminating in this version from 2018.

The cowl neck animal
Acrylic on cotton
80×90 cm
ditArdo

Nomination for the Art Prize of the Kulturstiftung Kreisparkasse Karlsruhe 2020
Wit and irony – art prize exhibition

The “Duttenkragentier” convinced the art prize jury and was selected from 509 submitted works for this year’s art prize exhibition.

Jury:
Prof. Dr. Götz Adriani
Dr. Brigitte Baumstark, Director of the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe
Prof. Erwin Gross, State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe
Prof. Dr. Pia Müller-Tamm, Director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Prof. Dr. Curt Diehm
Dr. Sigrid Ingenohl
Savings Bank Director Michael Huber, Chairman of the Board of Sparkasse Karlsruhe

Unfortunately, the exhibition fell victim to the corona pandemic