Traditional / Oil on canvas, #003

Traditional / Oil on canvas, #003 of the 00’s series

My painting origins are figurative. I always painted parts of the body or figurative scenes in a non-narrative, but associative way. Figurative elements are treated as shapes, outlines or colors forming a abstract composition. In the past I used to over-paint all paintings again and again - to follow the process in 3 dimensions. Usually, it was not the ambition to paint an image of a certain idea - painting is an process to me.

Because many paintings consist of different layers (documenting this process), I compare those works with palimpsests. Typically a work is not standing still or completed. It is a snapshot of a permanent process of re-contextualization and change. The pieces I do not continue anymore can be reflected as increments of a process-history. That’s especially true for my oil paintings, where one layer continued the ‘story’ of the layers below.