I paint mostly landscapes. I am interested in the visual experience of looking at the nature. I used to paint with color (see menu) but, as for many things is life, I found that less is more and that using a variation of greys is actually more effective for the type of work I am interested in.
I developed a new approach which consists in painting the white side of a board in black and then to gradually retrieving the black paint with different tools. This technique gives a quality to the light and permits to create contrasts and textures that reinforce the impression of volume and depth. My work is influenced by the traditional Chinese landscape painting: I work from imagination and the execution is relatively free guided by what appears on the canvas rather than by preconceived idea. A painting is completed when it reaches a balance between openness and closeness, clarity and obscurity, ambiguity and certainty.
Recent paintings (2020)
I work on two series: Holzweg and Seascapes.
The series "Holzweg" are paintings of forests. These paintings are about perception. What is being painted does not appear directly to the viewers, the eyes are uncertain of what is being shown. There is an ambiguity as to what is being seen but after a while things appear in their clarity.
Holzwege in German means “wood-ways” and refers to these paths created by woodcutters in the forest. These paths often stop abruptly in some place in the forest where the wood was untrodden. The expression “auf einem Holzweg zu sein” means “to be on the wrong track”. The forest can be a metaphor of life itself. In the forest we made the experience of being lost, having to choose among several ways all seemingly identical. We also made the experience of the joy when we arrive at a clearing where what was hidden reveals itself; but what is learned has no practical use as these wood-ways always lead nowhere.
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Serie "Seascapes" are paintings of the sea and the sky. In these paintings I focus on two elements : depth and movement. I work on white board painted in black. I gradually lift the black from the surface using several tools. The light comes by gradually retrieving the black colour. This technique gives a different quality to the light as it seems to emerge from the painting itself.
These paintings do not express sentimental or romantic considerations. If anything, there are tools for meditation. They should lead the viewer to experience a perception of the reality where the self and what is being painted seem to merge into something else. In other words, a good painting should be able to dissolve the sense of separation between the viewer (the subject) and the painted seascape (object). If this happens, the viewer should experience a physical proximity with what is being painted and a forgetfulness of his/her own self.
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