EARLY MORNING IN MONTAUK
2021
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm
59,1 (h) x 47,2 (w) x 0,79 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

Inspired by the beautiful landscape in the Hamptons in early autumn…

Let's go to the lighthouse, Long Island behind us, the sea in front of us. End of the world, just one more step. The young sun shows us the way to the horizon. In the morning, when the sea still seems calm and the first light drives away the ghosts of the night, everything seems possible to us. then you push aside all the clouds with a single smile, then this moment becomes eternity and this place bears your name forever. And we feel like giants, freed from the shadows of the big city.

* * *

"There are so many different worlds in Long Island. That's why it's so fascinating. Between Great Neck and Montauk, there are 10,000 worlds."
~ Susan Isaacs

MEET ME ON GARDINER’S ISLAND
2021
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm
59,1 (h) x 47,2 (w) x 0,79 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

Inspired by the beautiful landscape in the Hamptons in early autumn…

Meet me on Gardiner’s Island, you said a long time ago. Do you remember, and do you still remember my name? Countless years passed, some melancholy, others meaningless. What seemed right became more and more blurred in the sea of your longings. We wanted so much, and yet we were no more and no different from all the others who tried to climb these peaks before us. And I ask you again: do you remember me and the way I remember you? Once upon a time we were queen and king, an adventurous world at our feet. But today we are history, and I know you are sleeping peacefully. I'm part of a story from another life. The storm is over. And we never met on Gardiner’s island, never will.

* * *

“Sometimes, I don’t know what haunts me more. The memories of you, or the happy person I used to be.”
~ Ranata Suzuki
"The course of true love did never run smooth."
~ William Shakespeare ("A Midsummer Night's Dream")

SWIMMING IN YOUR DARK OCEAN
2021. acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
47.2 (w) x 59.1 (h) x 0.78 in

Inspired by long walks by the sea and my thoughts on Homer’s epic poems about the Trojan War (The Illiad and The Odyssey), and here especially the episode about Odysseus and the Sirens…

Where will I find you? You laugh at my question, because you are like the sea in late autumn, only days before the first snow. You live between ebb and flow, never at anchor, always driven by distant currents. But I will follow you, leave all ports behind me. And even if I get shipwrecked, even if my boat capsizes in the surf. Even then I'll still be looking for you where sea and sky are one, in the wild waters. Out there where you live, there you will find me, swimming in your dark ocean.

*

“Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.”
~ Franz Kafka

“The Fates and Furies, as well as the Graces and Sirens, glide with linked hands over life.”
~ Jean Paul Richter

RETURNING TO GETHSEMANE
2014
130 (h) x 130 (w) x 2 cm
51.2 (h) x 51.2 (w) x 0.78 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

Inspired by beautiful Jerusalem, the Bible and old places and stories that still have something to say to us today… Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Jesus prayed in this garden, while his disciples slept, after the Last Supper, at the evening before his crucifixion. Gethsemane is also the place where Jesus was arrested following the betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

* * *

“For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait.”
~ C. S. Lewis

“There is a deeper life. It is as deep as a personal Gethsemane and as costly as a personal Calvary.”
~ Leonard Ravenhill

NAPOLEON AND JOSÉPHINE
diptych 2020
complete dimension of the diptych with a hanging distance of 20 cm/ 7.9 in between the paintings:
150 (h) x 260 (w) x 2 cm / 59.1 (h) x 102.4 (w) x 0,78 in
dimension of each painting:
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm / 59.1 (h) x 47.2 (w) x 0.78 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

(10700)

LARGE COLORFUL STATEMENT PIECE
LARGE-SCALED DIPTYCH

The Emperor and Empress. Love is omnipresent. The power of love overcomes all obstacles. This is also the case with Napoleon and Joséphine (1763 - 1814), two lovers who could hardly be more different, born into a time of great upheaval, into feudal Europe between war and peace, between revolution, noble splendor and social poverty. When they get to know each other, the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) is still an insignificant young officer. The six years older, already widowed Joséphine (Napoleon was the first to give her this first name, which she then used herself) was already at this time as Marquise de Beauharnais the center of Paris society in the post-revolutionary epoch of the Directoire. Napoleon was passionate about her, and through her contacts and social position she helped him to rise to high political and military ranks. The two married in 1796, and in 1804, despite her dubious reputation, Napoleon crowned her empress in the Church of Notre-Dame in Paris. While Napoleon continued to rise to the position of conqueror and dictator, Joséphine became the role model of the Empire, was the much sought-after propagandist of French fashion, ambassador of the elegant way of life, figurehead of the flourishing luxury industry. Empress Joséphine was a great lover of all art. Her great interest in horticulture is well-known, but she also liked all things artistic. She surrounded herself with creative people whose work ranged from paintings and sculpture to furniture and the architecture all around her. After the collapse of the Empire and Napoleon's forced abdication, she asked Emperor Alexander I of Russia in the gardens of Malmaison to join Napoleon in exile. It was probably during this walk that she caught a severe cold from which she died painfully on May 29, 1814. Napoleon learned of her death while in exile on Elba, and stayed locked in his room for two days, refusing to see anyone. His last words on his death bed were: "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine." But who were they really, how did they love? The winners alone make the story. And Napoleon himself was a master of propaganda. So the truth remains hidden forever. What is certain, however, is that love and passion overcome all obstacles.

This colorful diptych combines the following works and should be “read” from left to right:

left part of the diptych:
THE LAST CALM DAY BEFORE THE STORM (THE EMPEROR)
2020. acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
47.2 (w) x 59.1 (h) x 0.78 in

My beloved Joséphine, now and here, the sun is smiling on our faces, and it almost shines for eternity. But there is no rest, not for us. There is only the silence before the storm, the last bright rays in a cloud-shrouded firmament. Whether we say it or refuse it, as in myself, chaos is already looming on the horizon. What was what we share now, it will never be the same again.

* * * *

right part of the diptych:
IF I COULD LOOK BEYOND THE HORIZON (THE EMPRESS)
2020. acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
47.2 (w) x 59.1 (h) x 0.78 in

My beloved Bonaparte, I live as I love. Does it matter in the here and now what may be beyond the horizon? What they will say and write about me will only be a footnote in world history, an annex to your biography, and it will not be the truth, but only a reflection of their own virtues and vices. The future belongs to the emperor, this moment with him is mine alone.

* * * *

"I awake full of you. Your image and the memory of last night’s intoxicating pleasures has left no rest to my senses."
~ Napoleon Bonaparte (December 1795, in one of his numerous letters to Joséphine; only the love letters from Napoleon to Joséphine have survived, which she kept for the rest of her life. It is still unclear whether Josephine never wrote back or whether her letters have disappeared.)

"France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine." ("France, l'armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine").
~ Last words of Napoleon on his death bed (St. Helena, May 5, 1821)

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM (diptych)
Diptych 2021
150 (h) x 260 (w) x 2 cm
59,1 (h) x 102,36 (w) x 0,78 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

LARGE STATEMENT PIECE
LARGE-SCALED DIPTYCH

This monochrome diptych combines the following works and should be „read“ from left to right:

*

ABOUT THE HERE AND NOW
2021. acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
47,2 (w) x 59,1 (h) x 0,78 in
left part of the diptych

“Yesterday is gone.
Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today.
Let us begin.”

~ Mother Theresa

*

MY HOUSE BY THE SEA
2021. acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
47,2 (w) x 59,1 (h) x 0,78 in
right part of the diptych

There is a place of longing that towers above everything. This house by the sea. No luxury, no pomp, just the original, just the pure feeling of closeness to the water and the beach. Especially in times when the here and now makes me cramped and my soul becomes heavy, as the beach seems far away, my thoughts are more than ever on this house by the sea. Nothing has more magic than the ocean. And a place where everything falls away from me.

„It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”

~ John F. Kennedy (September 14, 1962)

MY HOUSE BY THE SEA
2021
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm
59,1 (h) x 47,2 (w) x 0,79 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

About the background: There is a place of longing that towers above everything. This house by the sea. No luxury, no pomp, just the original, just the pure feeling of closeness to the water and the beach. Especially in times when the here and now makes me cramped and my soul becomes heavy, as the beach seems far away, my thoughts are more than ever on this house by the sea. Nothing has more magic than the ocean. And a place where everything falls away from me.

* * * *

"It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came.”

~ John F. Kennedy (September 14, 1962)

ABOUT THE HERE AND NOW
2021
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 2 cm
59,1 (h) x 47,2 (w) x 0,79 in
acrylic and oil on canvas

“Yesterday is gone.
Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today.
Let us begin.”

~ Mother Theresa

THE FRAGILE LIGHT OF SPRING
Diptych 2021
acrylic and oil on canvas
Dimension of each paiting: 120 (h) x 100 (w) x 2 cm / 47,2 (h) x 39,4 (w) x 0,78 in
Complete dimension of the diptych with a hanging distance of 10 cm / 3,9 in between the two pieces:
120 (h) x 210 (w) x 2 cm / 47,2 (h) x 82,7 (w) x 0,78 in

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."
~ F.Scott Fitzgerald (ex: The Great Gatsby)

* * * *

This diptych combines the following works and should be "read" from left to right:

left part:
THE SOUL AND THE SUMMER
2021 / acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (h) x 100 (w) x 2 cm / 47,2 (h) x 39,4 (w) x 0,78 in

right part:
UNDER THE SURFACE
2021 / acrylic and oil on canvas
120 (h) x 100 (w) x 2 cm / 47,2 (h) x 39,4 (w) x 0,78 in

AT THE BEACH
Diptych 2021
acrylic and oil on canvas
Dimension of each paiting: 30 (h) x 24 (w) x 2 cm / 11,81 (h) x 9,45 (w) x 0,78 in
Complete dimension of the diptych with a hanging distance of 2 cm / 0,78 in between the two pieces:
30 (h) x 50 (w) x 2 cm / 11,81 (h) x 19,69 (w) x 0,78 in

"Summertime. It was a song. It was a season. I wondered if that season would ever live inside of me."
~ Benjamin Alire Sáenz (ex: Last Night I Sang to the Monster)