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October 2024

- Frankfurt’s Skyline -

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Some motifs attract me magically, I travel halfway around the world for them. Others fascinate me spontaneously, I'll drop everything for them. And still others want to be painted because I have a collector's heart – I need them to expand or complete my themed collection. I've already captured skylines with skyscrapers in Shanghai, Dubai and New York – and now I'm finally back home in Frankfurt.

After my arrival, I browsed through the postcards in the souvenir shop at the main railway station. One perspective particularly appealed to me and I wanted to paint it. I located the place on the city map where the photo had been taken and travelled there. The postcard motif was now irrelevant – in front of me was the skyline with the promenade along the River Main and the ‘Eiserner Steg’, the iron footbridge directly above the river. I took in the panorama for a while before I started painting.

Even though in this case I specifically chose and sought out my motif, the special thing about plein air painting is that a place and its flair always cast a spell over me and interact with my inner mood. What I perceive is directly linked to how I feel on that day. If I'm not feeling well, I won't be able to capture a cheerful atmosphere in my watercolour. But if I'm in a balanced, carefree mood, my colours shine even when the sky is grey. The water of the Main near Frankfurt is not Caribbean turquoise – but when my thoughts are light and cheerful, my brush in the paintbox wanders purposefully away from dark tones and enjoys the light colours.

That way I always know later in which mood I painted the picture. My plein air paintings are therefore not only a snapshot of reality, but also an expression of my inner world at the time of painting.

 

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