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Oktober 2021

- Finishing up with Nena and the Tide -

The story of the painting with Nena actually began many years ago, when we both heldlanguage courses in German and Portuguese one summer and our teamwork developed intoa beautiful friendship. When my biggest pleinair project – a beach painting about five metreslong, on which I had already worked in Odeceixe for several years – was as good as finished, I reserved the last free spot for Nena.
It was already mid–October, the sea was churning, the small beach deserted and almostwashed over by the tide, when Nena joined us as arranged. "Why don't you show me all yourwork, I'd love to see it." So I got the seven large watercolour sheets out of my painting bagfor my friend and spread them out side by side in the sand. I had captured the whole crew offamily, friends and friends of friends over the years in an oversized beach scene. I pointed toa spot on the leftmost sheet, "Nena, you can sit here on the rocks, maybe relaxed with abook in your hand?" – "Sounds good, Marion, I'm sure I won't get wet reading this far up!" –While Nena climbed over large boulders, I gathered up my sheets of paper and startedpainting as soon as she had made herself comfortable on the large flat rock. "Are youkeeping an eye on the tide?" I asked my husband Klaus. Because the waves that weregradually crashing further and further up the beach were best not to occupy me any further.I was making good progress with the painting, Nena's image on the paper corresponded toreality. I would paint the rocks and the sky tomorrow, for today I was very satisfied andwaved Nena over. "But now I'm curious to see how everything looks together." So onceagain I pulled all the other watercolour sheets out of the painting folder and placed them inthe pile in front of me on a flat rock. Out of nowhere, Klaus suddenly shouted, "Watch out,water!" There it was, the giant wave, bigger and more powerful than any before. In thatsecond, we had no choice but to grab whatever was nearby. Each of us seized thewatercolour sheets, but also shoes, trousers and bags. Fortunately, all seven individualsheets of my large beach collage were saved, only a few brushes were missing and my paintbox was now dripping with salt water. Nena's book was also still there, but Klaus' T-shirt anda bag of provisions remained untraceable. A great misfortune? We didn't think so, becauseeverything important had been saved. I would be able to work on the few stray spots ofcolour on my watercolour sheets later. Nothing was torn – and that was almost a smallmiracle given the force with which the water had pulled at the papers in our hands.
"What a story!" Nena always thinks when we talk about that day at the seaside and therescue of the big beach collage. "You should write it down sometime, otherwise no one willknow what happened." She's right. Because although you can still see our little adventure onthe paper, nobody has ever wondered about the unusual colour gradients.

 

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