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snow and ice and corona

A Few New Studies

As I mentioned in my previous post, January and February are not my favourite months, especially for painting. Still, I try to use the time: making studies, practising calligraphy, playing with ideas and working on my technique.

Curving brown and reddish forms against an icy blue-grey ground, with fine black accents

These works are at different stages. Some remain studies, and I still want to work on parts of them, but each contains something I would like to pursue. The painting below plays with the idea of a “snow landscape in lockdown.”

Broad angular black and brown strokes over pale turquoise and white, suggesting a wintry landscape
snow and ice and corona

The starting point was my Corona series. In the winter of 2021–22, I was thinking about what lockdowns meant for people whose livelihoods depended on Austria’s winter tourism. The debates were heated. Snow and ice seemed a subject through which I could approach that situation in painting.

Dark fragmented forms and fine pink accents across a vivid blue ground with vertical grey streaks
Reddish translucent shapes and dark horizontal strokes amid pale blue and white passages

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Comments

13 responses to “snow and ice and corona”

  1. swabby429 avatar
    swabby429

    I can feel the struggle these images evoke.

    Reply
    1. Zettl Friedrich avatar
      Zettl Friedrich

      Thank you! I am happy when I hear that this attempt becomes clear and, better still, can be understood.

      Reply
  2. macalder02 avatar
    macalder02

    Romanticism, realism is what moves me most in painting. I don’t have that much scope to give an opinion about it, but your paintings have that peculiarity of immersing oneself inside them to discover their concepts. For example, in the first painting it seems that the head of a lion traces its tentacles to catch a bat at the other end. Maybe it’s not what you mean, but your painting caught me. Excuse my ignorance but I think your paintings are great.
    Manuel Angek (Chile)

    Reply
    1. Zettl Friedrich avatar
      Zettl Friedrich

      Thank you Manuel Angek for your kind words! You got that completely right. Since I chose the topic “Covic-19” for a series of paintings, the question naturally arose from the beginning, how do I express this phenomenon in an abstract or semi-abstract way. Simply painting a bat would be too banal, so a gestural representation was chosen that nevertheless evokes this association in the viewer. Probably not everyone would see it as clearly as you do. But you are an art lover…

      In a more abstract work, the “bat” looked like this:

      https://i0.wp.com/zettl.blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sea1.jpg?resize=768%2C566&ssl=1

      Reply
      1. macalder02 avatar
        macalder02

        Now I understand perfectly the abstract. With this painting you propose a new perspective. It is your “pure art” looking beyond reality.
        Thank you very much for your kindness in showing your painting.

      2. Zettl Friedrich avatar
        Zettl Friedrich

        You are welcome! Thanks again! Since Covid-19 is an “abstract” thing, it made sense to me to approach it in an abstract way of painting. I often depict it as an amorphous, slimy, transparent substance, e.g. laid over a landscape. You can’t really see it, but the discomfort is there.

      3. macalder02 avatar
        macalder02

        It is a message that is noticeable in the strokes. A hug

      4. Zettl Friedrich avatar
        Zettl Friedrich

        Thanks, that’s exactly it. For decades, I have dedicated myself to Chinese calligraphers and Chinese painting techniques, where it is important to convey complex content in just a few strokes. Best regards from Vienna to Chile!

      5. macalder02 avatar
        macalder02

        Thank you

  3. rabirius avatar
    rabirius

    Beautiful artworks.
    I really like the composition in terms of form and colour very much.

    Reply
  4. Zettl Friedrich avatar
    Zettl Friedrich

    Thank you so much for your encouraging words! They mean a lot to me.

    Reply
  5. Ana Hernandez avatar
    Ana Hernandez

    Dear Freidrich Zettl,

    The conflict is so well depicted in your paintings that my reaction was to feel I had been placed within it- almost frightened. They are very powerful and quite beautiful.

    Reply
    1. Zettl Friedrich avatar
      Zettl Friedrich

      Dear Ana Hernandez, thank you so much for your encouraging words! Both winter and Corona will be gone while I still will be painting 🙂

      Reply

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