Tag: Fine Arts
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On the Borders of Minimalism
How much can I leave out before an image loses its life? Photographs from Lake Neusiedl lead from ordinary wooden supports towards almost calligraphic forms. A personal experiment in framing, repetition and empty space—and in knowing when to take a step back.
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The Empty Boat — 虚舟 (Xū Zhōu)
Which painting best represents where I stand in 2026? The Empty Boat begins with Zhuangzi, ego and a rather unusual fish, while a second painting leads to a different question: what happens when a painter stops asking what a work still needs and begins asking what it wants to get rid of?
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Nature’s Calligraphy: The Art of Seeing
Ducks, swans and reflections lead from a full landscape toward a few marks on water. A photographic look at the rhythms and spaces that also shape my painting and calligraphy.
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Visual Response to “The Last Rag” by Soundeagle
A piano piece becomes an experiment with twelve calligraphic units, faded colour and broken rhythm. Three versions trace my visual response to SoundEagle’s The Last Rag.
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Light as State of Being: Light in Painting and Contemporary Ink Art
What happens when light seems to belong to a painting’s forms rather than fall upon them? From a Dutch still life and Van Gogh to my own ink works, I follow a search for cosmic light, reduction and depth.
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When the World Shatters
Recent paintings, unfinished works and studies accompany my reflections on war, lost trust and environmental destruction. When the World Shatters explores how fragmented forms and expressive brushwork can echo both global upheaval and the inner distress of the individual, while leaving room for renewal.
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Before I Gotta Go: Minimalism, Dreams and Surreal Ink Painting
From early surreal scenes to Oneiric Divide: why I want to paint the feelings a dream leaves behind, rather than retell its story.
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Don’t Let the Old Man In
On resisting bitterness and keeping an open spirit: political images, memories of Prague and paintings from my ZEN BRUT yearbook for 2025.
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Dao and Zen Again: Applying Eastern Philosophy to Contemporary Ink Painting
During an enforced pause in autumn 2025, vivid dreams led me back to sparse abstract painting. I look at the warm and cool marks through my interest in Dao and Zen, then recount one dream alongside photographs from earlier travels.
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Autumn Reflections
Four short fictional poems explore decay, deception and the fall of a familiar figure. English semi-haiku, Chinese adaptations and my calligraphy meet in an autumn experiment, with a look at how the final poem changed through revision.
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Terra Dystopia
Terra Dystopia began as a question about the summer of 2025. Paintings, studies and fragments accompany my reflections on recurring dystopian themes—from inequality and surveillance to environmental damage—without serving as literal illustrations.
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The Abundance of Modesty
Cheng Yutian’s calligraphies and seals of 謙受益 bring back memories of learning in China. Through the image of an overflowing vessel and my friendship with Wang Jinhuai, I reflect on modesty as a willingness to receive.
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Cracks in the Silence
Friedrich Zettl reflects on paintings made in troubled times: the search for silence, the vulnerability of childhood, and environmental damage beneath an attractive surface.
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Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?
A personal essay on political spectacle, the power of images and the difficulty of finding trustworthy information—with satirical collages, historical photographs and reflections on why I need a break.
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State of the Art 2025
State of the Art 2025 is my contribution this year to an ongoing series of “self-portraits.” For years, these pieces have documented my creative journey, reflecting the current status of my work.
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Spring Potpourri
Spring walks, new paintings and homemade jiaozi: a personal potpourri of landscapes, experiments with colour, political satire and good food shared at home.
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Nothingness in Color
Nothingness in Color continues my imagined journey to the Zen master. On black paper, scattered colour and calligraphic marks explore rhythm, open space and the search for an unaffected artistic voice.
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The Gift of the Green Snake
A Wu Opera performance in Vienna brings back memories of sketching Peking Opera in Beijing. A small gift from the performer playing the Green Snake leads to new studies of movement, light and the stage.
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Goodbye to the Winter
From winter darkness towards spring: studies on black paper, a homage to Christo and two larger paintings explore how much a few strokes and unpainted space can hold.
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Depression: A Journey Through the Long Winter.
Paintings from a difficult winter: self-doubt, memories of childhood and experiments with colour after my Zen master series. A personal reflection on depression and the work it prompted.
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Meditation of the Zen Master
Part III concludes the imagined journey through paintings of meditation, reduction and emptiness. My reflections on the meditating figure sit alongside the original AI interpretations, with their insights, enthusiasm and limitations.
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Journey to the Zen Master
Part II moves through the imagined environment of the Zen master, from rugged mountain forms to open space and green gardens. The paintings and original AI readings are followed by memories of my journeys on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
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The Journey to the Zen Master
Part I of an imagined journey to a Zen master. Eight paintings follow a train ride from the station toward an increasingly open landscape, accompanied by my reflections and the AI interpretations used in the original experiment.
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The Dao of Annual Planning in 2024
Looking back at 2024, I consider how Daoist thinking shaped my planning, daily business and painting. Alongside the year’s artworks, I reflect on SEO, AI, investing and the room a plan needs for change.
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Emperor Huizong: When Rulers Still Loved Art
Emperor Huizong’s bird-and-flower paintings and Slender Gold calligraphy still fascinate me. His cultural achievements also raise a difficult question: how does artistic sensitivity relate to the moral responsibilities of a ruler?
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Discovering the Beauty in the Ugly
Photographs of worn mannequins in Sharm el Sheikh and wrapped machine parts in Marsa Alam lead me back to a question in my painting: what becomes visible when I look beyond conventional beauty?
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Blind Drawings: Artistic Expression in Darkness
More than twenty drawings explore what happens when I work in complete darkness. With visual control removed, familiar poses become distorted or fragmented. Charcoal, pen and ink studies trace the relationship between academic drawing, gesture and unexpected form.
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Theme and Variations
A fading blossom changes through a series of ink drawings. As the stem disappears and the petals become less descriptive, Chinese verse, white space and musical rhythm take on more of the work. A personal account of removing and adding.
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Daoist Aspects in My Paintings
Recent paintings explore the relationships between sparse marks and dense black, stillness and movement, form and open space. Music and scientific reading provide further questions, while close details reveal how a figure or landscape can emerge from abstraction.
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What Is Reality? What Is Nothingness?
A painter’s comparison of quantum physics, Zen Buddhism and Daoism, with attention to their different meanings of reality and emptiness. Abstract works and optical illusions lead back to questions of perception, form and the space between marks.
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Summer Inventory
Taking inventory turns up paintings I thought were lost and others waiting to be reworked. This summer collection brings together Zen-inspired gestures, calligraphy, music, dance and sea studies, followed by a personal memory of a reception in July 2024.
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Can We Hear a Painting?
Can music be translated into painting? An exploration of rhythm, silence and sound through abstract art inspired by Wagner, Bruckner, Bach, Shakuhachi, Arvo Pärt and Brian Eno.
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Emptiness, Space, and Depth
A spring collection exploring what happens between the marks: sparse drawings, dense black forms, musical references and abstract landscapes. A personal account of simplifying my work and finding new possibilities through contrast and conversation.
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Essence in Art: Less Is More
A few painted experiments ask what remains when detail and decoration fall away. Short verses, an ensō variation, jazz and Daoist imagery offer different ways of looking for the felt character of a subject.
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Break on Through
Exhibitions and frustrating dealings with the art world bring me back to the studio. Two paintings follow the idea of passage: one through the energy of rock music, another through the memory of an Egyptian wall painting.
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Delving into the Realm of Seals on Artwork
The little red marks on a painting lead back to people, journeys and years of collecting. I recall carving my own seals, learning from Wang Yong and Cheng Yutian, and discovering Xiao An’s picture seals.
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Birthday Present from Confucius
Turning seventy prompts a few jokes, a second look at Confucius and some thoughts on curiosity, painting and gratitude. A favourite poem by Erich Fried offers another kind of birthday present.
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New Yearbook Is Out
Five signed yearbooks, surprising blog statistics and a more difficult question: what can artists contribute to opposing war? A December 2023 studio update, with early drafts for a peace initiative.
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Wu Wei: Effortless Action in Daoism and Chinese Painting
Wu wei does not mean a lack of skill or attention. Cook Ding’s story offers a way to consider painting: learning what the material allows, responding without force, and knowing when to slow down or put the brush down.
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Day Dream Job
At seventeen I imagined earning a living by dreaming. These paintings return to the brief interval when dream fragments fade into waking life. An extra revisits my experience of using AI to improve the language of a blog article.
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Between Here and There
Dream fragments linger between sleep and waking. Four paintings approach that uncertain space through the Exit series, The Magic Sea and an imagined creature seen from a child’s point of view.
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Between Cold and Heat
While recovering from illness in October 2023, I returned to an old Beijing portrait, explored variations of a young monk and made an untitled sequence in response to troubling news. The experiments use graphics software and AI-assisted processing.
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Yin Yang and the Journey of Artistic Expression
Two ink paintings, a promotional video and a glittering transformation: I consider how new images affect my visual memory, and where AI-assisted presentation sits alongside my own painting practice.
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When the Let-Go Period Is Over
A small ink painting and the illustrations for Wolfgang Kubin’s Das Buch der Zähren become two experiments in presentation. The paintings are my own; virtual interiors offer another way to encounter them.
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Works on Meditation
After a period of reduction, I returned to fuller paintings with meditation still in mind. Four works explore restless thought, light over water, dream fragments and an unsettling piece of news from my spa stay.
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Elements of Rhyme
After Dominik Alexander wrote a poem about one of my paintings, I wanted to return the gesture. Elements of Rhyme responds to his writing through an imaginary landscape, with solid rocks below and restless blue-green forms above.
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The Flow of Qi in Chinese Ink Painting
Two paintings become a way to follow the flow of qi: through brushstrokes, intervals and the directions that connect them. Annotated diagrams trace one possible walk through a composition.
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Wabi-Sabi, Japanese Paper & the Beauty of Empty Space
An unsatisfying sheet of paper leads me back to Tanizaki, the character of materials and the shape of empty space. These studies ask what a painting can gain when more of the paper is left to speak.
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What Game Shall We Play Today?
An imaginary discussion becomes a game about knowledge, belief and shared conventions. Zen, money and measurement lead me back to a question: which certainties am I willing to examine?
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Two Links – TV Portrait and Dao Index
The broadcast is here: a short portrait within a wider programme on China and Austria. Alongside it, a Daoist Talks index and a painting made around Easter.
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Environment and Nature: Two Painting Studies
Two tentative studies explore my unease about environmental destruction, through divided landscapes, shifting perspectives and a darker variation on Poetry from the Sky.
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Interview for TV and Stream
A television crew visits my home to film a portrait. Early paintings, memories of China and a few thoughts on cultural exchange come into view.
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A Poem About One of My Paintings
A playful idea for a children’s book led to an unexpected collaboration. Dominik Alexander chose Scene at the Waters and wrote a poem in response, with complete freedom to follow the image.
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Ego vs. Self in Daoism: A Western & Asian View
From Saint Anthony resisting temptation to a figure resting against a tiger: paintings lead into questions of desire, self-assertion and how Daoist and Zen texts can change the way we look.
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The Magic Sea
An opera in which painted forms, light and space carry the story. The Magic Sea follows a visual sequence from darkness to luminous openness, while leaving room for the project to change.
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The Children’s Book of My Last Post
Could abstract pictures become a children’s book? Thoughts about dragons, underwater creatures and making room for children to discover and invent, with a dedication to Tom and Jerry.
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New Horizon
Before a Red Sea diving trip, abstract studies lead me to a question about painting: what changes when I imagine a horizon behind me as well as in front?
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Criticism: Not Amused with the Emperor
A horse in the wind, an emaciated horse, an eagle and a silenced face: historical images lead into questions of criticism and interpretation, and a personal memory of Wang Keping’s generosity.
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State of the Art 2023 – A Step Further
My 2023 self-portrait turns from outward likeness towards an inner world. Looking through two versions, I consider opposing forms, the pull of the centre, and a step from shade into light.
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Ginkgo Leaves in Autumn and Winter
The ginkgo outside my house turns the meadow gold in autumn. These studies follow leaves into winter, through veils of pale paint, towards the first thought of spring.
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About Jack
Jack Dorner first knew my online shop through antique prints. Years later, his enquiry about my calligraphy became an exchange of works, ideas and experiments across continents.
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Painting Through Winter Depression: An Ink Art Series
During a winter low, I pick up my brush and see what comes. These paintings trace the movement from dark, heavy forms towards more playful calligraphic marks and openings of light.
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Dao and Zen in Chinese Painting: An AI Experiment
A Christmas conversation in 2022 led me to ask AI about Dao and Zen in Chinese painting. I share its response alongside my paintings and reflect on the limits of labels, the appeal of spontaneous brushwork and my own position as an artist.
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Because It’s Wednesday Again…
The fifth painting in a new series brings calligraphic forms into a landscape-like space. A few thoughts on its pink line, its sense of distance, and the opposing qualities I want to hold together.
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Liang Kai: The Story of Eight Eminent Monks – Daoist Talks (IV)
A close look at Liang Kai’s Eight Eminent Monks, followed by a personal memory of meeting the painter Lin Kai in Beijing in 1982. Buddhist stories, a red-robed Bodhidharma, and an inscription whose humour took years to unfold.
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New Works for Old Series
Two new paintings return me to gestural abstraction and abstract surrealism. A Gansu cultural event and a bilingual Theodor Storm poetry book bring the work into other conversations.
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Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition at the Albertina, Vienna
A visit to the Albertina’s Basquiat retrospective in November 2022: the impact of his paintings, a corrected auction reference, and a detour into the Batliner Collection and its picture frames.
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Daoist Talks (III): The Cosmos in One Dot
A practical exercise in looking at brush dots: their shape, rhythm and place in a painting. With examples by Shitao and a reflection on the relationship between a small mark, the ensō and the whole picture.
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The Dreamweaver’s Daughters: Ink Paintings on Dreams
The Dreamweaver’s Daughters and Wolf Hour approach the uncertain space between sleeping and waking. Two abstract ink paintings in which forms emerge, combine and dissolve without settling into a single scene.
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Daoist Talks (I): Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream in Ink Painting
Zhuangzi dreams of being a butterfly; my goldfish dreams of being a bird. Through a contemporary ink painting, I explore shifting viewpoints, the spaces between forms, and what we bring to a picture when we look at it.
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Two Book Covers and One Dragon
Two poetry books call for different approaches to cover design and illustration. Alongside the work for Theodor Storm and Wolfgang Kubin, I return to my dragon series.
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Old Sketchbook – Collages, Ephemera and Changing Meanings
I kept a Paris flea-market sketchbook unused for more than forty years. Its pages now bring together stamps, cigarette fragments and other ephemera whose meanings change with time.
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Too Young to Die – Giving Unfinished Paintings Another Chance
Two piles of unfinished paintings, a few life-saving brushstrokes and a Jethro Tull joke. Alongside the rescued works: new bookmarks and notes from July 2022.
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Minor, Major and a Video – Recent Painting Experiments
A bookmark video offers a quiet counterweight to recent painting experiments, from pale landscapes and rediscovered sketches to a new kind of depth in abstraction.
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Gold, History, Friends, Sinology and Luxury
A week in June 2022, between gold-leaf experiments, new art videos, Wolfgang Kubin’s reading and a book presentation at Concordia. The real luxury is time for art, conversation and friends.
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Only One Picture This Time – “Rheingold”
One painting this time: Rheingold combines the atmosphere of my dream sequences with Chinese calligraphy and early thoughts on translating Wagner’s musical ideas into painting.
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Dreamtellers
How can a painting convey a dream’s movement and emotional force? Early collages and newer paintings trace a sequence from dusk through night to dawn.
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How We See – A Short Article on Perception
A personal exploration of how we see: from a hollow-mask illusion to Lichtenstein, Mike Utley’s photography and the lines that guide our eyes through a painting.
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Ophelia Painting (2022) – A Quiet Contemporary Study
My Ophelia painting returns to a familiar motif through abstraction, transience and change. A separate note recalls an unexpected reunion by email with my former roommate in Beijing.
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In Guangming Daily Again: Art and Cultural Exchange
Guangming Daily published another report about my work and cultural exchange between Austria and China on 30 April 2022. Alongside the newspaper pages, I share a new turquoise ink painting.
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Teaser for Next Exhibition
A short virtual gallery tour from April 2022, with works on paper shown at an imaginary scale. At the time, a planned exhibition in Beijing had been postponed again.
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metaverse (V)
A leaf becomes a wing; a scene in water becomes uncertain; a near-photographic surface resists description. Three final paintings explore the shifting boundary between recognition and abstraction.
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metaverse (IV)
Can a painted form be a fish and not quite a fish? Morning and night in my metaverse open questions about recognition, ambiguity and the different inspirations I find in Zen and Schrödinger’s cat.
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metaverse (III)
A dragon, the first signs of order and a few miles before the end of time: three paintings explore the boundaries of my imagined metaverse and the expressive power of leaving things out.
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Metaverse Project Started (II)
In March 2022, I decided to develop my own metaverse series. Before returning to the paintings, I reflect on commercial promises, digital territory and the wordplay behind my “Bored Monk”.
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My Ukraine Contribution – A Small Personal Gesture
A dove of peace felt almost too familiar a symbol, yet it became the starting point for this abstract response to the war in Ukraine in March 2022. Alongside the painting, I recall a night in Kabul.
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Studies for Oil Paintings – Early Ideas on Paper
Three rough studies help me think through composition, colour and movement before returning to oil painting. Landscapes, the sea and organic forms offer starting points for work that cannot simply repeat my ink techniques.
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state of the art 2022
My 2022 “State of the Art” self-portrait began well, until distraction left fingerprints in wet ink. A note on a changing state of mind, carelessness and trying to salvage a painting.
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my kind of metaverse (I)
In February 2022, I began exploring a metaverse of my own through painting. These first works and their details bring the microcosm and macrocosm into an imagined world whose direction is still open.
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Flyer for my Beijing Exhibition
A February 2022 note on the flyer for my planned Beijing exhibition: sixteen recent works, the painting used in the design, and the people whose support made my participation possible.