Tag: Fine Arts
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Light in Arts – A Short Reflection on Illumination
A brief note on how light shapes art. The post comments on contrast, atmosphere and the subtle ways illumination changes a piece. It keeps the tone simple and observational, paired with a small ink work that echoes the theme without overstating it.
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snow and ice and corona
I am sharing a few new works and studies that explore the idea of a “snow landscape in lockdown.” Branching out from my ongoing Corona series, these pieces reflect on Austria’s heavy reliance on winter tourism. Lockdowns here determine many fates and spark highly controversial, heated debates. I wanted to capture the sharp contrast between…
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Painting Through Winter Depression
Winter depression through the decades — a personal collection of ink paintings from the 1980s to 2022, and how painting became a coping tool.
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New Abstract Surrealist Ink Paintings
Why stepping away from an unfinished painting matters — three new abstract surrealist works and reflections on knowing when to stop.
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Waltzing Corona: A Triptych on Balance and Yin-Yang
An abstract triptych reflecting on Vienna’s ball season during the pandemic, explained through Chinese principles of balance and yin-yang.
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New Year’s Pastime
Ringing in the New Year with Chinese calligraphy practice, a poem by Tang Yin, and thoughts on what it really takes to master an art form.
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2021 Year in Review
A look back at 2021 — new publications, an honorary certificate, and two exhibitions in Beijing and Vienna planned for the year ahead.
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Handmade Painted Bookmarks with Dried Flowers
Twenty handmade painted bookmarks combining ink art with pressed flowers and leaves, made during a quiet holiday season.
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About My Surrealist Work: From Early Influences to Abstraction
A personal look at my early engagement with Surrealism and its lasting influence on my artistic development, from literature and painting to abstraction and contemporary work.
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A Landscape Painting with Two Vanishing Points
A landscape painting exploring two vanishing points — calm above, chaos below — and early reflections on nature, environment and balance.
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New Directions: Homage to Hans Hartung and Wagner’s Ring
New paintings paying tribute to Hans Hartung and reflecting on Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung.”
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Corona and the Sea: Painting the Invisible
Three semi-abstract paintings exploring the invisible reality of Covid-19 through the metaphor of the sea.
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Should Artists Explain Their Own Work?
Reflections on whether artists should explain their own work — and whether that destroys the mystery.
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Abstract Landscape Paintings: The Big Bang Series
New abstract paintings exploring creation and chaos, inspired by the Big Bang and shaped by the balance of yin and yang.
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Portrait and Figure Drawings: A Retrospective
Portrait, figure and nude drawings spanning five decades, including drawings made blind in the dark.
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Remembering a Landscape: Yin and Yang in Ink Painting
A simple landscape composition, reworked across 30 years, exploring memory, imagination and the balance of yin and yang.
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Out of the Blues into the Blue: A Painting on Isolation
The composition clears the way to the blue of the sea and the sky. Perhaps the picture is a little too melodramatic, but a good mood is powerful in its own way. It relies on the tension of opposites—the natural balance of yin and yang—contrasting heavy, dramatic elements with clear, uplifting space to give the…
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Landscapes by the Water and in the Mountains
Two landscape studies inspired by music, volcanic eruptions in the news, and mountain monasteries.
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Sketches of Chinese Minority People
Forty-year-old charcoal sketches of Chinese minority people from a 1980s journey.
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A Painting Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s “Reminiscence of Marie A.
A painting inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s poem “Reminiscence of Marie A.”
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Triptych: Theme and Variations
An abstract triptych inspired by classical music, blending calligraphy principles with painterly expression.
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State of the Art: A Self-Portrait Series
A personal self-portrait series from 1977 to 2021, tracing the evolution of style, memory, and even a damaged early canvas.
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Gestural Painting: A Step Further
New gestural abstraction paintings exploring psychology, blending Chinese calligraphy with Western concepts.
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Gestural Painting, Subconsciousness and Archetypes
A look at moving from figurative portraits to gestural abstraction, exploring Jungian archetypes, the subconscious, and Chinese art theory.
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Almost Thrown Away: A “Scared Girl” — A Painting Saved from the Trash
A 1988 portrait almost thrown away for not fitting a series — rediscovered years later and worth keeping after all.
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The Essence of Chinese Painting: Emptiness and the Meaning of White
An exploration of emptiness and negative space in Chinese painting, from Daoist and Chan thought to the works of Bada Shanren and Liang Kai.
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Burning Down the Snow: A Surrealist Painting
A surrealist painting born from Schubert’s “Winterreise” and Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” — blending photorealism and abstraction.
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Triptych “Mountain”: The Finished Series
A finished triptych exploring mountains and caves, inspired by the archaic Chinese pictograph for “mountain.”
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Nude Drawing: Academy Studies and Life Drawing
Early academy nude drawings from life-drawing sessions in Beijing, and the struggle to escape the influence of Fritz Martinz.
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Paint Away Pain: Creating an Abstract Painting
In this personal studio reflection, the author describes how painting helped transform a difficult day into an abstract work. Influenced by music and spontaneous brushwork, the painting explores emotion, color, structure and the expressive possibilities of gestural abstraction.
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A Couple of New Works: Contemporary Ink Paintings
A studio reflection on several new contemporary ink paintings, exploring abstraction, color and expressive composition through principles drawn from Chinese painting and calligraphy.
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Mu Qi’s Six Persimmons: An Interpretation
An interpretation of Mu Qi’s celebrated Six Persimmons, examining its composition, symbolism, expressive brushwork and connection to Chan Buddhism and traditional Chinese ink painting.
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Easter Contribution: Dürer Overwritten with a Mao Slogan
An Easter artwork overwriting a small Albrecht Dürer engraving from 1506 with a Mao Zedong slogan on publishing and propaganda.
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A Second Painting After Huang Binhong – 黄宾虹
A second painting after Huang Binhong, honored with calligraphy from a fellow painter — and a look at inscriptions and collector’s seals.
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Recent Work: Day 5/7 Surrealism
With painters like Max Ernst, the world of painting opened up for me. Now I have painted an homage to Max Ernst. “The Triumph of Surrealism” from 1937.
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Recent Work: Day 3/7 blossom and calligraphy
Smaller painting with a single blossom and traditional Chinese calligraphy
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Recent Work: Day 2/7 with explanation
Mao Zedong slogan on old, decorative Romanian invoice from 1932
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A few rays of sunshine for your weekend
After my old love for “The Blue Rider” flared up again and after a long beautiful walk through the Vienna Woods, this picture was then taken.
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Zha Shibiao: A Simple Painting and Yet a Treasure
A close reading of a small album leaf by Zha Shibiao, exploring composition, brushwork, empty space and the close relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy.
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Copying Old Masters: Huang Binhong – 黄宾虹
Original paintings by Huang Binhong compared with my own copies, and reflections on how to copy without losing the spirit (qi) of a work.
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The Essence of Chinese Painting (III)
Exploring Pan Tianshou’s four phases of composition (qǐ-chéng-zhuǎn-jié) in Chinese painting, illustrated through Fù Bàoshí and Zhu Da.
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Early Woodcuts: From Surrealism to Expressionism
A selection of early woodcuts marking the transition from Surrealism to Expressionism, technically raw but expressive.
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A Homage to Gerhard Richter and Hideaki Yamanobe
A graphic work paying homage to Gerhard Richter’s “Cloud” and Hideaki Yamanobe’s monotypes, made after visiting a Richter exhibition in Vienna.
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Bookmarks – my love for old leaves
After I hadn’t painted for a long time due to my job, I started to sniff it again about a year ago. In order to regain my sensitivity as quickly as possible, I collected withered leaves and then blossoms and flowers in spring. The first thing I did with it were bookmarks.
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Analyzing a Simple Painting by Qi Baishi 齐白石
An in-depth analysis of a simple Qi Baishi painting of cabbage and chilies, exploring symbolism, composition, and xieyi brush technique.
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Out of the Dark: An Oil Painting from Post-Cultural Revolution China
An oil painting of Chinese children emerging from the shadow of the Cultural Revolution, recently published in a book on Austrian-Chinese history.
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The Principle of the Balance in Chinese Painting
In the first part of “The Essence of Chinese Painting,” I explore the fundamental principle of dynamic balance. Unlike Western art, which relies on a static scale, Chinese painting uses a dynamic scale. This approach contrasts heavy, visible brushstrokes with the powerful counterweight of empty space. Whether in a single character or Ma Yuan’s one-corner…
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Protective Masks in 1979 Beijing: An Oil Painting
An oil painting from Beijing depicting people in masks reading news at the Democracy Wall on Chang’an Avenue, decades before the pandemic.
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Sketches from the Peking Opera
Charcoal sketches of Peking Opera performances made in Beijing in 1979, mounted in a traditional Chinese album.
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student prank with Wang Ziwu 王子武
During my time at the academy in Beijing, I recommended the then-unknown Xi’an painter Wang Ziwu. He was invited and, despite being shy, painted an excellent portrait of me. The next day, he gifted me and my Australian colleague Claire two paintings. As a prank, I painted a copy of Claire’s picture and swapped it…
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When I First Met Lu Yanshao 陸儼少
A memory of watching landscape painter Lu Yanshao demonstrate his slow, deliberate brushwork at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
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Chinese Seal Carving: History and Key Terms
A look at the history and key terms of Chinese seal carving, and its deep connection to Chinese painting and calligraphy.