Tag: Recreation
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Curry Restaurant Kitchen #WordlessWednesday
Amok and curry, somewhere in northern Sri Lanka. A restaurant kitchen photographed in 2016 for my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Book Cover Designs for Theodor Storm’s Poems
Six early cover designs and two sample spreads for Theodor Storm’s poems in German and Chinese, alongside notes on my book projects and painting in September 2022.
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Wien, the Capital of Music #WordlessWednesday #Snapshot
Even the horses jam here, too. Two accordion players in horse masks, photographed in Vienna around 2014.
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Yes, No Coffee Today. #WordlessWednesday #Snapshot
Yes, no coffee today. A former Starbucks coffee shop in Shanghai, photographed possibly in 2017. From my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Fish and Chips #WordlessWednesday #Snapshot
Fish and chips, Asian style. A meal in Negombo, Sri Lanka, photographed in 2016 for my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Siem Reap Heartbreakers #WordlessWednesday #Snapshot
Missing those heartbreakers from Siem Reap. Four children photographed in Cambodia in 2015, for my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Electricity Buddha #WordlessWednesday #Snapshot
Electricity Buddha, protecting the power supply. Dambulla, Sri Lanka, 2016. A photograph from my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Retrieval by Nature #WordlessWednesday
Nature reclaiming a temple wall at Ta Prohm, Cambodia. A photograph from 2015 for my Wordless Wednesday 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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Corporate Concept #WordlessWednesday
Chaos Investment, Pudong, Shanghai, 2013. A photograph from my Wordless Wednesday series.
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Just Two Characters
Two Chinese characters for waiting lead to memories of a book-cover commission and a lesson about brushes. A calligraphy video and a poem painted across ginkgo leaves complete the post.
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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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Farewell Beijing, Hello Chongqing: A Traveling Exhibition
The move of my 2022 exhibition from Beijing to Chongqing brought back three visits, encounters with painter Xue Mingde, painting on the Yangtze and an unforgettable evening at the opera.
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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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My Pyongyang Gig
My 1988 business trip to Pyongyang brought an enormous hotel, an elusive dinner and a communications problem that was supposed to take two years to solve. A Chinese stratagem suggested another approach.
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My gig in Kabul
In 1988, an office renovation project took me to Kabul. A hotel escape after curfew, two men claiming the same name and a bag full of banknotes made it a journey I have never forgotten.
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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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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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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.
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snow and ice and corona
Winter studies from the Corona series, with thoughts on painting snow and ice against the background of lockdown and Austria’s winter tourism.
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Painting Through Winter Depression
Paintings from several decades of difficult winters, and a personal reflection on the tension between technical assurance and another kind of expressive force.
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Triptych Variant: A New Version in Ink
A new left-hand panel changes the balance of Waltzing Corona. Two arrangements, and a decision to keep the original triptych together.
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New Year’s Pastime
Several versions of a Tang Yin poem mark the start of 2022, with thoughts on calligraphy, music and the long road from practice to mastery.
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2021 Year in Review
At the close of 2021, I look back on publications, painting and online exchanges, and ahead to two exhibitions planned for 2022.
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Handmade Painted Bookmarks with Dried Flowers
A quiet holiday project: twenty painted bookmarks with dried flowers and leaves, made for the pleasure of arranging colour, texture and small details.
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Corona and the Sea: Painting the Invisible
Three attempts to paint the sea as a metaphor for attraction, restriction and uncertainty. Notes from November 2021 on my Covid-19 series.
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Portrait and Figure Drawings: A Retrospective
A look back at portraits and figure studies: the sitter’s expectations, the influence of Chinese painting, and experiments in drawing with my eyes closed.
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Out of the Blues into the Blue: A Painting on Isolation
A figure leaves a cave for the blue of sea and sky. A short reflection on symbolism, confinement and release in my Covid-19 series.
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Cyprus – Paphos: A Photo Diary
No drawings this time: a few photographs from Paphos, followed by a day in the Cypriot mountains and visits to monasteries.
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Sketches of Chinese Minority People
Drawings from my years in China, mounted in a fan-fold album and rediscovered decades later: a few impressions I once put aside as second-rate work.
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A Painting Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s “Reminiscence of Marie A.”
Brecht’s “Reminiscence of Marie A.” becomes the starting point for a painting about clouds, memory and impermanence—and the question of when to stop painting.
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A Certificate of Honor for Austrian-Chinese Relations
A summer gathering in Vienna, an ÖGCF certificate dated 13 July 2021, and two photographs recalling a long connection with Heinz Fischer.
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My Essay on Qi Baishi in the China Report
My essay on Qi Baishi in the 2021 anniversary issue of China-Report, with pages from the magazine and Wu Weishan’s sculptural portrait.
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A Painting Inspired by Brecht’s “If Sharks Were People”
Two blossom-like forms with pointed black projections accompany a painted homage to Bertolt Brecht and his story If Sharks Were People.
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Nude Drawing: Academy Studies and Life Drawing
Life drawings from my academy years, when studying the model meant learning to see beyond the strong influence of a draughtsman I admired.
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Paint Away Pain: Creating an Abstract Painting
Painting and Schubert sonatas distracted me on a painful day. A partly abandoned sheet became an abstract work whose colours and construction surprised me.
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Recent Work: Day 6/7 — Bookmarks with Pressed Flowers
Dried flowers, leaves and small calligraphic marks in a narrow format: new bookmarks and close-up details exploring colour, spacing and changing backgrounds.
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Recent Work: Day 3/7 — Blossom and Calligraphy
From real leaves and pressed flowers to painted blossoms: a small group of works exploring yellow, black and the rhythms of Chinese calligraphy.
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Recent Work: Day 1/7 — Blue Painted Calligraphy
Blue painted calligraphy made by writing poems by Tang Yin over one another. Day 1 of a seven-part series, with two details showing the overlapping layers.
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A Few Rays of Sunshine for Your Weekend
A woodland picture painted after a walk through the Vienna Woods and a rediscovery of Der Blaue Reiter, with blue-green trunks and warm orange light.
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My Favourite Taoist – Enjoy Your Day!
A cheerful encounter in Shanghai, told in three photographs. From my #WordlessWednesday series.
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An Obsolete Stock Certificate Painted Over with a Mao Poem
A century-old Austrian stock certificate overwritten with a Mao Zedong poem, exploring the decline of empires and the rise of China.
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An Interview in Guangming Daily: My Years in China
An edited English version of my February 2021 Guangming Daily interview, on studying in China, painting, calligraphy, seal cutting and Austrian-Chinese cultural exchange.
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Chinese TV Invited Me to Write a New Year Couplet
A short Chinese TV appearance, a New Year couplet and only two sheets of red paper. Alongside the video: my February 2021 front-page interview in Guangming Daily.
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Withered Leaves and Blossoms
Experiments with dried leaves and flowers, from bookmarks to works on paper and overpainted oil paintings. Calligraphy meets veins, folds and the spaces between fragments.
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Just Blossoms and Buds
Blossoms and buds become small studies in contrast: empty and filled space, stillness and movement, dense colour and delicate edges. Seven works explore how a few forms can hold a painting together.
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Early Woodcuts: From Surrealism to Expressionism
Rediscovering five early woodcuts, I trace the move from Surrealism towards Expressionism. Technically rough in places, the bird, figures, rooftops and animal forms still strike me as expressive.
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A Homage to Gerhard Richter and Hideaki Yamanobe
After seeing Gerhard Richter’s work in Vienna, I made a small graphic drawing on his Cloud and Hideaki Yamanobe’s monotypes. A yellow cloud, morning mist and an uncertain reflection invite a second look.
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Bookmarks – my love for old leaves
Bookmarks were among the first things I made when I returned to painting. Withered leaves, dried flowers and calligraphy offered a small space in which to explore colour, texture and composition again.
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Out of the Dark: An Oil Painting from Post-Cultural Revolution China
An oil painting from my years in China shows children running out of the darkness towards the light. Reproductions in Gerd Kaminski’s book bring it together with other works from my artistic practice.
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The Principle of Balance in Chinese Painting
How can a small bird balance a heavy branch? I explore the relationships between brushstrokes, painted forms and empty space through nine illustrations from Chinese painting and calligraphy.
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Sketches from the Peking Opera
During my studies in Beijing, I often went to the nearby opera house. These charcoal sketches recall the performers—and evenings among an audience eating sunflower seeds.
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Student Prank with Wang Ziwu 王子武
During my studies in Beijing, I copied a painting Wang Ziwu had given a fellow student. A harmless swap became awkward when our professor admired the copy.
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When I First Met Lu Yanshao 陸儼少
Watching Lu Yanshao paint at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing challenged my assumption that the energy of a landscape must come from speed.
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Chinese Seal Carving: History and Key Terms
A small red seal can change the balance of an entire painting. I reflect on my fascination with Chinese seal carving, look at four examples and explain how the stone, its inscription and its printed impression belong together.