Shimmering town 100 x 80 cm mixed media - 2014

 

"Behind The Lines" and "Shimmering Town“. They are spontaneous paintings which I started with no specific aim and they belong to the "Echo In The Open Window" series. I would describe it as the expression of an inner echo. Like as if you are lying in bed and through the open window you hear the sounds of life from the outside world: The wind in the trees or early birdsong, music, singing, bells ringing, dogs barking, the sound of footsteps, motorbikes. The entire world is there and in my mind these acoustic impressions become visible.  

When back home from a short trip to Tangier - a constantly and uncontrolled growing harbor town in Northern Morocco - I started this painting.
  

Klick on the image will open a view in line. 

So the development of the painting process is even more visible.

With a mix of ultramarine blue/white and a bit of cadmium red and a big brush I modulate some shapes like houses on a hillside. I would like to have my center of interest in the upper left corner, where it is dark. And I start a bit of collage work such as the light in the windows.  Down below there is the sea, very dark, with a bit of black sand and a color mix of ultramarine/red oxide pigment.

I know that this is only the start of the painting because by now I feel something is pushing me forward.

 I prepare on my table collage pieces for the „houses“. I cut out pieces of metal or cardboard and paint them in different colors: ochre/white, grey, metallic color (bronze, gold). I don´t mind if all these pieces are rectangles or crooked, because this architecture doesn´t claim at all to be functional or right. In my memory of the old town of Tangier, that is exactly what it is:  a somewhat growing monster with a beautiful overall aspect.
Some "houses" get windows or doors by cutting out holes and gluing bits of metallic stuff from behind.
 

With the palette knife and modeling paste mixed with a touch of ochre I build up more houses, doorways, windows, bridges and walls in the open spaces.This town on the canvas is now growing like the real Tangier. 

The sky gets a wash of lighter blue near the value of the ochre/white houses, so that the houses at the horizon line seem to disappear in the sky. This brings out a stronger focal point which is concentrated in the darker upper left part of the houses.

With the palette knife and impasto gel I modulate a palm tree in front of the wall at bottom right. The dark water gets some more light reflection.

When I left my studio in the last light of the day and had a  look back at the finished painting on the easel I saw all the beautiful shimmer and light reflections on the houses and in the windows - a very lively aspect.