This week I experienced one of those inevitable lows in the creative process. A painting I had recently begun with high hopes suddenly felt directionless and repetitive. The oil paint became sluggish and unmalleable in Berlin’s unexpected heat wave, along with my own willpower. Seeking inspiration and an escape from negativity, I looked back at […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the painter Robert Henri lately. Robert Henri helped found the Ashcan School of American realism and taught at the Art Student League in New York. The Art Sprit, a compilation of his lectures edited by former student Margery Ryerson, remains just as fresh and timeless today as when it […]
I have been uncertain about how to paint this former department store (Galeria Kaufhof) located behind Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The brightly colored panels and opaque windows first caught my attention on a typical Berlin winter day when everything seemed once again closed and impenetrable. As I worked, I went back and forth between loose washes […]
Anyone who has spent time in Berlin knows that there is no shortage of construction sites. Die Baustellen can take up several city blocks or be squeezed among 19th century Altbau dwellings. I have ridden my bike past this particular riverside development numerous times, always daunted by its size and location. Today, looking at it […]