Gallery

The use of pastel chalk in portrait painting goes back far into the 15th century. In the beginning, the only colors at the artists' disposal were black, white and red. Michelangelo and Raphael used them for their sketches. The high time of pastel painting however lies in the 17th and 18th century. At that time pastel painting was the preferred method. The velvety-matt surface of the pictures gave a special luminance to the portraits. The venetian artist Rosalba Carriera (1675 – 1757) was one of the most important artists of this genre. Her classical portraiture was popular and much sought-after in all Europe.

Other great artists of portraiture were:
Maurice Quentin de la Tour, Jean Etienne Liotard, Jean Simeon Chardin, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Odilon Redon, Pablo Picasso and many others.
Precisely because of the uniqueness of the material chaulk and its rich palette in combination with the painting surface, pastel painting poses a challenge to the artist's craftsmanship. This challenge is one I accept with joy. Because I work on the canvas directly, forming the chalk similar to a sculptor shaping the clay, I am literally ”forming” a picture. A painted portrait formed vividly with pastels. No matter whether animal or human being – faces never become boring to me. Especially in modern times, faces to me represent constancy, originality and individuality. After working for well-known international advertising agencies I got tired of pure surface design and - in portrait painting - happened to find a genre in which the surface serves as a portal to the inside with which I have to confront myself honestly in order to be able to paint an authentic portrait.