The dynamics of colour !

My passion is painting. As an emerging artist and painter, I am drawn to contemporary and modern art. My work is intuitive; colour is the language I use to express my feeling.
I create acrylic paintings of varying sizes, colours, textures and materials. What is consistent in my painting is that in each artwork I experiment with colour, material and motion. The images and colours are derived from my soul and are inspired by everything I have encountered: from work of the modern American, Russian and European art masters, to the celestial and terrestrial forms around me, to cultures of the exotic lands I have visited. My style involves contrasting aspects of the simplicity of daily life to the complex elements of international affairs. I break the emotions arising from the events down into a dynamic mix of colour and motion. For me, the act of painting is similar to having a dream; the images I create have many interpretations yet are universal in scope. Hopefully my paintings convey a felt perception of life, an awareness of the history of art, and a clear expression of my passion.

Comments on her work:
“Rectangular expanses of intense colour float upon the canvas. The lucid brush strokes make the colour masses appear to vibrate with a misty, magical quality. An ethereal luminosity suffuses the painting, dissolving all tension of form and contrasts of tones into an inner glow. The arrangement of the stripes encourages the viewer to concentrate on the spatial experience of pure colour; they make the picture plane almost open out before us. Her work is characterized by rigorous attention to formal elements such as colour, shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale; yet, she refuses to consider her paintings solely in these terms. Restrained yet deeply evocative, JohannaS’ works give the feeling of containing some burning truth, as if they represent the embodiment of long arduous meditation.

Encountering cultures – understanding cultures – connecting cultures

I travel in the most diverse parts of the world and try to understand people’s everyday existence there. Getting to know other cultures and studying the way they think and live represent my own source of quality of life. The impressions I gather on these journeys find their way onto canvas back in the studio. It starts with what inspires me and finds expression in the finished image. In my enthusiasm I pass on that enthusiasm; in liveliness and concentration, vividness and rootedness, I convey the huge importance of seeing things in context, of establishing connections between art and other cultures, of embracing societies that differ from our own, of looking for the new and for the things that draw us together.

Key questions here will always be: wherein lies identity and what constitutes integration? Which elements of our own culture will continue to be cultivated and which laid aside? Which elements of the other culture will be adopted and which not? Can I ever ”break out” of my own culture or is something of it indissolubly bound up with my personality?

I go in for experimental and abstract painting. The new things I am always finding in foreign countries come out afterwards in my various techniques. I do not use traditional paints but prepare my own, using a variety of materials: I mix acrylics, lacquer, and clay with pigments and substances devised by the cosmetics industry. With my medial works, my “Digital Art Painting”, I want to show the viewer a different side of art. My artistic creativity is meant to be a reaction to a world that is forever diversifying. I draw my inspiration from world events. Such themes as ways of life, customs, tolerance, values, and religion call upon men and women, in their conscious dealings with their own and the other person’s culture, to reflect and to look at things from a different viewpoint. My works are about situations in which two cultures meet, mix, possibly cancel each other out, and emerge in a new form.

One world – one love, this is the meaning!

JOHannaS