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I was blessed to be brought up in a family who
traditionally had a great affection towards art. As a child, I was very
fascinated by the Dresden Gallery of the Old Masters. Amongst many others
it was the paintings of Tizian, Rembrandt, Hans Holbein d.J., Willem Claesz and Caspar David
Friedrich which left a deep impression with me.
Nevertheless, painting was not meant to take a leading part in my life.
After I completed school, I started to be trained as an optician and I
worked and lived in Dresden,
Frankfurt/Main and Cologne,
where I received my Master-Certificate.
Then, I decided to change my life radically. In 1992 I left Germany
and moved to Madeira, a subtropical Island
in the Atlantic Ocean, famous for it's
lush vegetation and it's beautiful landscapes with breathtaking views.
Together with my life companion, Johannes Wirthschaft,
we spent some good years on our old sailing boat.
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Johannes was the person to
discover my talent for painting. Thanks to his encouragement I started to
paint mainly maritime motivs, some flower
paintings and also a few portraits. At this early stage, I did not have any
space for an easel. All the paintings (without exception, all small
canvases) were created on the small table in the cabin of our boat. When
the weather was bad, I had to stop painting (due to the rough sea
conditions). Those years were a nice period in my life and I am grateful
that I could experience such a way of living.
Until today, I never had the opportunity to join an art-workshop, or to
study painting and arts. In spite of this, I found an amazing interest and
demand for my artwork right from the beginning. In 1996, the Goverment of the Region of Madeira offered me the
opportunity for my first solo exhibition. Unfortunately Johannes could not
share my first big success, he lost his fight
against cancer during the exposition.
To work with oil colours gives me great pleasure, and with every
painting I try to give my best. If people appreciate this effort and decide
that they want to live with one of my paintings in their home or office, it
means I am on the right path, considering that many of my paintings have
made the long journeys to America,
Australia
and many other parts of the world.
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