1. Who I am...
2. How it all began...
3. The creation of the paintings
4. A meaning in them?
5. You can do it!
6. Too modern?
7. To be continued...
8. A favour...

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1.Who I am...
and where I come from...

Hi!! My name is Skier, Sven in RL. I was born in Teheran(Iran) and raised in Barcelona(Spain) and Bogota(Colombia) Until my 20st birthay spanish instead of german was my maternal language. (Although I´m german) I came to Germany to study (not art!) and I´m still half a foreigner today.
I still feel very much at home in the USA and Spain today. (I´ve spend a lot of time in the USA during my stay in Colombia, my parents even sent me to a Naval Academy one summer) Sadly, Colombia is a very dangerous place to live. From Spain and Colombia I took a positive attitude with me. (which the Germans miss sometimes in some way) I love latin music, specially salsa, love dancing and having a good time!
I´m a bit over 40 by now, which I still can´t quite believe.. :) Thats why I decided to cut my age by 10 years some time ago, and to feel like I´m a bit over 30. (Bad enough! :)) I don´t always behave according to my age - sometimes to the amusement of my surrounding. I´m very curious and there is little that doesn´t interrest me. I love spontanity and the little crazy things that make our lives fun. And I admire people who keep that little foolishness to the very end. But I´ve also realised that it takes dedication and some self-discipline to reach a goal.

I live and work in Germany but who knows where I´ll be in the future... <top>

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2.How it all began...
It started by chance, as in so many cases...

I found painting pretty late, at 36. My girlfriend then kept asking me about the little sketches I made while phoning. You probably know them too. Many people scribble during a phone call. In that moment the hand is free sometimes from intentional thought and starts painting on ist own. At a certain point I started looking and judging them more intensely. One day I went out and bought a coloring book and felt-tip pens and painted my first picture. You can see it in the people section of the gallery, it´s called The Beginning for this reason. The version shown there is newer, painted again in 2002. By now I prefer acrylic paint because of ist bright colors and its fast drying. Since then painting has gripped me and will not let go. It has become a decisive element in my life. Uncounted pictures are in my head waiting to be painted. Sometimes I can draw a new picture within minutes, it just flows out of my hand. I find fascinating lines and shapes everywhere in nature and in architecture I´d love to make a painting of.  You too can see them almost everywhere. We are surrounded by an incredible amount of beauty without seeing it. Many times it is enough to just isolate a part of something and the beauty of it comes alive. Initially, I planned on trying to write (besides my normal job) and wrote some short stories, but that´ll have to wait – the urge to paint is stronger... <top>

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3.The creation of the pictures

Southamerica and the joy of living of the people there, their music and their colors have infected me and will stay there for life. (Hopefully!) This is the main reason that most of my paintings are colorful and positive. I want them to reflect fun and joy of living. That´s why I love strong colors, no yellow can be to bright, no blue can be too intense. But in the future I plan to try out some muted colors with a different mood. Almost all paintings come from a two-stepped process.
First, I draw simple lines, or should I say, my hand draws lines. I feel more as a spectator than actively involved at this point. The lines are completely aimless. Due to my tendency to draw closed lines, objects emerge. Besides them, I paint new objects. The point is that from this moment on, every object is the result to the line next to it. All parts correlate to another. My unconcious mind seems to have some kind of rulebook. I feel a "wrong" line, even a "wrong" turn in a line imediately. If I don´t correct it, the whole balance will be lost. In a funny way, my paintings are about respect. There are rules they need to follow and the necesity to break them in order to create something new.
Most of this happens unconciously and its results really surprise me time after time. Some of my paintings result within a few minutes, in a single step. Even some of the more „complex“ paintings. The Pirate, the Beginning and the Lion developed that way, within 20 minutes. While drawing, I focus exclusively on the adjacent objects. Does it fit, does it respect its neighbours but add something new? At some point the sheet of paper ist filled and then I take my first real, concious, look at it.
Then, for some reason, I start turning the paper around and search for a meaning, something hidden in it; the right angle to look at it. Sometimes I isolate a single object (The knight in 5 Times resulted this way) and sometimes a single shape is so convertible that I use it more than once, 4 Times is such a picture. Only after finding a meaning I start cleaning the original painting or add new objects to clarify what I see there.

I have dozens of animals/figures which are still waiting to be painted. You can see some of them in sketches. Take a look! As all my sketches are originally in black and white, I feel free in the colors I choose. I often paint different variations of my sketches. It it hard for me to choose a composition, I like many of them. So I can always picture my paintings in other colors.
I paint with acrylics directely on paper or canvas, or I paint on cardboard and glue it on the paper. Besides the pictures shown here, I experiment with different landscapes, portraits (one in sketches) and paintings on decorative plates. I´d love to paint and decorate all kinds of things. Cloth, tiles, frisbees, (love to play it! ) glasses... and don´t laugh... trucks! <top>

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4.A meaning in my paintings?
Contemplations of a spectator...

I believe my paintings take their meaning from their origin, explained above. Of course the primary object of any painting is to catch your eye and hold it for a moment. To please you with a harmony of color and shapes. My pictures are almost always curved out of one mould, because they were painted that way. Color is there to underline the content I discovered in my shapes, to give it more energy. When I look at my paintings I have the look of a spectator not only of a painter. Because of this I see two things in them:

The first is your freedom to see anything you want in them! If you see anything else or nothing at all, it´s alright with me. The only thing I give you is my interpretation and I use my privilege to give them a name. As soon as I show them they are in your hands. Without your fantasy they are just some lines on a sheet of paper. In an ideal case my paintings have different meanings, different persons see different things (or nothing at all).
It surprises me again and again that so little line can show so much and how variable that is. I try to reach you on two levels. First with my colors. I want to influence you, to give you positive energy. But also on a creatrive level. Use your own fantasy! Use my paintings to let your mind discover whatever it wants.

The second one concerns you! The majority of my paintings are quite simple, their origin is almost always completely coincidental. You can do that too! I´ve seen it, kids can do it too. I believe that everybody willing to try can create something... – my paintings are the proof! :) <top>

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5.You can do it!
Try it out for yourself, it´s easy...

I´ll give a short hint how to do it.
Just sit down and take a piece of paper and a pencil. Maybe, put it besides your phone, it might be easier while you´re phoning... Then paint a „beautiful“ shape in the middle, not to big. Besides it another one that somehow fits to the first one. It might fit because it matches or because it is different; the choice is only yours. Don´t look at the whole picture, don´t try to paint something, take it shape by shape, your hand will lead you. Of course it doesn´t work out everytime. I have use a rubber and start again many times too.
When you feel that the paper is full enough, stop. Take it and look at it. Turn it around and see if it reminds you of something, let your fantasy free, maybe suddendly you´ll see something in it. There might be some shapes that don´t fit, erase them or change a shape... (or take a look in The origin of my pictures) It works as when you look at clouds on a sunny day and discover that one looks just like...... Sometimes it´s easy and sometimes it´s not. And if you put some color on it, or darken some of the shapes, you might find that you have just painted an animal, a face, or anything else that you didn´t know that you could do it! And if you feel like it, then send it to me, lets look at what I find! I might even open a new gallery for you in the future, it´s up to you! <top>

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6.Too modern?
Being modern is nice, but TOO modern?

I´ve had a lot of positive feedback about my paintings, not only over the internet. Some of it came from people who work in this area. The people who earn their money marketing and selling paintings or posters. They choose what you will see in a few months in your local gallery or postershop. They decide what will be hip and what you can buy there.

They all studied my paintings very carefully, they leafed back and forth and finally stopped on different paintings. Then they told me that their clients, which means you, wouldn´t like pictures as mine. „Not enough flowers...“, and  „your paintings are too modern!“

Although that judgement has a negative consequence for me, (it doesn´t fit in their cataloge) it is a kind of compliment for me too. Funny as it is, two of them wanted to buy a painting from me privately, and I did sell one! So that lady now has a really „modern“ painting in her living room, without any flowers. :)
But not only your emails show me again and again, that there are many people out there, whose taste is far ahead of their time!! <top>

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7.To be continued...
There still is so much to paint :)

By now my mind has found a way to discover beautiful shapes everywhere and I´m longing to paint them for you. I find works of art in places where you would never expect them, although you see them everyday. In the future I will try to show you some of them by painting them my way. My aim is to create shapes that your eye will like follow so you can feel the balance. Some of them designed by nature or man, and some from me. And most of all I want to create paintings that enritch your surrounding and give you a place to relax your eyes and mind.... Enjoy your life!

If you´d like to say something to me, then write me a mail or post it in the guestbook, I´d like to hear from you!

8. A favour

Please, do me a favor if you like! Tell your friends about me or send them an e-card, maybe they need some new color on their walls too and I need your help! :) Thank you!

Thanks for your visit, come back again!

Skier

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