Exhibition and Homepage

So,

there haven't been that many updates before the opening night now. Seems like I was just too busy getting everything done. But it worked out and we got all the paintings hanging right on time like a boss. Thanks for that to Robert and Björn, who were very helpful!
An extra big Thank You, of course, goes out to the Boutique Bizarre staff, Jo in particular, for giving me this great opportunity and being all-around awesome.  It's been a blast so far, and it will sure stay that way until the show's over!

Now, the opening night was a success, I'd say, with lots of visitors and prosecco-drinking, and all that shebang, although I must admit that I was so exhausted from the last weeks' work that I had to leave the scene due to too little energy and too much prosecco right after the official part was over (at around 1 a.m., a time I usually only just begin to get going).

Now that that big chunk of work is over, and I've had some time to re-charge my batteries, I've spent some two days with an overhaul of my homepage. It's a bit of a rag-tag html job, since I'm not at all competent at website-making, but it does its job and I'm happy with the result. Have a look at it here.

Since I've had my share of making art for now, and since my general direction in life is about to change pretty drastically soon (what with leaving Hamburg and learning how to garden nstuff), it's well possible that this is the last post on this blog for a long time. We'll see, though, you never know what the world has up its sleeve for you. I like surprises.

Take care everyone!

First of a row of small updates

Hey there,
I thought I'd share some of the progress in these weeks leading up to the big show. I just took some photos of the frames I have finished so far, with the corresponding paintings in them. In some cases, the frame competes a bit with the picture, so I'll use the next few weeks to close that gap, be it by toning down, or aging the metallic highlights of the frame, or by adding a few more sweet spots to the paintings. Many of them are only about 80 or 90 per cent done, and as is the case with anything, it's that last bit of attention that truly makes a thing shine. So I'll be swinging the small brush for the final stretch before the exhibition.
Until then, I'll post one picture or so every few days, beginning with the oldest.
Here's the second one of the original tentacle series (the frame for the first one took forever to dry, so I completed this one first:


The frame is a bit rough around the edges, but I'm very satisfied with how the shape fits the image.

Exhibition coming up

Hey there, it's been a while. I just realized that the curator of the art exhibitions in Hamburg's famous Boutique Bizarre has sent out invitations for the next show, which will be mine. Thus, the artist's blog the invitation linked to is also mine, and that's why I'll hastily slam together a post that features at least some of the newer paintings.

To get that out of the way, the date is May 10 to July 23, with a nice opening night's party/vernissage on Thursday, may 10. Drop by, it's going to be a blast!

As the nature of the venue suggests, the exhibition will focus mainly on the sexy stuff, so here's some of that:

This one is pretty new, from February this year.

That one is a little bit older, from about autumn last year. But it'll get some finishing touches,...

...as will this one, which I painted in January. I must say I love the plasticity in the parts where it counts, though. There'll be more new stuff, some of which has some astounding properties that are best seen live.

I've also been working on some frames to help the paintings shine. Since I found bland old modern frames to bland and classy baroque ones to hard to come by, I developed a procedure to make my own. My room is an absolute mess right now, but it's a productive mess, and that makes it cool. Here are some impressions:

I'll see to it that I get some more photos taken (I'll have to since prints of the paintings are supposed to be available during and after the exhibition) - I'll post some more once that has happened. In the meantime, take care!

It's been an awfully long time since I last posted something, so let's change that quickly! Here's another Cthulhu, this time a commission. The customer has kept me waiting for quite a while now, so if want to have this piece, drop me a line. It's huge and was a truckload of work, though, so it won't be cheap. But there's always the possibility to make a nice, high-quality poster print:

"Cthulhu V", 100 x 70 cm, acrylics on canvas

And here's another commisioned piece, this one is already sold and gone. The customer asked for "something bizarre and end-timey", so, grateful for such a loose desciption, I let my imagination loose:

"Trilobite Jesus at the dawn of time"
50 x 70 cm, acrylics on canvas

This bio-mechanic aesthetic turned up during the work on "Cthulhu V", and struck a chord with me. I think I'll explore it some more. Right now, I'm working on a piece that combines this theme with the nude paintings you saw in earlier posts, and can also be seen as a nod to Beksinsky, who I regard as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. I am, of course, not insane and try to compare my work with his, but I can't deny that he's left an impression on me. If you're not familiar with the guy, google his name for a dose of highest quality heebie-jeebies and a true sense of melancholia. Powerful stuff.

Oh, and I've also treated myself to a pretty decent camera lately (mostly to take pictures of my pictures, and other work-related purposes), and although I haven't had much opportunity to get accustomed with all the fancy gadgetry that comes with such a high tech machine, I jumped right into it and discovered that I have a weak spot for the microcosm around us. So here's a bunch of pics of very small things from my parents' garden:


These two show a variety of lichen. The individual "trumpets" are about one centimeter high. I've always loved them for their otherworldly shape, and often imagined what it would be like to wander among them as through a forest. My low-grade fancy gadgetry and non-existent understanding of photography of course limit my capability to put them in scene like that, but I think these images get the point across: just one order of magnitude below us, the world begins to look really weird.
I might get deeper into the matter and maybe buy the necessary lenses and stuff and become a hobby microphotograpoher some day. That would be fun.

Oh, and the above images are, of course, altered in Photoshop to stress the alien nature of the habitat. It wasn't that dark there, and the light wasn't quite as dramatic.


Here's the smallest flower I could find. The individual blossoms are about as big as a pinhead. I found that these photos make for good desktops, so if you want to use them for that purpose (or any other, really), just go ahead and do so! It would be nice to hear some feedback, though.

And one other item of news: Zoofights has started again! I haven't made any super duper kickass paintings yet, so that will have to wait for a while.

More Zoofights

Alrighty,

after about 20 (twenty!) weeks, this tournament is now over. It was the best thing, and I'm glad I was a part of it. It will, of course, happen again next year, and besides drawing fights and portraits again when the time comes, I'll do my best to help the guys with anything they plan in the meantime. Zoofights is seriously among the best things mankind has invented, right up there with fire, the wheel, electricity, and sliced bread.
So, 'nuff sed, here's some bizarrity:


Here we've got Punchules the Magnificient, wielding the Shiellelagh of O'Batahan, and offering us a sip of what is probably the hardest drink in the post-nuclear world.



This is Aggronaut, not-so-stupid elite fighter in the war agains Seanet, about to face his deadliest foe.



Australian competitor Banebarramundi relies on a constant drug-poisoning, in order to survive the wound Sting Kong dealt him in Round One.



The Snapture just arrived back from a good few weeks of bus-hunting and cactus tripping out in what was once the Arizona deserts. He's quite relaxed, as you can see.



And finally, the Seal of Disapproval, President of the United States of America, and greatest Beachmaster that ever was, proclaims his goals of brutal sexual world domination.

This stuff gives you just a tiny glimpse into the sheer awesomeness of what awaits you at zoofights.co.uk - so don't waste your time but go there and read the stuff!

All credits for character design, names and such go to Major Failure and the London Squad, developers of the best ideas ever. Stay tuned, I'll post more of this stuff later on!

Zoofights- RAWR!

Yay world,

today I happily announce that I'm once again participating in the world's most over-the-top display of nonsense and violence, Major Failure's Zoofights. If you've never heard about it, Zoofights is a kind of forum RPG that focuses on hypothetical fights between made-up monstrosities. Every few days two of 16 monsters are introduced, and the audience makes bets on the outcome of a fight to the death. The fight itself is decided largely by popularity, and is displayed in comic book fashion, alongside Major Failure's hilarious commentary.

In the last few years, every tournament has ended in some cataclysmic disaster, as the winning monsters get beefed up more and more with each surviving round, up to the point where the last encounter is a giant threat to everyone involved.

Find out more about Zoofights here: zoofights.co.uk
Or follow the actual fighting, betting and roleplaying here.

Here are some of the pictures I've contributed, descriptive text courtesy of that magnificient bastard Major Failure:

"Smash Gordon is a controversial attempt by England to circumvent our "no human competitors" rule: a cloned Neanderthal entered into the tournament as an animal. As dense in stature as he is in mind, this brutish thug is the culmination to years of experiments by the propaganda wing of the British police state, aimed at creating an unstoppable terror weapon for Scotland Yard. In fact, he is so colossally challenged that he needs to be guided through non-violent life by his trusty bulldog, Nelson. Nonetheless, he retains a brute cunning, which is truly deadly when backed up by hubcap-sized fists."

"The tattered remnants of Russia's army forgot who they were fighting, but never who led them. Under the forbidding bellow of The Sturgeon General they marched, driven onwards by the hated fish on its ancient tank tracks. When they stumbled through hunger, cold or radiation sickness it urged them forward, and any who disobeyed were transfixed with a mighty shout, then mangled under its treads. The General never let discipline slip, not even when the last man in the legion died under its wheels. Therefore, in admiration of its leadership talent, we have given it an army of devlish antigrav stingrays."


"But he barely has time to clear his throat before a new threat emerges.

Unbelievably, in the 30 seconds that Nelson has been fighting his desperate battle, Smash Gordon has risen to his feet and begun lumbering across the arena sand.

Grunting with the lungs of an actual ox, he launches himself up onto Sturge's stalled tracks and begins a gristly, bone-grating climb up the behemoth.

Cable-like sinews tear around shattered bone, but a chemical rage beyond the comprehension of frail Homo Sapiens drives Smash on.

His axe grinds through armour and scales, and he tears great bales of innard from the exposed body of the arch-anadrome.

As he plants an iron boot on the head of a roller-skate and pistons up toward the face of Sturge, he propels himself into range for a killing blow..."

The Sturgeon General is easily the most absurd thing I've drawn in a long while, but it's fascinating how even such a bizarre creation comes to life with the speculation of a blood-thirsty audience!

This will do for now, as I just want to direct interest towards ZF, not leech fame from it. If devastating battles, monsters, apocalyptic settings and a witty commentary that does the silliness of it all justice might be something for you, you should definetely go check it out!

Fine Prints!

Yo everyone,

I've finally managed to get in touch with a great photographer who can take pictures of my paintings detailed enough to reproduce them. So there will be gorgesous, poster-sized prints now! They are limited to 20 pieces each, and you can buy them here: http://de.dawanda.com/shop/Brezelburg

Here are some previews:





Go ahead and enhance your place with some affordable tentacle goodness!