"View from Saint-Hubert to Mont Ventoux"

Acrylic on canvas

90 x 40 cm (Triptych)

2017

At almost 900 meters above sea level is the Gite d'étape de Saint-Hubert, a hiking hostel on the D5. From there you have a fantastic view over the Gorges de la Nesque over to the almost 1,900 m high Mont Ventoux. This mountain can be seen in almost all of Provence and the still ignorant observer thinks he can see snow up there. But it is lime that makes this solitaire appear so white.

The air flickers up here in the midday heat, there is absolute calm. Oddly enough, the number of tourists is also relatively manageable. It is the territory of the ambitious pleasure cyclists and so a little bit of a regularity comes here from time to time. But hardly anyone drives past without not at least taking a small photo stop, the view is just too grand. Especially in July, of course, when the lavender blooms ... And if you cycle further east from here, you will reach Sault, the secret capital of lavender, about 10 km later.

"View over the Bastei bridge"

Acrylic on canvas

40 x 30 cm

2019

A fantastic view opens up to the hiker from Ferdinandstein. The Elbe Sandstone Mountains with their countless rock pinnacles and table mountains exert a very special fascination on every visitor, especially the hikers. On some days it is hardly possible to cross the Bastei bridge and the tour of the Neurathen rock castle with its mysterious and equally dizzying paths turns into a sometimes dangerous slalom. Then I prefer the quiet corners, which despite the many hikers are amazingly lonely vantage points and enjoy the silent view over nature, fields and fields. Here the soul goes for a walk, has a run ..... Just sit, look, listen and in peace with yourself and the world ......

"Path on Mont Ventoux"

Acrylic on canvas

50 x 70 cm

2017 

You can guess the shimmering hot air, smell the scent of herbs all around, and the buzzing and hum of the insects when you look at this picture. The path goes up and away from Georges de la Nesque, a pretty but dry hot gorge on the way from Villes-sur-Auzon in Provence to Sault, the secret capital of lavender. In the picture he points to Mont Ventoux, the giant of Provence, after climbing Francesco Petrarca wrote:

Et eunt homines mirari alta montium et ingentes fluctus maris et latissimos lapsus fluminum et oceani ambitum et gyros siderum, et relinquunt se ipsos.
"And people go to marvel at the heights of the mountains, the immense floods of the sea, the wide flowing currents, the vastness of the ocean and the orbits of the stars and forget about it themselves." (Confessiones X, 8)

If I look at this picture myself - and I do it so often - it puts a smile on my face and I always wonder when I will be there again. This image has truly become one of my favorite images over time.

"Hay bales near to  Aspach"

Oil on canvas

50 x 40 cm

1994

I hadn't painted many pictures before. So I am always surprised how good it has gotten. It will probably be the case with many painters that at some point they will no longer want to see their early or even first pictures. In any case, this is not the case for me. I still like it a lot. I hope I'm not leaning out of the window too much now when I'm talking Impressionist style. I very much admire the Impressionists, especially Cézanne and Monet. Naturally!

Oh, could I really paint like these masters of the turn of the last century! Or like Kokoschka or Corinth! Or Marc, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Schmidt-Rottluff and the Münter! To name just a few of my favorite painters ....