Oil/Acrylic Something about my painting technique When I began to paint, I learned from my father the old technique of the ancient masters. He had studied painting techniques at the famous Prof. Wehlte in Berlin. Of course some means have changed with modern times: Instead of preparing the painting with bone glue we used wood glue and instead of tempera colors for the priming coat we took acrylic, but the principle to build up a painting remained the same. We used a dark underground, whereon the composition was drawn. Then we began with the light parts in white and thereafter set all values of grey. On this grisaille came a varnish of dammar and then began coloring, first in thin oil varnishes and then, where necessary, in mere opaque painting. The fluid for thinning the oil colors is a family secret. To protect the finished painting it was covered with dammar varnish and half a year later with another varnish made of turpentine oil and bee wax, so the surface got a mild silky shine. You can imagine that this technique needed much time. I varied this technique after some years by using colors right from the beginning. In 2002 I changed to pure acrylic painting without leaving the principle of building up the painting by first setting the dark and light main parts and then using thin varnishes in alternation with opaque painting. From the old German painter Hedda Theen-Pontoppidan I learned to use lighter grounds in a mixture of ochre and grey causing a general warm effect, which is especially important for landscapes with a lot of colder green and blue colors. You may have a look now into some work groups. The first three of them are more portrayals: Landscapes Flowers Still Lives The others are more imaginations, even if the border sometimes is fluent: Books Graveyards Architecture Crabs Snail Shells Dolls Angels Miscellaneous