THE MOMENT OF PURE INTUITION

Earlier this year we were very happy to be invited as artists in residence in St. Moritz, Switzerland and we had a fantastic time there! One of the works we produced during our residency, entitled “Ganz formal, ganz normal”, is a 10 meter long wallpainting, but the main goal was to start on a new series of paintings.

We used inspiration from the nature and the chilled days in St. Moritz to start on the ten new paintings. After our stay they were delivered back to our studio here in Berlin, so we could finish them when we came home. After being back in Berlin I have started to unpack the canvases, and tried to get back into the painting mood. It means that I have to try to create a sort of tabula rasa in my head. The perfect way to start painting is, for me, to be in a relaxed moment. I prefer to be alone, at least in the beginning, to get into the groove. Actually it takes a bit of time to get to this moment. I have to find the moment where my mind is free from all the influences that constantly surround me. A moment reserved exclusively for painting. That is my approach these days.

All photos by 44Flavours | Edited by I DO ART Agency.

When I start painting the outcome is unpredictable; it can turn into a carnival of forms or a play with movements. It may express feelings or just represent the pure technique of layering colors. Lately I’ve used a kind of mounting foil to cut out shapes from, as sorts of stencils. The idea came, when I thought of the different printing techniques that we used last year while working on works for “The Invisible Society“-exhibition. Back then we used stencils, that we screen printed as shapes on canvases. Then we turned the inked stencils around and printed them (in a linocut-printning manner) as negative forms on the canvases. For our new series of paintings I wanted a similar touch. Also, I tried to imitate the nice blue color of the mounting foil, because I thought it was exactly the color, that the paintings needed. So I found a bucket of blue chalk-paint in our archive, that fits the foil color almost perfectly.

When it comes to composition and the question of how and when to finish a painting, it’s this moment again, that I’m always searching for; the moment of pure intuition. The intuition expresses the rhythm of the painting. As usual, me (Julio) and Sebastian, work as a team; one of us start a painting and the other might finish it. In this case I asked Sebastian, if it was ok, that I would complete two paintings, that he started on in Switzerland. He was alright with it, so I decided to paint a second layer. He liked it and will probably give it a final touch in the next couple of days. I think the works are interesting, cause we can spend more time than usual to experiment with them. The final artworks will be presented at an exhibition in St. Moritz in August this year.

All photos by 44Flavours | Edited by I DO ART Agency.