My Acrylic Paintings - Franziska von Vietinghoff

The regular practice of the eye-hand-brush movement and coordination is fundamental for an artist painter. Twenty-five years of painting in my recent past was a definite advantage when I expanded from painting Byzantine icons (using egg tempera on a prepared wooden board) to painting now with acrylics on paper as thick as 400 g/square meter. The size of paper I use for acrylics is 40 x 40 cm. It is easy to work when placed either on the easel or flat on the table.

Molo

My favourite Uncle Egon von Vietinghoff (Amsterdam 1904-1994 Zuerich) was a locally much appreciated painter of Flemish style. In his own studio in Paris in the 1930s, many of the great European painter artists of that era often met to exchange painting experiences. Later when he lived in Zuerich Switzerland, as a young woman desirous to learn I often spent time with him in his studio. I learnt to know the pigments, the smells, the light, create a nature-morte for Uncle to paint, how to set up a studio. Other insight came later, e.g. that in limited living space it is better to turn the living room into your studio rather than stacking away your painting equipment in a cupboard. Too difficult then to catch a moment of lightening inspiration to paint.

Yellow Flower

The Covid-19 pandemic excluded the habitual twice-yearly meetings with my icon painting friends living elsewhere. Nor was it possible to take a break from the Nordic dark season by travelling to latitudes with better winter light. For decades already in the Scania County of southern Sweden, my location, no longer does the snow fall that renders the surroundings glistening white. Here grey is the colour of winter days, and on a good-mood day I will call it tenderly pearl grey.

Rapeseed Field

Clearly, in winter I need a boost of light and I realized that only I myself would create a semblance of richly coloured luminosity around me. This might be attained by painting with mainly the colour of light, yellow. I needed to find a medium with faster drying than those of the slow-drying egg tempera. Water-based oil could have been the choice but acrylic paints won.

House in the Tropics

An important discovery of acrylic properties was that by adding water to the tubed paste the paint’s density could become lighter and respond to my needs. For a light density allowed knowledge- transfer of one major technique used in icon painting. By painting a thin layer, let it dry, then add another layer of the same or a different colour, repeat this procedure over and again and so one achieves a kind of transparency of the painted area.

Blue Whirlwind

From there, inspiration exploded and my painting with acrylic took off, with the use of a flat broad brush and a knife. A few strokes with one of my theme colours – yellow, blue and red - that when placed side by side give sharp contrasts, led the way to a perhaps semi-abstract image or scene that might tell a story. For me it can be the image of a blindingly yellow rapeseed field in the month of May, or a busy big harbour covered in fog, and so on. In the image I will find a touch of mystery that relates to my own life experience, while other viewers will interpret the image from their perception of colours, geometric or other figures, dynamic lines and their own experiences. Some of my paintings initially can be turned around and provide an excitingly different interpretation than what first I saw in it.

City Red Roofs

The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh often hesitated what brush stroke next to apply. He could always count on his brother Theo van Gogh for advice to continue. Would Vincent’s canvas become an example of realism, impressionism, japonism, modern, or other? The brush stroke might tell. It is part of the game to reflect over and over again. I am free of any ‘ism’ but I know that I enjoy creating with brilliantly colourful paints. These immensely lighten any day, be it pearl grey or other.

My own fantasy, and yours, have unexpected power, and this is what I try to harness. Realism is not sought, intriguing shapes and misplaced proportions are, while beautiful colours and overall harmony is a must. When the yellows, blues and reds along with their hues and shades come to my mind first thing the morning, I know it will be a wonderful day.

Franziska von Vietinghoff, Malmö 14 June 2022