Christian Brunner

Kunst-News

Neue Kunst

9^th Issue, Spring 2006
published by:

Christian Friedrich Brunner

Letter from the Artist

Dear Friends,

Finally, we are having the first days of Spring in New England. The sun has gained enough strength to warm us up even though cold winds are blowing in from Canada or the North Atlantic. The warmth calls us out of the houses and into our yards, where we are getting our first blisters on our hands from raking and shuffling and wheel barrel pushing.

In a night-time epiphany during this season of budding and growth, I was able to envision how my future paintings should look like. I even went so far to call it “my own style”. If you knew that I have been working on that for decades, you could imagine my excitement (which I had to live out in silence, because wife and kids were fast asleep.)

The basic influences are still visible; my art teacher Alex Hübl’s color scheme and the blocks of thick paint application; Egon Schiele’s use of graphic design materials to enhance the drawing aspects of his paintings, and Anton Wichtl’s (most of you won’t have heard of this painter friend of my father’s, whose work I have been exposed to and fascinated by since my early childhood) for his balance of thin washes and thick application of paint with the spatula. But these are only the main influences. What I started to do now is to use masonite board instead of canvas, which I prime my self rather roughly. I use a variety of conté crayons for the graphical drawing, and then (simply speaking) fill out the spaces with thin washes and thick layers of paint, the latter usually only limited to the most important colors and places.

This styles allows me to paint either very abstract and expressionistic, as well as more detailed and impressionistic. Let me tell you, I’m currently fighting this “going into to much detail”, a battle I have not won so far.

Well, it’s happening for me right now, as you can see on my calendar below. Shows and receptions coming up and submissions for others due. Hope to see you at some of them!

Christian

Expressing Mass (and Other Worldly Places)

If you can, you should definitely come and see this show at the Harding House (map), a Bed & Breakfast in Cambridge’s (the one in Massachusetts) Harvard Square vicinity). It is a show featuring the newest, not yet exhibited, and older, never before shown paintings depicting Massachusetts (for those living outside the US and not familiar with the term “Mass”: it’s short for Massachusetts) landscapes, but there will be other US scenes as well and some from Austria (the other worldly places). The show runs from the first week in May until May 31^st. A vernissage is scheduled for May 18^th, 5-8 pm. Wine and cheese and crackers included. It practically can’t get better than that. The pictures shown here (Wintry Rockport above and Cape Cod Fishing Town left) are two of the new paintings shown at this exhibit. The Cape Cod Fishing Town is actually a view of Provincetown, just an unusual one. It is the side of the town one sees when passing by with the ferry to Boston. In this case, it is an evening scene, at a time of the year when the tourist have left and Provincetown is once again a quaint little fisher’s dwelling (as much as this is possible). In the detail of Wintry Rockport (below right) you can see “the works” of the new style. The marks of the white, black and siena conté sticks can be seen as well as the wash between the lines that tie the graphics together. For the parts lit by the sun, I used intense and fully saturated orange and applied it with a painting knife as a contrast not only in color, but also in technique.

So, please stop by and have a look. Hopefully I’ll see you at the vernissage!

Images of Arlington – Reception – Now, the Shows goes to the State House

Like every year, I submitted two paintings showing scenes of Arlington to the Images of Arlington Exhibition at the Arlington Center for the Arts. This year, I had a small (12x9 inches) picture of Spy Pond (left) and a large (30x24 inches) painting of Monotomy Rocks Park in winter (right). Both paintings are executed in the new style, and were well received by the patrons.

This year, some paintings, including my Spy Pond, where chosen to be hung at State Representative Jay Kaufman’s office at the State House. Rep. Kaufman will hold a reception on Thursday, June 1^st 2006 from 4 to 5 pm. at his office. Again, wine and cheese will round up the picture. If you would like to attend (after all you’re nipping wine with a State Rep.) please call Linda Shoemaker at the Arlington Center for the Arts (781.648.6220) or e-mail her at linda@acarts.org for a head count.

Beacon Hill Artwalk

It’s about that time of the year again: The Beacon Hill Art Walk is coming up soon. In less than a month, on Sunday June 4^th, from 12 noon to 6 pm, a big bunch of Artist from all over New England will be exhibiting their original art work in the nooks and crannies of Boston’s Beacon Hill area. Stay tuned (by visiting my web site www.christianbrunner.com often) to find out where I am going to be. I applied for the same spot as last year – let’s see if I get it again.

Tips for Artists

· PayPal may be a pal, actually. Have you ever considered selling your artwork on the Internet and accepting credit cards? Then you know of the multiple calls from Credit Card Companies, always at the most inconvenient times, offering you the “best solution ever”. After you’re excited at first, you soon find yourself tangled up in a jungle of fees, charges and percentages. Although in no way are you able to put a number at the cost you might incur, you know instinctively that you’ll pay an arm and a leg.

Forget all of that. Sign up with PayPal and you have your account and the buy-now button in no time. Of course you pay a percentage of your sale to them, but that’s it. And here’s the link: https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=J2QT58WSWXWN2

· Sales Tip (from the Artist’s Magazine): Get local home sale listings and send new home owners a card of yours. New walls need new paintings!

· Want to get more publicity? Publish your exhibition and opening reception on the WBUR web site. It’s easy and a whole lot of people read it!

· If you don’t know where you should exhibit next, subscribe to the art deadline list. They have an extensive free listing that comes as a monthly e-mail, and you can start sending your work to all kinds of shows in the nation! Send an email to artdeadlineslist-subscribe@topica.com.

Calendar:

May 18^th, 5-8 pm: Vernissage at the Harding House

June 1st, 4-5 pm: Reception at Rep. Jay Kaufman’s office (please RSVP)

June 4^th, 12-6 pm: Beacon Hill Art Walk

For bigger versions of any of the pictures in the newsletter, visit my web site

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