Projects and Events

To do this, I sit around at home or elsewhere and play with pigments, glues, all things nice and nasty which could give hints to the art of painting in Roman antiquity. Read more here: "arts and colours"

I'm not prolific Picasso who carried several pieces of art to a receptive market on a daily basis. I paint most of my pictures because I want to have them: the Severus-Tondo was first on the list, as it is the most famous Not-Mummy-Portrait (and I wanted it complete with Geta). Almost every painting is an experiment, for some this proved useful, for some it didn't. In 2008-2009, I wrestled with the pigments themselves, today, I'm fine-tuning diluted chalk-primer and mix different resins with turpentines in quests for the best encaustics.

But I'm glad that some of my paintings found new homes with friends – friends, have thanks for this. I painted a picture on a wall of a reconstructed house in the Archeologic Parc Xanten (and had a license to do so), likewise inscriptions for the various craftsmen and workshops there. I would like to get my hands and wax colours on some of the many reconstructed ships, but maybe that's about to happen sometime.

You can hire me: I visit schools, historical parcs, museums and events to demonstrate my craft and teach it. Most children and almost even less adults know what pigments really are – I own a collection of rare and regular raw pigments and I can show how these strange coloured stones are turned into pigment, and people (children and curious adults) can try it themselves. For that purpose, I have got a set of colouring pages which can be acquired. We're painting with Tempera, of course – Encaustic is that difficult that even I have to take my time and arrange for special conditions to work with it.

Chief goal of these activities is education. Lots of people have not painted yet with anything else than paintboxes or some acrylic stuff. If it happens that a child discovers watercolour painting, or has fun painting in the first place, it means success for me. Therefore, I try to keep these activities as focussed as possible, if there are too many interested in participating and painting turns into some kind of pastime, I rather have less children painting with dedication than more just doodling around. Also, I maintain the liberty to refuse all too small children; they must be able to tell me what they want (and not mumble "yes" through their pacifier) if they want to paint.

What I'm teaching, too: Information about price and worth and scarcity of pigments, their meaning and why e. g. everyone needs a picture of the emperor, or why all women from Flavian times are cross-eyed ;-) – because they are, just look closely.