The early years (1998-2004).
“Early Years” refers to the period from 1998, the year my inner artist awakened.
At that time my dream finally came true and I found an opportunity to attend a watercolor painting course. Due to my work in Africa and the frequent journeys, this was not possible before. The course was held one weekend near Siegen, Germany. Finally, the watercolor paint box of my grandfather, which I had affectionately (but too strongly) cleaned and reloaded, came to use. I was very surprised when I painted my first eight (!) paintings in only two days. Considering the fact that I didn’t have any experience with watercolor painting, they succeeded astonishingly well.
And so I continued to paint whenever an opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately, these did not happen very often. Usually, there was only enough time to indulge in this hobby during vacations. Various books on watercolor painting gave me new inspirations and taught me additional techniques, but otherwise, I was self-taught until 2013.
Again and again on my travels, I found myself in the situation that I had time to paint but had brought no material. Sometimes it was possible to buy a small set of equipment on site. For example, one of these situations led to the first experiment with pastel painting.
The following paintings are from the years 1998 to 2004.
