Please introduce yourself:
Marcel Bernet, 53, sculptor

What is your definition of art?
An expression of your connection with your inner self, your ideas, your emotions. Something, that escapes definition and probably only can be sensed. By each of us very differently.

Why have you become an artist?
Because art has always inspired and touched me. I have been searching for the right expression for many years, always drawing and painting besides my business career. Then I saw a sculpture done by Stephan Balkenhol and it was clear that some day I wanted to try something like that. Without putting myself in any way close to this great artist. It took me four years to finally dare visit a wood sculpturing course at Sculpture School in Peccia.

After that it was clear that I had found my way of expression. Since 2009 I dedicate 20 percent of my time to art, hoping to expand that share.

What is your favourite artwork of your own and why?
That changes from piece to piece. Right now I cannot let go of «Beziehungskiste Lila», so I won’t give it to my Gallery for a while.

How do you work?
I am collecting ideas when walking through the streets, looking at people, situations. That leads to sketches, which I sometimes use. The real work starts when I choose the piece of wood and I stand in front of it: What is hidden inside of it and inside of me? Where is the match between the two? In the course of chopping out the final form, things change often. It is like a flow or a special way of dance. There is the limitation of the block’s measure, but there are also sudden new ways that open.

I very much like the second part of my work: Painting the piece is like caressing it, rediscovering what happened before. Mixing together the pigments is like alchemy. And again: I have an idea, but reality evolves in a open dance.

Who is your favourite artist?
My favorite three sculptors are Stephan Balkenhol, Peter Leisinger and Georg Baselitz.

What is your favourite material to work with and why?
Wood. Because it has the right mix of durability and flexibility. I work out my form with a chainsaw and I let it that way in the rough. It is like painting with a thick pencil.

Could you live without making art?
I hope I never have to. After a broken shoulder I could not visit the workshop for a while. If I could not use my hands I would probably use my voice or whatever? Isn’t everyday life in itself a form of art?

Where can others find you on the web?
On www.marcelbernet.ch

Merci, Marcel!
All photos © Macel Bernet

Please introduce yourself:
My name is Penny Lewin-Hetherington and was born in Kew, Melbourne, Australia. I now live in Ballarat, Australia with my husband Andrew.
I am a painter, sculptor and animator.

What is your definition of art?
To me, art is defined as a way for an artist expresses themselves through visual images.

Why have you become an artist?
I have wanted to be an artist since I was very young and it was something I felt I was given the gifts to do. It was always something I felt a strong connection to and went to the length to study it at university. Studying the visual arts helped me to find out who I am as a person and to develop my skills further.

What is your favourite artwork of your own and why?

Renaissance Nightclub

My favourite artwork of my own changes constantly but at the moment it would have to be ‘Renaissance Nightclub’.  It is a painting I created recently and I love it for its quirky sense of humour.  It consists of two 18th Century European ladies being ‘chatted up’ at a masquerade ball by two gentlemen. I have deliberately simulated the masquerade ball to the nightclubs of today (In other words, a meat market).

How do you work?
Mostly I paint with coloured acrylic on canvas or cardboard, and then I will layer the painted surface with cross hatched lines made by coloured gel pens or biro.  Later I might stick items to the surface such as fake flowers, beads, bits of metal chains, glitter, sequins, plastic scatters, objects I’ve made from modelling clay, plastic toys, natural found objects (seedpods, pressed flowers). I really like to go to town when constructing an artwork.

Bonnie and Clyde

Who is your favourite artist?
Even though there are many artists that I love and inspire to, my most favourite artist of all time would have to be Australian artist Charles Blackman.

When I study a painting of his, I feel like we think on a similar wavelength. Like me, Blackman paints through his emotions and I like the way he strongly depicts the feeling of vulnerability in his art, particularly in his ‘Alice in Wonderland’ series. The image of Alice is really of his ex wife ‘Barbara Blackman’ who became blind in her early 20′s. Through losing her sight, she became vulnerable to the environment around her. I remember reading in Barbara’s autobiography, ‘Through the Looking Glass’, where Barbara admitted that Charles were her eyes.

I think also I admire the way Blackman seems to be in touch with his feminine side, which is rare in a male. His works are gentle and sensitive.

What makes me a little different from Blackman is my work too can be quirky such as my amusing concepts in ‘Renaissance Nightclub’ or my actions of sticking objects to the painted surface.

Emotional Angel

What is your favourite material to work with and why?
I consider myself a mixed media artist and love to work and experiment with many types of materials. It is my way to explore what certain mediums do and how they react to each other. I also like to use certain materials to express the emotion I want to convey. Bright colours are also an important factor when choosing materials.

Dreaming

Could you live without making art?
No! Creating things has become a way of life for a very long time now. To stop constructing would be like chopping off a limb.  It is my outlet of expressing my feelings.

A Perfect Gentleman

Princess of the Valleys

Where can others find you on the web?
Facebook page
http://www.redbubble.com/people/pennyoz
http://www.artbreak.com/Pennyoz
http://www.wooloo.org/artists/18667
http://pennyoz.deviantart.com/
http://www.paintingsilove.com/artist/pennylewinhetherington

Thank you very much for answering my interview, dear Penny!

All photos © Penny Lewin-Hetherington

Please introduce yourself:
I’m an artist, living on Paros. Painting is my earliest memory of my second year. Now I am seventy-six and I continue working daily and intensively. I lived in different countries of several continents and in different cultures.

What is your definition of art?
A hope.

Why have you become an artist?
I started in my second year. Now I am 76 and work more intensively than ever.

I can’t answer the ” why”. The “how” answers itself while I work.

What is your favourite artwork of your own and why?
Always the one I’m working on.

I don’t look back as far as my work is concerned. Also not forward.

How do you work?
Intensive. Every day many hours.
I do not believe that I’m the master of the process of creation.
I am a participant of the process.

Who is your favourite artist?
Myself.
Every other answer would neither be honest nor helpful.
In order to be able to gon on I have to be as most aware as possible.
But of course, I love, admire and appreciate many artists.
All of them before me have been and still are my teachers.
But in order to contribute my dialect to the language of art,
I had to (and still have to) depart from them.

What is your favourite material to work with and why?
I work with all materials I can grap.
In painting my favourite material is oil and pastell.

Could you live without making art?
Creation is not a choice for me.
It’s my life. Therefore: Without creating it does’nt matter wether I breath or not
- I’m dead for sure.

Where can others find you on the web?
http://www.facebook.com/cpseibt
http://www.cpseibt.com/

Vielen Dank, Herr Seibt!
All photos © C.P.Seibt

Here comes another artist interview, this time from Switzerland. Morgann’ and I met on the web and she is inspired by Morten who started my series of “Artists I like” in 2009.

Please introduce yourself:
Morgann’ Gyger, 36 years old,
From Pully, Switzerland.
Making mainly watercolor but also, oil painting, drawings and photos.

What is your definition of art?
Art is the only way to materialized our thoughts feelings and dreams. It makes the invisible visible. It captures a moment, as to leave a trace.

I often feel the need to paint, to draw or to write when I’m sad or melancholic. It is a good therapy!

Art is the essence of humanity. The only thing that differentiates us from an animal or plant. This is the best way I found to understand and describe the world around me and my inner world. Art has a divine essence.

Why have you become an artist?
I don’t know if anyone chooses to become an artist. You are or you are not!
There are many ways to express artistic abilities. Philosophers are also artists in my opinion.

My grand-father, my oncle, my mother, my father are or were all oil painters, so it was natural for me to paint. In 2007 I met Morten Gjul. A Norwegian painter who works mainly with nordic modern watercolor. He got me to know his technique. And it moved me a lot. It has been a kind of revelation I think.

What is your favourite artwork of your own and why?
Well… maybe that one I named «Wire». It has been quick and easy to paint… without planning anything. A nice memory of painting. But ask me tomorrow, and it will be another one …

How do you work?
I work in my kitchen, which I use as an art studio … lack of anything better!
Sometimes I have a precise idea of what I want to paint with a concret motive. Sometime I just play with pigments and water and let the chance guiding me into something

Who is your favourite artist?
Morten W. Gjul for the reasons I explained before. But they are many others like Tor-Arne Moen, Lars Lerin, Odd Nerdrum, Carmelo de la Pinta, H.-R. Giger for painters. The sculptor Nuccio Fontanella.

What is your favourite material to work with and why?
Watercolor, because it gives a liberty of letting flow and to accept to loose control and let things happen by themselves. Sometimes water and pigments express themselves on the paper and you have to deal with it. That is a great lesson in the everyday life. I also love the transparency and the light effect it brings, pure and vaporous.

Could you live without making art (and why/why not)?
Now I’ve tried… definitely not!

I could live without painting but I for sure would have expressed myself in another form of art. I have been ballet dancer many years, it brings me a lot too.

Where can others find you on the web?
Here: http://web.me.com/morgann.gyger/Morgann_Gyger_Art/Home.html
or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morganngv

Merci pour tes réponses, Morgann’!
All photos © Morgann’ Gyger

My parents used to collect my paintings from the very beginning. A few years ago my father scanned them and sent me the digital versions on a cd. Here’s a best of my paintings from the age of three:

As “Je ne joue plus” (I don’t play anymore) was one of the sculptures I like best, I was happy to see that the matching painting was still availabe:

Another one featured in Antoine’s interview here on my blog was “Jeux dangereux” (dangerous games). Though he had changed it a bit in color in the meantime, I still like it a lot:

Both paintings have been put with others of mine and of friends. Now everytime we see them it makes us think of Antoine who is a great inspiration to me!

Oh and by now you can find him on Facebook too!

Merci  beacoup, Antoine!

Please present yourself:
My name is Silja Korn and I am 45 years young. Diue to a car accident I became totally blind. I’m married for 12 years now and we’re having a son. I’m working as the first state registered nursery teacher.

What is your definition of art?
To me art is if you can see more tan the obvious.

Why have you become an artist?
Painting has already been one of my great passions before I became blind. It helped me keep my balance after school. When I couldn’t do it anymore I fell into a deep hole. And I thought I’d never be ale to do it again. Until I ot to know through a mailing list fo parents that there are blind children who are painting. So I thought if they can do it, well so can I! Making art is helping me to express my feelings in a better way.

Which is your favourite artwork of yourself and why?
I don’t have a favourite artwork. But one has especially challenged me: it was created during an exhibition. It easures 120cm x 120cm. The organisator of the exhibition asked me to finish it during the exhibition. It was challenge because I usually paint on smaller canvasses. It’s not easy to keep the orientation working on a big canvas if you cannot see anything. But I realised it can work but I have to concentrate much more. And it also takes longer to fill it. It needs more persistence.

How do you work?
I’m painting with my hands, with spatulas, brushes and other material. I use a lot of feelable material in order to help me find the colors again later.

Who is your favourite artist?
I don’t have a favourite artist who inspires me. Everything I’ve made so far came out of myself.

What is your favourite material to work with and why?
With sand, mussles, stones, paper, splints and structure pastes. This helps me to get the necessary structure on the canvas. After the painting has dried I can have a haptic experince with it.

Could you live without being an artist?
Well it would be possible but making art is satisfying me more. It makes me proud to finish an artwork and to present it to the public. I’d miss that feeling.

Where can others find you on the web?
On my website www.siljakorn.de
and on Facebook.

All photos (c) Silja Korn
Translation: Annette Schwindt
Thanks for the interview, Silja!

I have started to add some figures and other details to the already existing painting “Stay on these roads”. I’ll add some more to the left side too as soon as I find the time for it.