🎨 "Where the mermaids grow"
"Wo die Meerjungfrauen wachsen"
After starting my own business in 1987 I was soon allowed to celebrate my first small successes. My first studio was an unused room in a leather factory in my hometown of Viechtach in the Bavarian Forest, in the south of Germany. The factory belonged to my later brother-in-law and I was very happy that I was allowed to set up there for painting for free. The family has always been very generous towards me and I am still grateful today.
What turned out to be a particularly happy coincidence, however, was that the factory owner's uncle's best friend (close enough 😜) was a New York gallery owner.
And he visited me one day.
He liked my work very much and he was also very impressed with my special glass painting technique. So much so, that he bought two pictures from me to test them in his gallery on Madison Avenue.
Nachdem ich mich 1987 selbständig machte durfte ich recht bald die ersten kleinen Erfolge feiern. Mein erstes Atelier war ein ungenutzter Raum in einer Lederfabrik in meinem Heimatort Viechtach im bayerischen Wald. Die Fabrik gehörte meinem späteren Schwager und ich freute mich sehr, dass ich mich dort umsonst zum malen einrichten durfte. Die Familie war mir gegenüber immer sehr großzügig und ich bin heute noch dankbar.
Was sich allerdings noch als besonders glückliche Fügung herausstellen sollte war, dass der beste Freund des Onkels des Fabrikbesitzers (😜) ein New Yorker Galerist war.
Und der besuchte mich dann auch eines Tages.
Meine Bilder gefielen Ihm ganz ausgezeichnet und er war auch sehr von meiner speziellen Hinterglastechnik angetan. So sehr, dass er mir gleich zwei Bilder abkaufte, um sie in seiner Galerie an der Madison Avenue zu testen
Obviously, he was satisfied with the result of the test. On his next visit he took more paintings with him, showed them at the New York Art Expo and offered me a solo exhibition in his gallery for 1991. Madison Ave. was the first address in New York at that time and I accepted enthusiastically.
Offensichtlich war er mit dem Resultat des Testes zufrieden. Er nahm bei seinem nächsten Besuch wieder Bilder mit, zeigte sie sogar auf der New York Art Expo und bot mir für 1991 eine Einzelausstellung in seiner Galerie an. Madison Ave. war damals erste Adresse in New York und ich nahm begeistert an.
The special thing about our collaboration was that he really loved my art. When I finally visited him in New York, it turned out that he liked one of the first pictures he had from me so much, that he actually kept it for himself... the "Mermaid".
Das besondere an unserer Zusammenarbeit war, daß er meine Bilder wirklich liebte. Als ich ihn schließlich in New York besuchte, stellte sich heraus, dass ihm eines der ersten Bilder die er von mir hatte so sehr gefiel, dass er es tatsächlich für sich selbst behielt... die "Meerjungfrau"
I enjoy reading your comments!
Ich freue mich auf Eure Kommentare
❤
If you like my work, of course I appreciate your upvotes and resteems
View all my pictures I posted here on steemit!
Viewer discretion advised, nsfw pictures visible without warning!
Alle meine Bilder auf Steemit
ACHTUNG! nsfw Bilder werden ohne Warnhinweis angezeigt!
All photos/scans by me of my own artwork done in my special technique as introduced in What is Hinterglas?
Alle Fotos/Scans von mir, von meiner eigenen Kunst in meiner speziellen Technik, vorgestellt in Was ist Hinterglas?
überhaupt nicht verwunderlich, das man solch ein bild für sich behält! das ist wirklich großartig. mein kompliment. ach übrigens, lieber Reinhard, schau doch mal zu dieser künstlerin, die ich just gerade heute entdeckt habe und die ich sehr interessant finde. ebenfalls deutsch, noch keinen monat hier. vielleicht findest auch du gefallen an der ein oder anderen arbeit aus ihrer hand. lg
lieber @reinhard-schmid, ich möchte dich freundlich um deine erlaubnis bitten, dein bild in meinem post verwenden zu dürfen. darin geht es explizit darum, einige besondere künstler hier auf steemit vorzustellen, so auch dich. und für jeden möchte ich gern ein aktuelles bild zeigen. es würde mich freuen, wenn du einverstanden bist...
Freut mich, dass es Dir gefällt! @patschwork ist mir schon mal aufgefallen. Danke für die Erinnerung. Gleich mal folgen, dass ich sie auf dem Radar behalte. Manchmal verliere ich einfach den Überblick und natürlich hat man auch immer zu wenig Zeit (und voting strength).
Solange Du irgendwo vermerkst, dass es von mir ist, kannst Du gerne jederzeit meine Bilder verwenden, natürlich auch die "Meerjungfrau". Allerdings ist das nicht mehr so ganz aktuell. Ich habs vor bald 30 Jahren gemalt...
cool. danke sehr. post wurde veröffentlicht. schau vorbei! lg
Great works never age!
THIS IS CRAZY COOL!! I love the patterns of all the coral lookin stuff! This is to die for, big follow and upvote for you :D
Back then I was very much into the underwater thing. Glad you like it, thanks!
Hallo Reinhard, das ist eine sehr interessante Geschichte. Es ist immer von Vorteil, wenn man gute Leute kennt - sozusagen Vitamin-B ;-). Ich kann aber den besten Freund deines Onkels vollkommen verstehen. Das Bild von der Meerjungfrau ist atemberaubend. Ich als begeisterte Taucherin, sehe im Bild so vieles. Ich sehe die Meerjungfrau in einer Höhle, inmitten von wunderschönen Korallen. Sie wacht über die armen Seelen, welche ihr Leben im Meer verloren haben. Sonnige Grüsse
Die richtige Verbindung ist sicher oft hilfreich. Aber Du hast ja sicher selbst oft genug gesehen, dass es nichts nützt, wenn Dir jemand eine Tür öffnest, und Du nicht durch gehst...
Freut mich sehr, dass mein Motiv Dich als Taucherin so anspricht... ich war in meiner Jugend U-Boot fahrer... aber gesehen hat man da leider nichts 😕
U-Boot Fahrer? Das klingt ja sehr interessant. Gibt es da nicht ein Marinestützpunkt in Eckernförde? In Deutschen und auch Schweizer Gewässer sieht man leider nicht so viel. Meine erste Tauchausbildung habe ich im Bodensee gemacht. Tja, war sehr kalt und eher trüb. Dafür ist es hier in Bali umso schöner :-). LG
The factory owner’s uncle’s best friend (lol) has great taste. I would’ve kept this painting for myself as well. It’s stunning and I love the details in the coral and the negative space between it.
He has great taste for sure, and not only for keeping my painting. Your advantage is, that you could simply paint whatever you like for yourself :-)
Thank you for noticing the negative space. Was a real challenge and a lot of work to get it right.
Such a beautiful painting, just love this 💕
Thank you very much. Your photos are fascinating!
Wow, awesome story, its good to know that you could grow and rise as an artist.
Looking that picture i really can say that im an admiror of your "special glass painting tecnique", because i truly love that painting.
Congratulations!
Thank you very much. It takes many things to make it as an artist, and although you can't rely on it, luck and opportunity are a part of it. Good thing is, with striving for quality and hard work, you can improve your odds quite a bit ;-)
It's really beautiful, I love the colors, the finesse of the drawing, it looks like lace around the siren. Very fine work very smoothly it's superb!
Beautiful perception and description, thank you very much for it :-)
Very nice, and your post is quite timely in spirit of the Sun moving into Pisces!
Is that good?
Hm... well of course! I mean, I think magical coincidences are always worth noting. For their anchoring ability if nothing else.
I see, thank you for pointing this out :-)
I'm too tired to form proper praise for you about this painting, but it's just amazing! I'll try to remember to come back tomorrow with a fresh mind and eyes. Good night darling!
Haha.. know the feeling quite well and I have left a post of yours open more than once, beacause it was to valuable to reply tired or in haste...
Okay, let's try this again!
I'm not sure which one of your paintings is my favourite, but it is either this, or the Ladyskates. The overall composition and colours drew me in deep, and had me marvelling this piece for a long time last night.
The mermaid has an excellent figure and I love that fin on her tush, it's such a cute little detail! What I find really interesting is that knowing your fascination towards the lower leg part, which mermaids obviously don't have, I keep imagining her growing a pair of feet and stepping onto the land. I'm so accustomed to your style that when the female figure is missing her legs, I kind of fill in the blanks in my mind, even though there is nothing blank about this piece!
I don't have enough words to describe how beautiful, enchanting and amazing this painting is, but know that I love it very much.
I have to say, I'm rather jealous of the gallery owner, I wouldn't mind a piece like this on my wall! Hope you have a wonderful day!
Ps. Even after following you for months and months, I still can't wrap my head around the Hinterglas technique you use, but that only adds to the magic that your work has!
Both this amazing masterpiece and your comment are unbelievably inspiring. I would gladly give away 20 years of my life just so I could hear people say those words about my art.
Thank you for liking my work. And as inspiring a comment like this is, I'm not sure if you should give 20 years of your life for it (sorry @eveuncovered 😉 ) Actually, if it was really possible, you could end up in the absurd situation, that you don't even have left the 20 years and would have have dropped dead in fulfillment of your wish, possibly before you could have made such a comment. But then again, the comment would never be made...
Anyways.. I see you work in another beautiful old technique. If you use the 20 years to refine and perfect it, you will get all the compliments you wish for very soon 🙂
Thank you very much for your kind words. chances that I will drop dead at this moment are quite low. I still have plenty of other goals, plans, dreams and desires. And I am far too stubborn to leave any of them unfulfilled 😁
I love what I do and I will definitely never stop.
That's the right attitude. And I certainly don't want you to drop dead... that was just the result of some surreal thought :-) May all your dreams come true.. at least the ones that are also good for you ;-)
What a beautiful comment! Seems you really like this one. Even noticed the little details :-)
Haha, yes, mermaid appears like the wrong subject for me with my little preferences (lol, I accidentally typed "perverences" 😜). I actually picked up on that in one of my recent paintings. I take it as a great compliment though, that you are so familiar with my work, that you "autocomplete" it in your mind!
Jaro (the gallery owner) has an exquisite art collection and it was always very flattering, that he valued my work like he did. To bad, he retired years ago. But when he is in Germany, he still visits me. Never found another one who ran his gallery with such passion and devotion.
I take steem, if you ever want to commission an original 😎
I probably would have kept it too in his position XD You were really lucky to have such a supportive family, and I guess it's also great to have genuine friendships with gallery owners/other people that can help you along the way :D
I wish I had kept a few more paintings to myself! But supportive friends and family are much more important and I feel privileged, that I always had that in my life.