Some things just tend to happen naturally. Just recently, my dear friend & “blogging partner in crime”, Lucia Täubler (better known as, “Die Kremserin On The Go“!) contacted me to join their now monthly creative workshop series at her workplace, the Art Gallery Krems: “Elena, our interactive events take place every first Wednesday of the month. Following the success of our workshops for children, it’s now time to get adults to join in as well. Wouldn’t that be exactly what you love?”
Hell yeah. For sure. I smile. Then check: Wednesday, 6 April, at 5.00 p.m. I indeed have no other meeting or anything scheduled! Both of us, Lucia and I, have to giggle over this. After, all it’s sometimes very hard indeed to get hold of us busy (travel) blogging bees.!
What’s on in April, then? “Kunst trifft: Malerei.” – Painting Art. Including inspiring talks with the artists & mixing our own colours for the creative workshop that follows.
Three hours, and it’s over. I wake up the next morning, somewhat stunned, staring at my own painting from the evening before. “How did that happen?” Closing my eyes, I recall the experience and smile. Sometimes, spontaneity equals creativity – or vice versa. It just depends on the right environment, and attitude.
Starting our creative journey in Krems is with a Meet & Greet of the local team at the Art Gallery Krems. Verena Gamper, curator of the current exhibition “Abstrakt – Spatial”, as well as one of the exhibiting artists, Luisa Kasalicky, both guide us through Spatial Painting (special painting art, really). All those lines, shapes and stark colour contrasts – when I think of my own art in painting, it is often much more vivid and blurred. Listening in on the artistic conversation, it is this contrast that draws my attention to trying out something new in the workshop that follows.
A “Window to the New Museum”: Visitors outside the Art Gallery Krems, looking on at what kind of museum will be added to the grounds here soon.
The exhibition “Abstrakt – Spatial” itself …
… explained and interpreted by curator Verena Gamper …
… takes lines and spaces to a new level.
There is one installation that particularly catches my eye: A display of thousands and thousands of (empty) pens …
… filling up the three-dimensional space before us.
Meeting the artists …
… and hearing about their visions, ideas and backgrounds, such as Luisa Kasalicky here, make our tour all the more interesting.
Afterwards, it’s time to give our own art a go. Including good group vibes, ideas and tools on how to get started …
… walking across from the Art Gallery Krems to the creative studios at the local Caricature Museum Krems, a unique and very creative space of a kind. Eva Schafranek, our instructor, is there to get our creative juices flowing: She starts by drawing a “colour map” of the three primary colours Red, Yellow and Blue and explains how their mixtures result in the three secondary colours Orange, Violet and Green. “As you can see, Yellow and Violet, Orange and Blue, or Red and Green, then go on to form a particularly stark colour contrast. A lot of artists deliberately play with this effect. You are very welcome to try it out here, too.” Eva encourages us to reach for as much acrylic medium and colour pigments as we like, mixing our own colours for the painting workshop that follows. How exciting! “Hardly anyone does this work any more: Almost everybody buys their own colours in a shop these days”, she smiles.
By now, my interest is not only woken but fully kindled. I just love working with the colour pigments for producing my own kind of colours for painting! It helps that all of it is embedded in a playful, stimulating scenario, of course. Check this out.
The Caricature Museum in Krems: A very particular art space indeed, the only one of its kind all over Austria …
… perfectly suited for our creative endeavors …
… including lots of colourful tools …
… to get going: Eva Schafranek teaches us how to use what’s on display, infinitely patient after many hours of leading art workshops with young children …
… here I am, starting to mix my own colours …
… watching others paint …
… and drawing inspiration from whatever is around …
… resulting in happy accomplishments: Just two hours of work and we are done!
Thank you to the Art Gallery Krems for such an inspiring, and easy, creative afternoon together!
Disclaimer: I have been invited by the team of the Art Gallery Krems to participate in this creative afternoon together. All opinions are my own.