Artist Statement:

From Sea to Canvas

At ten years old, I learned to sail on the Großer Plöner See in Schleswig-Holstein. As a teenager I would sit on the shore for hours, waiting for wind to windsurf — time I never experienced as wasted, but as my first real encounter with what still captivates me today: water, waves, sky. The beauty of these natural spectacles, but also their power and force.

I had originally wanted to study art. But in my early twenties I had no interest in remaining financially dependent on my parents, so I joined the German Navy instead — drawn as much by the pull of the sea and a restlessness for distant places as by necessity. I served aboard the tall ship Gorch Fock, and at twenty-three crossed the Atlantic under sail as part of a small crew. Years followed at sea.

Even so, the need to create never fully went away. I painted occasionally, until 2009 — a period with four children, a demanding career, and considerable stress. That's when I picked up pastels, and discovered something decisive: for me, painting means being fully present. Creating something. Quieting everything else.

From that point on, I studied technique and theory in depth, looking closely at Monet, Zorn, Sorolla, and Sargent. I wanted to master craft — not as an end in itself, but as the foundation for something else: the freedom to express myself more openly later on. In 2014, I became a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America.

Today I paint primarily the coasts and landscapes of northern Germany and Denmark — the subjects that have accompanied me since youth. What viewers often read as photorealism dissolves, up close, into something else: pattern, gesture, near-abstract marks that only resolve into an image from a distance. That is the direction I want to keep pushing toward — freer, more confident in the brushstroke, without leaving behind the subjects that have shaped my life.