VERONIKA OBERLOJER
Influenced by painters who explored the dimension of light and the laws of perception, the visual experience of light, space and colour is a central theme in my artistic work.
For me, realistic painting from nature or models goes hand in hand with abstract experiments, whereby the effect of contrasts and the interplay of colours are at the forefront. While I start from a natural light and space situation for my figurative motifs, my abstract works are freely and spontaneously invented colour compositions. Colours are combined in such a way that they develop their own dynamic in the viewer's perception. One could say that ‘light is released when viewed’ instead of being ‘translated’ into colour as in the representational works.
Among the many artists who have inspired me over the years, I would particularly like to mention the British painter Bridget Riley. In her 2007 essay ‘Seurat as Mentor’, she wrote about Georges Seurat's influence on her development as a painter:
“He wanted to represent the perception of colour in nature through isolating and reassembling its constituents, whereas I wanted to release and organize colour’s perceptual activity down there on the canvas.”
Seurat challenged conventional viewing habits by no longer capturing an object in its characteristic form, outline and physicality, but instead splitting the light in which an object or landscape appears into the unbroken colours of the solar spectrum and placing them on the canvas as dots. Riley took the reversed approach, breaking down the sensation of a visual or emotional experience into its constituent parts in order to reassemble it on the picture plane, thereby presenting our eyes with a new challenge.
In my artistic work, drawing is the connecting link between the abstract and the figurative. Creating line drawings, light and shadow studies, mass drawings and contrast studies from a single motif opens up a space in which visual experiences can overlap and merge. Furthermore, working in parallel is a method for me to engage with seeing itself, to find my own independent language of colour and form, and, last but not least, to reflect sensations on paper and canvas.
