Intention and chance

An ancient artist anecdote is shortly as follows: What the intention cannot do, chance does effortlessly [see Pliny, Natural History, 35th Book]. In this blog, I am not concerned with the fact that and in what manner this principle can be understood in painting in general. Enough has been said and written about this with the Surrealists, the Dada, and the action painting. Rather, I want to let myself look a little bit into the cards. To do this, I must send in advance that in my painting style I probably fit hard into one of the well-known shoe boxes and would not feel comfortable there either. One of the methods I use when painting is "automatic painting". In doing so, through free structuring and multiple reductions in form and color, I lure chance and thus the subconscious, my feelings, into the image idea. I hope for randomly more coherent or better, that I can then consciously carry on. Randomness and intention lead me through the process. If one looks only at the finished work, it looks as if it is not an instance of contingency, but only of coherence and necessity. But it is not true! Painting, especially my own, is much more determined by coincidences than the view of the finished works suggests.

Here as an example an excerpt from the painting "Innocent Sirens (Filitosa XII) - 2020 - Oil on Canvas - 160*140 cm".