The Freezing Venus, After Rubens

Anja Wülfing

The Freezing Venus, After Rubens

Jackson's Painting Prize 2021
Acrylic, Oil, Pencil, Graphite
Canvas
100 x 100 cm

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“I mix media, the elements of old and modern schools, spontaneity with thoroughness, and dynamism with statics. I take the precisely painted figures from baroque paintings – those full of liveliness and passion, others full of silence and melancholy and places them in a bold, abstract setting.
For me it is important that the entire painting process consists of two very opposite phases. On the one hand, painting in oil. I try to use all experiences here to create dimensional bodies. The work is planned and tedious. I appeal to the tried and tested, the familiar, the matured, the calming, the old. I do a lot of research about the depicted person and the painter and his time.
The second phase then consists of adding the abstract elements in acrylic. Here I can combine the “old masters” with the expressive possibilities of modern painting. I work very quickly, intuitively, rely on my present feelings and keep myself free from rules. As a result I want to reach a unique balance of styles proving that all the art rules are made to be broken and the familiar contexts exist to be redefined.”