REGGIE VOIGTLÄNDER

Chinese ink paintings

(scroll down for series)

My work relates very much to nature and landscape.

The repeated traveling between the two places in my early youth made me develop an understanding of space and place, with all specifics and the connected whole. Traveling is an essential part of my work. During these journeys, big or small and the interactions with my surrounding I connect to the world or the universe itself. My work reflects both on time and the timeless.

Being born in Germany, Wuppertal, which means valley of the river 'Wupper’. We did a lot of hiking in the weekends in the surrounding mountains so highlands resonate with me. It’s also the city of the first monorail ( 'Schwebebahn' ) that runs for 13 km through the city. I was already very observation then and my eyes used to follow the river and life along it, passing under. Moving and traveling already was a great part of my life then, whether it was to my grandparents in another part of the city or to my mothers homeland, the Netherlands. Looking through the car window, I saw the changing landscape pass me by and the mountains slowly settle down, until there was but flat land, with a forest strip here and there. On the way back, the giants would slowly get off their knees as the mountains came back into sight and my life lay in their green forest arms again. Until I was six, when I came to live in the Netherlands. Now there was field, heath, swamp and forest.


As a child, drawing and strolling in the woods were my favourite activities, living in a small Dutch suburb close to nature. And still, my ink paintings are characterised by landscape scenes or elements therefrom. Painting in and after nature is a direct way to connect and interact with life. My intention is to treat landscape as a multifaceted entity. Sometimes landscapes seem to harbour emotions and desires. Sometimes they express a painful reality, created by mankind. My paintings are translations of what’s present, outside and inside for I combine the actual, material world, as well as the psychological or imaginary. I want to appeal to an intuitive way of perception, offering a way to connect from a personal perspective. 



During the painting process, I look for a way to shape the unformatted into a fitting visual code. I work out a strategy to emphasise on the relation between the revealed natural processes, cultural realities and the way in which we experience and shape an understanding about it. A work should speak for itself and at the same time leave room for personal associations. I combine intuition and experiment with concept and although I work out series, I don't like to repeat in endless variations. Each work has its own evolution and narrative.



Although I am to a certain point inspired by traditional (Chinese) paintings and adopt techniques, I developed a distinctive ink painting style. It's highly influenced by etching techniques, which I graduated in, next to painting and drawing. I mostly build up my work carefully and work towards several layers creating a large variety of tones; so called washes. I also experiment with special techniques and mediums. Some works come about through a process of working out the same subject in different manners until I find the right way to convey what I want. That way even a small painting might take a lot of time to come into existence. Because with Chinese ink, once a stroke is made, it’s there to stay. But I dare to take risks which often provides the work a powerful appearance. Quite different from water colour painting, which I also practiced a lot early in my career. I started Chinese ink painting after a residency at the Chinese European Art Center in China in 2014.



Below links to various series