Pigments & Paintings
All of my paintings are created with natural pigments that I gather, grind, and prepare myself from stones, soils, plants, and fungi. This process is as important to me as the painting itself — a dialogue with the raw matter of the earth, where each color carries its own story, memory, and origin. My paintings emerge as living collaborations with these materials, honoring both their beauty and their history.
The Alchemy of Color
The following works were created for my exhibition at the KU-SCHA-IN Gallery in Bruck an der Mur, Austria. They are inspired by the alchemical Magnum Opus — the fourfold process of transformation: blackening, whitening, yellowing, and reddening, culminating in integration. Each painting embodies these stages both in subject and in color. The cycle of transformation is further reflected in the presence of the four celestial bodies — Lilith, the Moon, the Sun, and Venus — guiding the journey of the Magnum Opus.
The works, ranging from 90 to 120 cm, were painted with pigments I hand-sourced in Austria and Egypt — from the many shades of ochre to black coal gathered in my home region. Gum arabic, the resin of the acacia tree, served as the natural binder. To create depth and texture, I worked with earthly materials such as gypsum, marble flour, and slaked lime.
Colors of Mürztal
My intention was to weave a palette born from the soils around my home in the Mürztal Valley of Styria, Austria — ochres and slate gathered within a 20-kilometer radius, carrying the memory and energy of the land.
These colors hold the deep history of a region long shaped by mining, where the earth has yielded iron not only for industry but now also for beauty. In painting the Veitsch, one of the valley’s most significant mountains, the pigments return to their source — subject and material becoming one, the mountain both painted and painting itself.
Myco Colors
Inspired by my field mycology course at the University of Vienna, this project explored the chromatic potential of Austrian fungi. Drawing on the historical use of fungi in textile dyeing, I developed a contemporary color palette from local species.
I foraged about 30 different mushrooms in the forests of Styria, then extracted pigments through “laking,” a meticulous process that stabilizes soluble dyes onto an insoluble base, carefully controlling pH, temperature, and chemical agents like alum and wash soda.
The project resulted in a curated color palette featuring the most promising fungi, accompanied by a painting that highlights some of the extracted hues.
