NEW - Travel Diary - Friederike Oeser

Travel Diary Oil Pastels on Paper (Selection)

“Working with oil pastels is important to me, because I can transport them easily wherever I go.
The works are always without background. This is because I only focus on parts of my perception. I only paint what I see.”

MY WALKING BOOT
Oil pastel on paper, 70 x 70, 27.6 x 27.6 in., 2017

I have always found the city of Zürich incredibly serene with a stillness, almost a purity, that seems hard to match almost anywhere else in the world. I have heard some people say that this same stillness can make it seem cold and unfriendly, but I don’t agree. The warmth is everywhere around you, giving off a subtle intensity that makes you even more aware of everything that is there to be seen.
Within the Migros Contemporary Art Museum on a day with very few visitors, I found myself inside painting the blue colors, tones, and shades of the sky; the yellows and golds from the November sun; and reds of some the objects on display in the museum. It was almost as if on this day the city brought the colors in through the glazed windows, bounced them off the gray linoleum floor and white walls and then and onto my drawing hand, one by one. I was there not just as a painter, but a translator—a kind of interpreter, transforming dozens of messages being whispered through the windows and everything around me, into shapes and forms by which I was able to see, even more intensely, the warmth and beauty of the city. — ZURICH AT A GLANCE
I have always found the city of Zürich incredibly serene with a stillness, almost a purity, that seems hard to match almost anywhere else in the world. I have heard some people say that this same stillness can make it seem cold and unfriendly, but I don’t agree. The warmth is everywhere around you, giving off a subtle intensity that makes you even more aware of everything that is there to be seen. Within the Migros Contemporary Art Museum on a day with very few visitors, I found myself inside painting the blue colors, tones, and shades of the sky; the yellows and golds from the November sun; and reds of some the objects on display in the museum. It was almost as if on this day the city brought the colors in through the glazed windows, bounced them off the gray linoleum floor and white walls and then and onto my drawing hand, one by one. I was there not just as a painter, but a translator—a kind of interpreter, transforming dozens of messages being whispered through the windows and everything around me, into shapes and forms by which I was able to see, even more intensely, the warmth and beauty of the city.

BRÜCKE ÜBER DIE LIMMAT (Bridge Over River Limmat)
Oil pastel on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 15.7 x 15.7 in., 2006

Inspiring view of the Limmat River in Zurich

Nearly every Monday for the past 30 years, I have been working in the same room. Filled with work benches and an old-fashioned green blackboard, there are also tools and gloomy signs, with rules on how the users of the room should behave.
Once a week however, on Mondays, I join a few other people to totally re-purpose this room. Draftsmen, there to work with models, both nude and portrait, begin to sketch. I am there not just to paint, but to chronicle and celebrate the energy in the room. The very atmosphere of the room becomes electric with creativity. — FROM THE MONDAY SERIES
Nearly every Monday for the past 30 years, I have been working in the same room. Filled with work benches and an old-fashioned green blackboard, there are also tools and gloomy signs, with rules on how the users of the room should behave. Once a week however, on Mondays, I join a few other people to totally re-purpose this room. Draftsmen, there to work with models, both nude and portrait, begin to sketch. I am there not just to paint, but to chronicle and celebrate the energy in the room. The very atmosphere of the room becomes electric with creativity.

FROM THE MONDAY SERIES
Oil pastel, collage on paper, 20 x 20 cm, 8 x 8 in.

BIOLADEN
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2011

KIESWERK FACKLER
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2010

HÖRBRANZ KREUZUNG
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2009

WAS ZUSAMMEN HÄLT (What Unites Us)
This abstract painting, created in a very buzy public square, shows the fullness of life and combines so many different moments of daily life where human beings are united in their differences.

KURZINFO (Short Message)
Oil pastel on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 15.7 x 15.7 in., 2008

O.T. (CA)
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2008

DROPPED OFF MY ARTWORKS FOR NEW YORK SHOW
"Strokes Of Light", Van Der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard St., LES, New York, October 2023

STROKES OF LIGHT at Van Der Plas, New York
Group Show, Van Der Plas Gallery, 156 Orchard St., LES, New York, October 2023

Painting on the grounds of a castle in Stuttgart, I glance back and forth from my paper to the ever-changing scene in front of me. My eyes quickly observe, take a mental picture, and I continue to paint. I’m not really taking in the whole scene, just snapshots of what is before me I want to include. The rhythm is steady, the method precise, like a hummingbird sipping small bits of nectar from a flower. Look--choose an image--paint. A steady ryhthm that remains unchanged and unbroken as I move across the field of everything I see in front of me.
I look up. Someone passes by on a bike. Paint.
A young couple in love sitting under very old trees. Paint.
A large sign that says "Tournament.“ Paint.
I’m done. One last glance completes the image, and also gives it a name. — TOURNAMENT
Painting on the grounds of a castle in Stuttgart, I glance back and forth from my paper to the ever-changing scene in front of me. My eyes quickly observe, take a mental picture, and I continue to paint. I’m not really taking in the whole scene, just snapshots of what is before me I want to include. The rhythm is steady, the method precise, like a hummingbird sipping small bits of nectar from a flower. Look--choose an image--paint. A steady ryhthm that remains unchanged and unbroken as I move across the field of everything I see in front of me. I look up. Someone passes by on a bike. Paint. A young couple in love sitting under very old trees. Paint. A large sign that says "Tournament.“ Paint. I’m done. One last glance completes the image, and also gives it a name.

Boom!
In an instant my powers of concentration exploded. Still, I continued to try and work.
Crash!
There it was, again! Like a thief who had thrown a rock through the window of my mind, it was robbing me of thoughts and ideas I hadn‘t even finished yet.
Truth to tell, it wasn’t a thief. It was only a baby with a green sun hat she was trying to pull off her head so as to get comfortable, every scream of that tear-stained face a cry for help.
Her mother, even more embarrassed seeing how the child had upset my work, kept trying to quiet her. Hat removed, concentration restored, and me back to work, but with a new and entirely different inspiration. — MUSE WITH A TEAR-STAINED FACE
Boom! In an instant my powers of concentration exploded. Still, I continued to try and work. Crash! There it was, again! Like a thief who had thrown a rock through the window of my mind, it was robbing me of thoughts and ideas I hadn‘t even finished yet. Truth to tell, it wasn’t a thief. It was only a baby with a green sun hat she was trying to pull off her head so as to get comfortable, every scream of that tear-stained face a cry for help. Her mother, even more embarrassed seeing how the child had upset my work, kept trying to quiet her. Hat removed, concentration restored, and me back to work, but with a new and entirely different inspiration.

ST. GALLEN
Oil pastel on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 15.7 x 15.7 in., 2007

THE MUSIC OF FALL AND WINTER
The fall and winter find me in museums in Munich almost every day when I am not traveling, as I am constantly inspired by the musical instruments, most especially the older ones. I draw them knowing that as they were played they told stories, inspired lives, and maybe even shared a few secrets of their own. Observing them one realizes that even in silence, they have a story to tell.

When I painted this I found myself thinking “If I had to paint enthusiasm, what would it look like?”
“What does it look like when something completely wonderful takes you by surprise?”
Part of it has to involve some degree of uncertainty that what you are experiencing is actually happening—like the sound of a brass instrument you can’t readily identify—so you hesitate before deciding what it actually is. At that point colors in the mind are pale, because they are unclear. Beyond that, however, almost as if by surprise, enthusiasm for what you know to be true starts to surround you, filling in the uncertainty with bright, bold color. It comes from both sides and starts meeting in the center, almost as if you suddenly have been given full permission to be happy, because that which you thought to be true, actually is. — THE COLORS OF HAPPINESS
When I painted this I found myself thinking “If I had to paint enthusiasm, what would it look like?” “What does it look like when something completely wonderful takes you by surprise?” Part of it has to involve some degree of uncertainty that what you are experiencing is actually happening—like the sound of a brass instrument you can’t readily identify—so you hesitate before deciding what it actually is. At that point colors in the mind are pale, because they are unclear. Beyond that, however, almost as if by surprise, enthusiasm for what you know to be true starts to surround you, filling in the uncertainty with bright, bold color. It comes from both sides and starts meeting in the center, almost as if you suddenly have been given full permission to be happy, because that which you thought to be true, actually is.

ART OF PROTECTION (Shelter)
This work was created during a working trip in Berlin, on a cool cloudy day, when I withdrew to the peace and quiet of a museum. The various impressions in my artwork appear like symbols from another world; the creative process, my perception and imagination seem like a shelter, a pause, a refuge away from the busy world.

HAMMERMÜHLE
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2007

PLAZA CASTILO (Marbella)
Oil pastel, pencil on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 15.7 x 15.7 in., 2007

For many years I was working in LA ROGAIA, an old olive farm near Trasimeno Lake, Italy, with its mountainous, rough landscape .
Umbria is wild, less "manicured" in nature than Tuscany, and so inspiring for me. — UMBRIA SERIES 2006 (Umbrien Serie)
For many years I was working in LA ROGAIA, an old olive farm near Trasimeno Lake, Italy, with its mountainous, rough landscape . Umbria is wild, less "manicured" in nature than Tuscany, and so inspiring for me.

UMBRIA SERIES 2006 (Umbrien Serie)
Oil pastel on paper, 100 x 100 cm, 39.4 x 39.4 in., 2006

GLASKUNST SERIES 5
My artworks are a reflection of the way I see things. I am expanding the reality to new compositions. This oil pastel was created in 2006, when I was invited for a glass project at Mayersche Hofkunstanstalt fuer Glas und Mosaik Munich (Mayer of Munich). Before I painted on glass, I worked onsite with my oilpastels to get to know this magic place.

WORKING PLACE
At Mayer'sche Hofkunstanstalt Glasgestaltung und Mosaik Munich / Mayer Of Munich, 2006

MT. SAN ANTONIO GALLERY, LOS ANGELES 2008

The studio where I found myself one day was filled with dozens of sculptures wrapped so tightly in a dusty yellowing plastic foil that the shapes beneath it were still very easy to distinguish. Shapes which will be, once finished, destined to become full sculptures of the human form or something else.
For me now however, the prominence of the packaging is relegated to the background, as I look beyond it to determine the shapes pushing out, their forms heightened still more by knots in the plastic film wrapped around the clay, keeping them tightly contained.
These works are gifts of beauty, destined only to be revealed at the right time and the right place.
I am excited because of what I can see—but even more excited by what I can’t. — BEAUTY´S WAITING ROOM
The studio where I found myself one day was filled with dozens of sculptures wrapped so tightly in a dusty yellowing plastic foil that the shapes beneath it were still very easy to distinguish. Shapes which will be, once finished, destined to become full sculptures of the human form or something else. For me now however, the prominence of the packaging is relegated to the background, as I look beyond it to determine the shapes pushing out, their forms heightened still more by knots in the plastic film wrapped around the clay, keeping them tightly contained. These works are gifts of beauty, destined only to be revealed at the right time and the right place. I am excited because of what I can see—but even more excited by what I can’t.

MARBELLA SNAPSHOT
A working trip to Marbella in Andalusia a few years ago found me painting in a small bar in Puerto Deportivo that was full of both locals and tourists. There was something there to fill each of the senses: the laughter of people at the many tables; the way in which servers interacted with all the guests; the unhurried and comfortable attitude of workers, even though they were on their lunch break; the harbor buildings in the background; the red umbrellas; the smell of the ocean; and above all, a general sense of well-being that seemed to grow out of the ground itself, right along with the swaying palm trees. Returning to my hotel that evening I didn’t feel just satisfied, I felt whole.

MUSEUM VILLA HAISS 2014
Walter Bischoff Galerie im Museum Villa Haiss, Zell a.H., Germany

…Therefore there is not one interpretation, but many interpretations. Friederike Oeser does not want to draw a picture of the world with her art, but stimulate the imagination of the observer, to animate to recognise more attentively, like children, when they are given time, the little worlds, and in that way make ever new discoveries… Translation Miriam Kennet, London.

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Hanne Weskott, Art Historian