In my opinion the depicition of a both tangible element in the woods as well as place that can exist only in your head requires a new and experimental approach. That´s why I collected different materials, paint and textures to try how a more natural approach could mimic the natural structures I was trying to depict in my thumbnails (see former post 2. First paintings and thumbnails). Having tried a range of materials I am feeling comfortable with, a range of linoleum and graphite experiments can be processed and condensed into a final image with a digital finish. Onward it goes!

While studying the forms of brick being stacked together, I was thinking a lot about the vanity of the brick hut. A brick hut is not something built for eternity, it might need maintance after any small meteorological event and might not even survive a windy thunderstorm. A forest fire takes it apart, even animals or humans might take it apart to build a new den somewhere else.

Then again the brick hut is not necessarily something tangible, it can be a symbol for a mind palace, a psychic refuge. Even there the brick hut is not everlasting, you might need it to take shelter from a storm in your life but then it might get forgotten again. Just like the people building these in the vienna forest stopped building these as soon as the pandemy started to fade.

This focus on its abstract qualities make the brick hut into a highly charged symbolic element to me, which I think needs a different approach than my normal rather slick finish of the everyday illustrations I have to deliver to clients. Onward to an experimental approach!

During the covid pandemic I used to make long walks in the forest - not much else to do. So did everybody else. The vienna forest was full of people who probably would not normally hike but everybody was enjoying the calming effect of nature in contrast to the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic.

I noticed these little huts made of branches appear all over the forest at the same time. It felt like the people building them tried to capture the feeling of safety and calmness. They build their own little safe haven in a sea of trees - their personal oasis.

This is my starting point for the concept of my "Primitive Hut Oasis Project" (PHOP), I felt quite inspired by these structures (which in meantime after the pandemic faded out began falling appart in the forest without new ones being built). Following the PHOP I think that the concept of personal oasis is very close to our primal needs and whishes. Even clouded by all the colourful and flashy inputs and by our evergrowing desire to achieve and own more and more complex things in the end it all comes back to very basic needs - safety, personal space (which during COVID was essential as the danger was out there) and molding matter and space in accord with our creative ideals. That´s the feelings I want to recreate with my PHOP.