I make pictures with sand.
I grew up in a small mountain village in the Alps. From an early age I felt the need to create my own artwork. I found little support for this in my family. Against all odds, I prevailed and was already creating works in sand and stone.
It was only when I met my brilliant art teacher, sister Anita Derungs - a graduate of the Paris Academy of Fine Arts Ecole A.B.C - in the upper school that the world of fine arts opened up to me. I learned the theoretical basics of colour theory and picture and sculpture construction and various painting techniques. I was able to implement each of these techniques in my own pro-jects.
Since that time, I have been artistically active. However, the path to my own technique was long and sometimes a diversion. I experimented with photography, acrylic painting and mixed media.
Then I rediscovered my fascination for sand while walking along the banks of Swiss rivers. The colour of sand can vary greatly along the same river, so the sand on the upper Vorderrhein shines golden, only 30 km downstream it is just beige and a little further down it is grey. It is the same with its graininess; in the upper course of the river it is still coarse-grained and further down it is already powdery. This diversity inspired me to make pictures with sand.
In the first pictures, the focus was not on the motif but on the technique. I applied glue to can-vases, spread sand on them and let myself be surprised by what came out of it.
Over time, I began to consciously choose the motifs for my paintings. Plants, trees, but also an-imals and landscapes. The composition of the picture is planned. But when working with glue and sand, not everything can be planned, which is why there are always surprising and fascinat-ing effects.
It is important for me to be able to work with different coloured sand in different grain sizes. Since collecting sand is part of the creative process, I only work with sand that I have collected myself. I make sure never to take too much sand from the same place and already while collect-ing I imagine what beautiful works I can create with it.