"When Dreams visit dreams " series of paintings

This painting is about the trickster the one that appears and disappears.
The shape sifter.
The shapes one can see in the corner of ones eye , but when one looks they have disappeared
These shots give an understanding how I have gone about the making of the painting.
I painted the canvas first burnt Amber, then I gilded over the top with Slagen Metal (Brass) and a little Aluminium Leaf.
The next stage I wiped burned amber over the top to Patinate the canvas and give it that feel of looking old.
When that was dry I wiped a thick layer of Burnt amber over the top and started with a soft cloth and brush to make the sketch in the wet paint and hereby shaped the undercoating of my painting .
As seen in the first image.
After I started to build the colours over the top.
Avoiding working in solid colours.
Other ways I would lose the image and than what is the point of using the gold underneath.
I worked the painting in Layers.

Studio ( Atelier)

A studio is a state of being.

In life, one needs a place to rest ones head and the world is one’s living room.

The world is one’s mind and to express what is voiced, one needs a space where one can meet oneself in unexpected places.

In my case, it is my studio.

My think tank, where I can experience many states of being, and where I can conjure the creations that want to transcend into visual form.

There is a fine dance, of the painting being created and it dancing the artist.

For some art forms it might be more clinical.

But when one lives in the moment of creating, for an instant, the ego steps aside and allows the gates to open.

“Night occurs only when the sun sinks behind the fluid of the eye.”

Robert Franken



Robert Franken

"Just a little in common" pen drawing 1972

During the early 1970 I made a series of pen drawings from which I made some prints . I gave one ,to some friends and their son asked me permission to have it tattoo on his back . To see some of these pen drawings go to my website www.robertfranken.co.nz