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That was the show
that was: a great time was had by all!

Better late than never! From September 10, 2022 (vernissage) in Berlin I had a solo exhibition in the RealismusGalerie of the Künstlersonderbund (KSB). On weekdays I worked on “Sky above Cologne” – for almost two months, until November 4. Visitors to the gallery could watch me at work. The link below opens to a film shot during the show opening. Unfortunately it is all in German, but is still nice to watch.

Here are some shots taken on the Berlin opening night

The large oil project Sky above Cologne, 2 metres high by 1.4 metres wide, is an aerial view of Cologne, but also a you’re-right-amongst-it look at a surrounding turbulent cloudscape.
Here is a chronological documentation of my work’s progress on Sky above Cologne..

Everything within the red line (that’s the area within Inner Canal Street and the Agnes quarter) has appeared in the last four weeks.

My time in Berlin is coming to a close. Here is a snapshot of where I have got to to this day. Everything to the right of Inner Canal Street has been done in the last six an a half weeks. I find I have covered quite a bit of ground, despite not having reached the Cathedral grounds. Still, I did manage to reach the music academy – that’s the red-and-white building to the extreme right of the “construction edge”.
Right below, a little to the left of the B for Berlin, is where Weidengasse begins.
I’ll be back in Cologne on 7 November.

I’ve been back in Cologne since 7 November. I had not quite made it to Cologne cathedral when I worked in Berlin but I hadn’t given up on it as the goal for year’s end. I make it on 20 December, the cathedral environs are finally reached. I realise that I won’t be able to paint the cathedral itself unless all the areas next and behind the cathedral are completed first. The cathedral is too fine and filigreed for me to squeeze background detail in between the twin spires and all the other depictable detail if I do it now. Still, colour has made it to the west portal of Hohenzollern Rail Bridge, which could possbly count as reaching the year end goal, I suppose.

Another iconic Cologne building appears on 10 January 2023: the Central Station. It isn’t easy to squeeze the huge building into its correct position, using, as it were, a mini shoehorn to get it in. The main thing to look out for is an accurate alignment with the general heading of the railway toward the bridge, and the allowing adequate space for the tracks to converge on the western bridge portal. Not much leeway here! It is sweaty work!

Question for Cologne residents: Which quarter do you think this is?
[It is the Bickendorf industrial park, partly in memoriam.]

Keeping track…Yes, at that time the picture changed from a collection of suburban details to an increasingly useful city map. By now, the finished area has increased by at least a third, I actually use the picture now as a route planner. In addition, I was proud at the time to have now finished everything northwest outside the beltway (a circumferential main road around the western city).