Maybe you remember, I was not able to join the opening of my exhibition last year in Kuwait because of issues with my passport. But, this does not mean that I stop my intentions to visit this really small country at the gulf. My chance came in September when I was invited to do some restauration work on one of my paintings that was already sold but damaged during the transport. What an experience for me! I never travelled so far in my life and I am proud of myself, that I managed to survive this journey without major accidents.
And it was really tricky to do the restauration, not because of that I was personally not able to do it, but because of the funny situation that it was really difficult to get material in a city of more than four million people. I carried some paint in my luggage, but it comes out that I need more and then my real adventure starts. There were shops for artists but as like as we understand here under professional equipment and it needs time to collect the necessary paint and organize only the start of my work. In between I agreed in doing a painting workshop for locals and you cannot believe it, nine days passed faster then expected.
Beside the organization of all of this, my biggest learning was to work under conditions that are totally different from what I experienced before. At home I have a really humid air around me, here in Kuwait it was the opposite of it: An air humidity of less than 20 percent makes painting tricky, because the paint dries a lot faster then at home, frames that I build at home at 90 percent humidity were shrinking, so that it was necessary to stretch them again and all what I did was again, like in the HafenCity public viewable in the gallery so I met a lot of interesting people, local artists and last but not least, the owner of the gallery – and a lot more – who invited me and my daughter Eva to his farm near to the Iraqi border. What a great experience for me to see the desert and camels – and feel the hot air that was during my visit only at 42 degrees, but a week before still had 50, unbelievable. And of course it is necessary to thank Ofelia and the whole team of CAP Kuwait, who made my trip possible, I will never forget it and who knows, maybe I will return soon for my next exhibition, I already started to work on it.