Karin Kneffel

2009  210x110cm  oil on canvas

2009  180x550cm  oil on canvas

2008  130x300cm  2008

2009  180x190cm  oil on canvas

2008  70x70cm  oil on canvas

Karin  Kneffel is a German artist who has been tackling the realist approach  for almost three decades now. Her work is extremely varied and I won't  try to sum it up here. I still haven't looked at her entire website (www.kneffel.de) which features individual galleries for every year starting in 1984,  plus additional galleries for her watercolors and graphic works. For the  last couple of years she has played around with ordinary human spaces  viewed in some extraordinary ways. Quite a few of her paintings use the  motif of the window to depict inside and outside simultaneously,  employing darkness, light, reflection and moisture on the surface of the  window itself, to abstract the image into pattern. Pattern is another  one of her obsessions, whether it is the formal pattern of fabric and  wallpaper, or the the organic pattern of tree branches. All of this  comes together to create an overall impression of "looking" as the  subject matter of her work; Looking in, looking out, not at something in  particular but at whatever is there, and seeing patterns and  connections between patterns...  It is fascinating and beautiful work,  and a reminder to take the time and look anew at the ordinary spaces  around us all the time.

(I'd like to thank www.bluecanvas.com/calcavecchia for directing me to the artist's work)