Growing up on an island, ocean matters are my lifelong theme. When I make my ocean paintings, I use the ocean water, the movement of the waves, local earth pigments and mangrove plant-inks which I make on site. I rub the pigmented canvases on the ocean bed, dry them on the rocks, leave them tightly tethered overnight in the ocean, repeating this process of pigmenting and submerging many times, thus assisting the ocean to make marks with the waves on the raw, pigmented canvas.

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In my studio, I create a meditative space where I visualise the environment through my process. My landscapes are suffused with memory and my experiences in nature and find expression through the observation and interpretation of light and colour in nature. I play with light and transparency, reflections and layering and enjoy letting my paints flow.  I work on the floor, making gestural marks with brushes affixed to sticks. The physical act of working with nature generates new ideas and an appreciation of our natural resources.

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As a contemporary painter, I am inspired by the transformative power of the natural world. I now work with pigments I win from my own collection of coloured earth and ones from Pigment Kremer. Fascinated by the textures of the earth, I work with pigments, wood ash, sawdust marble dust, acrylic mediums oils and wax, using texture and colour as my language to express my feelings. Materiality informs the meaning of my work.

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My work is a continuum and doesn’t claim to provide explanations, but is an investigation of my lines of thought which are in constant exploration. I want to present content in a sensuous way and invite the viewer to immerse themselves in the beauty of our fragile world.

 

 

Artist Bio:

Sonia Boening is an artist living and working in Munich, Germany. She studied at the Open College of the Arts, affiliated with the University of the Creative Arts in Britain, graduating in July 2023. During her studies she developed her ocean painting series to render the beauty and hidden menace of the underwater world. This led to a longstanding relationship with the colour blue, especially ultramarine.

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In her recent body of work she works with pigments, ash, marble dust, acrylic mediums, oils and wax. Her work is intuitive and colour and texture is the language she uses to create her abstract landscapes. Her main inspiration is the texture of the earth, especially along the coastlines.

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Her work has been exhibited in Germany and is in private collections in Germany, Australia, the US, Canada, Sri Lanka, Columbia and in Britain.

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