I was fortunate to see Giving Thanks: The Visionary Paintings of Veronica von Degenfeld at St Mary Le Strand on its penultimate day and to meet the artist together with those involved in bringing the exhibition to the UK. As an international painter and stained-glass designer von Degenfeld has exhibited in Rome, Paris, Salzburg, and New York, but this was the first time her work has been shown in London.
She received her training as an artist and restorer by interning in studios of artists in various European countries and by studying at the Art Academy in Munich. Her semi-abstract paintings bring joy and colour primarily because, as she has said, 'painting means to me experiencing God’s generosity.'
Philippe Lejeune has written that:
'Veronica seeks beauty as one seeks God, `feeling her way along´. She feels with the ultramarine and discovers that it is heaven etched out between the leaves.
From here, this painter invents an artificial order of things in which she both creates the rules and is keen to submit herself to them. She knows well that her created order is a reflection of her own being and that this is how she honours her Creator. She chooses as her model the laws of observation and concludes with the necessity of cause and effect. By inventing her own rules she submits herself to her Creator´s order.
The more free the artist is, the more faithful she is - realism in painting is like quotations in a text - one must choose either to represent, or to invent a way that traces the order things. The talent in all this can be compared to the foreign body that provokes that marvelous nugget within a mollusk, a pearl. For the artist, talent is this fruitful suffering, never to be satisfied with what the eye perceives.
While we are making comparisons, Veronica´s painting reminds me of Messiaen´s music. Bird songs melt into the noble artistry of the instruments so that the music does not disturb the prayer of the listener.'
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From here, this painter invents an artificial order of things in which she both creates the rules and is keen to submit herself to them. She knows well that her created order is a reflection of her own being and that this is how she honours her Creator. She chooses as her model the laws of observation and concludes with the necessity of cause and effect. By inventing her own rules she submits herself to her Creator´s order.
The more free the artist is, the more faithful she is - realism in painting is like quotations in a text - one must choose either to represent, or to invent a way that traces the order things. The talent in all this can be compared to the foreign body that provokes that marvelous nugget within a mollusk, a pearl. For the artist, talent is this fruitful suffering, never to be satisfied with what the eye perceives.
While we are making comparisons, Veronica´s painting reminds me of Messiaen´s music. Bird songs melt into the noble artistry of the instruments so that the music does not disturb the prayer of the listener.'
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Bob Marley - Thank You Lord.
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