Ukraine-series
I had just finished the small “Catalan Interior“-series and came back from a small trip in February 2022, as I heard of the attack by Mr. Putin on Ukraine. It came as a shock to me. In a reaction to that event I painted a symbolic ‘Ukrainian Interior‘, neatly painted in a similar style as the Catalan Interiors were: Ukrainian yellow and blue colors on the wall with a byzantine-like icon painting, St. George’s shield and a painting of St. George defeating the dragon, with St. George as Ukraine and the speared dragon as Mr. Putin. There’s also a window with a view on a sunflower field, repeating the yellow and blue colors. (Unfortunately Russia carries the same ‘St. George defeating the Dragon’ in some of its flags; I was not aware of that at the moment, but saw it later frequently in the news.)
But this neatly painted Ukranian interior did not really express my worried feelings at all about the attack and the threat of further escalation. It should be dark and red and rough, there should be fire at the horizon and burned fields! It had to be ugly paintings expressing an ugly event. “The Wasteland“, “The Threat“, “The Scorched Grounds” and “Distress” became the titles.