July 30, 2009

Porcelain Painting


A few days ago, I attended a porcelain painting workshop in the famous Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen, Germany. Painting with the porcelain painting colours was a real challenge: they react unlike oils, unlike watercolours or acrylics...Nevertheless, I'm happy with my first attempt and I learned a lot about this special form of painting and the history of porcelain painting in these three days. We visited the studios of the professional Manufactory painters and watched them work and talked to them. They have to earn a living with painting the same flower bouquets, day in, day out. Although in my opinion they are all artists, they are still considered to be workers, they can never decide which motif to put on the porcelain, because they are no designers. They are paid to paint, not to design...

Vor einigen Tagen besuchte ich einen Porzellanmalworkshop in der berühmten Porzellanmanufaktur in Meissen. Es war eine Herausforderung, mit den Porzellanmalfarben zu arbeiten, die völlig anders reagieren als Ölfarben, Aquarellfarben oder Acrylfarben...Trotzdem bin ich ganz zufrieden mit meinem ersten Versuch. Ich lernte eine Menge über diese spezielle Art der Malerei und auch über die Geschichte der Porzellanmalerei. Am letzten Tag besuchten wir die Ateliers der professionellen Maler der Manufaktur und beobachteten sie bei der Arbeit. Wir unterhielten uns sehr interessant mit ihnen. Sie verdienen ihr Geld, indem sie dasselbe Blumenbouquet, tagein, tagaus, immer wieder malen. Obwohl sie in meinen Augen alle Künstler sind, werden sie immer noch als Arbeiter angesehen. Sie können nicht entscheiden, was auf ein Porzellan gemalt wird, denn sie sind keine Designer. Sie werden bezahlt, um zu malen, nicht um zu entwerfen...

7 comments:

quitethecrow said...

What a beautiful job you did! I love that little dish and the lovely flowers you painted!

Britt-Arnhild said...

This is beautiful Caudia.
I took a class back in 1981 or something. Loved it, but never made anything as beautiful as this!

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

What a wonderful experience this must have been and your delightfully designed artwork fits so, so well in this unusual shaped piece of porcelain.

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful claudia!! What an experience, are you going to take it furhter?
ronell

ellie said...

Wow ! What a beautiful dish to have, you must be very proud, it's lovely and what a great thing to have done !

laura said...

Gorgeous--I'd like to have a set with your pattern!

Sartenada said...

Your porcelain painting is so tender, so beautiful, simply said: lovely.