In her work, Astrid Bechtold-Fox alternates between the media of photography and painting, which stimulate each other. Her motifs are inspired by nature, in particular flowers such as tulips and orchids.

In analog photography, abstract landscapes are created through the deliberate use of sharpness and blurring as well as the newly created size of the processed photo. Bechtold-Fox chooses the microcosmic side of nature as her starting point and gives us a glimpse into the inner world of flowers. The extreme enlargement creates a painterly blur. The colorfulness of the plants is transferred to a supposed landscape.

In her paintings, she chooses more freely from nature's repertoire of forms and creates new compositions in which the contours dissolve. Acrylic paints are applied to the picture ground in numerous, thinly glazed layers like a touch of color. Using a technique she has developed, she creates a homogeneous surface and thus gives the works a transparent lightness. Viewers can immerse themselves in the seemingly weightless pictorial spaces and meditate on the contemplative, calm compositions. Spherical images emerge from the real flowers and plants. The artist herself describes it as an aura or an afterimage that remains.

Astrid Bechtold-Fox studied art history at the University of Innsbruck and painting and graphic art with Gunter Damisch at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Fotocredit: Astrid Bechtold-Fox