My love of murals originates from a trip to Mexico. Nearly 30 years ago, I visited the murals of Diego Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. Back at the airport in Tucson, Arizona, I realised I was missing something. It was the nakedness of walls that amplified my sadness of parting.

My courage for painting murals, however, I got from Jean Cocteau. In the 1950s, he spent holidays in Santo Sospir in Cap Ferrat, Cote d`Azur in France as guest of Alec and Francine Weisweiller. Used only as a holiday home, the walls of the villa were empty. A few days after his arrival, Cocteau said: “I’m tired of idleness, I wither here…” He asked Francine whether he could draw the head of Apollo above the fireplace in the living room. Inch by inch, Cocteau tattooed with frescoes all the walls of the house.

​My murals adorn the walls around my garden in Arusha, Tanzania. These walls enclose a one-acre parcel of land. The total length of the walls is about 250 metres. Despite many completed murals, there is plenty more space to paint on. I am not even talking of the house itself which also gives me space for my colourful eruptions.

I mostly paint with gloss paint because of its greater durability. From time to time it is most important to refresh the colours because sun and rain make them fade. My most important tools are a tape measure and a spirit level to scale up small sketches to the size for big murals.

My themes often originate from my love of and work with tarot. I mainly use three tarot decks: Rider-Waite Tarot (illustrator Pamela Colman Smith, nicknamed Pixie, a British artist, illustrator, writer and occultist), the Crowley Tarot (Lady Frida Harries, British) and Motherpeace Tarot (Vicky Noble and Karen Vogel/US). Funnily enough, all illustrators are women.

Coming from Austria, I am also influenced by baroque architecture and by the art of creating illusions. Mirrors create an illusion by reflecting a space that is not where it appears to be. In my living room an Art Nouveau painting surrounds a mirror reflecting furniture and a staircase from the other side of the room.

You will see many of my paintings in the series of blog posts to come ….