Anne Kern is interested in the man-made sandstone quarries of her homeland, Saxon Switzerland. Her powerful, imposing paintings depict quarries and picturesque rock formations whose geological structure, block-like appearance and perspective alignment fascinate her, and from which she extracts and processes details and special features. Her painting is inspired by nature, yet goes far beyond mere representation. Equipped with canvas and sketchpad, she creates abstract landscapes in front of nature. She masterfully constructs forms and volumes into impressive compositions that focus on change through light and shadow in shifting times of day and seasons, as well as growth and transience. Her focus is on fragments, excerpts and rows of rocks and trees. Again and again, she changes her perspective, distorts, seeks new points of view, moves away or draws closer in order to penetrate the outer form and reveal the essence of the rock. By intensively enlarging objects and surfaces, she succeeds in confronting the viewer with the material. By using image details, sections, fragments and sequences as compositional devices, she creates new spaces and dimensions.
Muted colours in reduced tones dominate Anne Kern's paintings. Black and grey tones, ochre colours and light whites predominate, with occasional flashes of blue-grey. Broad, linear brushstrokes give rock edges and gorges visual stability and characterise these impressive paintings.
