‘Letting colours tell stories’
Exhibition by Sonja Fasel
Editor: Sonja Fasel, how did you become a painter?
Sonja Fasel: Painting and design were part of my life from childhood. However, I first became a midwife, a profession that I practised with enthusiasm. But painting was always important to me. That's why I trained at the School of Design in Bern and at the ‘Fabrik am See’ art academy in Germany.
Editor: You chose the title ‘Letting colours tell stories’ for the exhibition. What is the idea?
S.F.: For me, colours and pigments have a life of their own. They dance and sing, breathe and remain silent, are tired or sad, laugh and cry, or shine and glow. When I am in the studio, the colours are part of me and I am part of them. I put them on the canvas and they tell a story.
Editor: That's very poetic.
That's right. The viewer should feel comfortable; the ‘narrative’ of the colours should touch them, either because it is poetic and inspiring, or because the viewer finds a part of herself in it.
Editor: How do you actually go about painting?
My feelings are decisive. I go into the studio and things start to flow: Colours, brushes, canvas, then mixing pigments, daring to make the first strokes and following my inner voice. Composing, discarding, correcting, starting again or leaving things as they are. It doesn't always have to be an order, tensions can also set the tone.
Red. How do you decide when the colours have told enough?
S.F.: I don't know, I have to feel it. Perhaps I can put it this way: if I feel that the picture is alive, that it has a soul, then it's right. I decide intuitively.
Editor: Where do you find inspiration?
S.F.: As I said, it's the colours themselves that give me inspiration. I can't let them rest, I want them to be able to tell a story. I pick up many impulses on long river walks: the flow of the water, the wildness of a riverbed, the ephemeral, the morbid, the cold or warm. Rivers are life stories - in colour.
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday from 14:00 - 17:00
Vernissage on Saturday, 8 February from 16:00 - 18:30, with musical accompaniment by Ruth & Res Margot
Dates and timetable
From 6 to 23 Feb 2025
Thursday14:00 - 17:00
Friday14:00 - 17:00
Saturday14:00 - 17:00
Sunday14:00 - 17:00
Ruth Pellegrini
Galerie Pellegrini, Deutsche Kirchgasse 31
3280 Murten
+41 76 530 34 66