Patrick Ostrowsky

Patrick Ostrowsky – Week 3 – 3,5 – Trusting the process // ACTION
Sep 18, 2022

Hello new world,
it’s me again. Patrick. It has been a while since my last blog entry. A busy summer, some vacation and being back in my everyday life later, I finally be able to drop the last part of my journey at Sasso. Spiced up with some reflections.

My week number 3 has been dedicated fully to the making of things. Encountering and experimenting with this for me new technique ‘Raku Firing’. After my research in my second week and coming back from my little trip to Munich where I opened the great show ‘Mind_Body_Matter’, I was ready to dive right into that unknown.
Taking with me some clay I set up my working space in the workshop and started to be modelling and reworking small objects over the first couple of days. As they need time and heat to dry up, the still fantastic weather supported me a lot to accelerate the process.
While my pieces where drying I started to prepare the vessel for the Raku Firing, which needs just some wood and an old metal basket.

The shapes I’ve worked on have been a continuation of a series of forms on which I was working earlier that year. A small number of organic, plant-orientated forms that oscillated between abstract and amorphic. Kinda like that area of conflict that opens up by using to opposites.
In the end I produced around ten small and bigger forms.
The firing worked well, and I’ve learnt a lot about this new more DIY-method of working with clay. I really liked that they got the color of the surrounding stone. Out of all that I also got some new ideas how to continue with these pieces, when I’m back in my studio. Like using them as pedestals or constructing a bigger metal kiln by myself. 

Working on this hands-on project, I continued to paint my water-colour paintings, my reading practise and my walking inside that awesome nature. That’s something that I want to carry away with me from that great experience at Sasso. As well as my better understanding of my process and what it takes to start trusting into it.
Besides that I’m also thankful for the great memories, friendships and connections I’ve made there. 
THANK YOU: Charlotte, Ben, Benedikt and Eric, for being at Sasso with me and being the way, you are!

and thank you for reading. 

If you want to know more about my recent projects, just click here. 
All the best and baci, 
Patrick
https://www.patrickostrowsky.eu/

Patrick Ostrowsky – Week Number 1 – TRUSTING THE PROCESS
Jul 27, 2022

About Arriving and Connecting

Hello new world,

my name is Patrick. I’m an artist and researcher living and working between Munich and Basel.
Revisiting my first week here at Sasso by notes and pictures, I conclude it was all about connecting in various ways (6) to this magical place and the nature. As my usual practice has a strong material-based approach, I decided before arriving in Ticino to focus on another side of my artistic work.
So, the first attempt to connect (1) has been via adopting a new working rhythm and trusting the process in doing so. Thus, I just started to read cubistically everything that my hands found a grip on. Besides that, I was laying out a map of scattered dots.  

Here are some thoughts, ideas and references that I started to think about:

– Medieval architecture
– Water as connection (2) and lifeline, e.g. watering the garden/using it as material
– Clay and soil as potential materials, Raku
– Writing poems
– Water coloring as a way to better understand my new environment  
– Strolling around the village to make connections (3)
– A garden as an ambivalent gateway (4) to link to your surroundings. Smth in between care labour and recovery.

Here are some watercolor sketches I made during the first week:
To be honest, the practice of painting the nature right while sitting next to it – made me realize how precious it is. A Meditation about the site by connecting (5) with it via my eyes and hands helped me a lot to understand my new environment.

Here some snaps during my strolls through the village. I might start to pick up my practice of jogging through the landscape in order to find a different connection (6) to Gambarogno. But cliff hanger – that’s something I’ll might talk about in week number 2.

Unfortunately, spoiler alert! My second week has a little break in between as I need to go back to Munich to set up a group show there.
But if you’re interested in seeing these and other works, you can follow me on
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/patrickostrowsky/
or
Have a look at my website:
https://www.patrickostrowsky.eu

All the best and see you soon,
P

P.S.: The selection of fellow artist colleagues here, is just amazing. I’m glad to connect to them and learn about their practise.

Patrick Ostrowsky – Week 2 – Trusting the Process / The Pause
Aug 4, 2022

Hello new world,

it’s me again, Patrick.
Happy to welcome you back to my recap on the second week here in Sasso.
Right now I’m sitting at my desk, try to catch up with my thoughts regarding the second week. Hot wind blows. And as usually there’s too much to write about what happened during this past week. So I keep it quite short as my week has been split in two parts.

The first part of the week I spent here at Sasso, continuing my watercolour painting series which I still love for its calmness and slowness. Here are some more paintings out of that working process: 

Besides that, and during the painting process I was pondering over how my creative process works and how I can nurture it. As I came here without a fixed plan, I really enjoyed this amplitude of processing this. By being open to whatever the site had to offer me I could dive deep into the potential of my surroundings. It has a lot to do with trusting into the process and being curious about the way it unfolds. I like this kind of intuitive approach to my immediate environment. It gives me space to connect on a different level, without thinking and doubting. That’s something which I want to progress in the next week to. Giving awareness and time to this wavelike movement.

For example, while strolling around the house I found some old vessels that as already been used for firing a kiln. As I’m right now really interested in clay as a material and its poetic gesture, I thought about working with it. So, I did some research, and I came up with a project for the final week of Sasso.
Raku firing.

As far as part two of my week is considered it has been a pause of my activities here in Vairano.
I had to interrupt in my reading, running, cooking and painting rhythm for finally realizing a project that I’ve been working on since almost one year with great fellow colleagues. A group show called Mind-Body-Matter. I’m super happy with the result and the show.  If you’re interested in the show, you can find some more info here:
or just click on my Instagram to find some updates.

I’m super excited if the Raku firing will work out and what kind of results this open and new experiment will hold up for me. So, stay tuned :)

Baci
Patrick