Gönül Sen-Menzel: 80 Pictures by Her Class at the Summer Academy

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Paderborn-Schloss Neuhaus. For two weeks they have painted and drawn, glued and shaped – the students of the 13th Summer Academy.

Today is their big day: from 6 to 10 p.m. the academy in the palace park opens its doors to visitors and buyers. Students and lecturers of the six courses will then show the results of their work.

And they are impressive. Take Heiko Closhen’s blue plaster rooster, for example. The idea behind the cockerel is obvious. “Here in the seminar I am the only rooster among five hens,” he says. With the cockerel he has brought in some support. Even though he would not really have needed it, because: “The working atmosphere is very good. We get on very well.”

“The academy lured me back here”

The seminar Closhen attends is called “Small Sculptures in Plaster”. The participants have made delicate plaster figures based on their own sketches. Closhen, incidentally, is living proof that the Summer Academy at Schloss Neuhaus is known far beyond Paderborn. He comes from Munich. “Thirty years ago I lived in Paderborn. The academy lured me back here. Certainly not for the last time,” he explains.

Christine Steuernagel from Paderborn is already a “repeat offender” when it comes to “Large-Format Painting”. “I don’t have enough space at home for such big pictures. The rooms here are wonderful.” Altogether, she is very happy with the Summer Academy. “We are very happy with our lecturer. She gives us guidance in composition and color theory and still lets us paint freely,” she says, praising her lecturer Gönül Sen-Menzel from Cologne, who promptly returns the compliment: “I have really great artists here. Each with their own special style.” She is enthusiastic about the palace, the park, the city’s organization and, above all, the Lippe river flowing through the park.

Gönül Sen-Menzel and her 17 students are exhibiting 80 pictures tonight, including imaginary landscapes, people in motion and portraits. The works of the seminar “Painting and Free Design” are somewhat more abstract. The participants worked with very different materials: curtains, cords, cardboard, ribbons. “We processed these things abstractly,” explains Barbara Bräutigam, who is taking part for the sixth time. Her reason: “Here I can work for 14 days at a stretch. I can’t manage that at home.”

She and her fellow participants will round off their academy tonight with wine and snacks. A little order still has to be brought into the chaos, though. “After all, the visitors should get something out of our pictures,” she explains.

Original caption: Show us your hands: these 17 artists are exhibiting 80 pictures tonight – the result of their work at the Summer Academy.