Strauchblüten (2018) Painting by Jutta Blühberger

Jutta Blühberger is an artist, cultural anthropologist, author and translator from Vienna. After many years abroad, she lives in the province of Salzburg. 

Already in her youth, there were signs of her artistic talent. But only after a long hiatus, she began to work artistically again in 1998. In the first years, she mostly painted watercolor paintings. Since then she has constantly developed her artistic skills and forms of expression. Her studies at the Leonardo Art Academy in Salzburg and the Art Academy in Kolbermoor contributed to it. 

Her artistic focus is painting with pigments and wax medium. This relatively unknown but ancient technique is called cold wax painting. This was recently complemented with textures from marble dust. Her colorful paintings with remarkable color harmony are splashes of color that light up every room and do the soul good. Spiritual themes in her paintings and blog entries give you food for thought. Her works are part of private collections on several continents.

Fine Art beween Beauty and Brokenness

On the one hand, there is the human longing for perfect beauty; and on the other hand, there is a beauty that is expressed precisely in imperfection and in our human brokenness. This is a tension that has preoccupied me for a long time and fascinates me beyond comprehension.

And this ( seeming ) contradiction is therefore also reflected in my textured paintings: the fractures that arise in the marble dust structure without my intervention and which I cannot influence, are for me an expression of human imperfection and limitation. In addition, the harmonious color glazes and color gradients, which for me – they too, despite all imperfection – express beauty and perfection.

So it is only in recent years that I have learned to appreciate the beauty of imperfection. Possibly this has taken place at the same time as my discovery of process painting, because the one makes the other possible: in process painting I have to get used to results which do not correspond to my common idea of perfection and beauty.

Longing for Transcendence

Even those who do not come from a perfectionist background like me know this longing for genuine perfection. This longing is in all of us, because we are obviously all looking for something that transcends our human limitations. Some speak of salvation or eternity. Others call it enlightenment or nirvana. Some talk of heaven on earth. Others rave about the experience of the supernatural or the intrusion of the divine into everyday life.

All this can probably be summed up by the term transcendence.

Transcendence is also a recurring theme in my paintings. Because my artworks live from and out of the tension between imperfection and the longing for perfect beauty and transcendence.

• Nationality: AUSTRIA
• Date of birth : 1959
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary Austrian Artists