Artist Biography

Beate Minderjahn was born in Germany in 1961. Her passion for drawing, painting, creating and writing came at an early age, inspired by her creative mother and the circumstances of her childhood and up-bringing in different European countries. After graduating in Business Management, she went on to study her first love - Interior Design.

Beate has combined her love for Art and Design with the business skills gained from her previous career, and is now a successful Artist (painter) and Interior Designer, living and working just north of Auckland.

Beate prefers to work on a large scale and develops her themes into a series of works. She also enjoys the challenge of commissioned works. Her abstract contemporary paintings focus on the mood-enhancing qualities of specific colours and their interaction with texture. Using different mediums, the art work explores the relationship between visual impact and the positive effect colour creates in our daily life.

Beate's paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Germany and New Zealand. They are included in private collections in NZ, Germany and China.

Artist Statement

"Each of my paintings is a new challenge and reveals a fragment of my life with its ups and downs, happy days, tragodies and preserved memories. It is the constant alternating processes of concealing and uncovering, hiding secret messages, creating with my hands, exploring colours, textures and language, that continue to inspire me. I believe that colour has the power to affect our well-being, to inspire emotions and to stimulate our minds. I use colour and texture in my paintings to invite the viewer to contemplate further on a soul-searching moment - to experience a visual meditation. My paintings will not provide the answers to any questions, but hopefully will offer a deeper healing and give back the wings to celebrate freedom."

www.beateminderjahn.co.nz