Sketchbook, 2011 © Astrid Volquardsen
Just before the big container ships reach the harbour of Hamburg the river bends, so one cannot see, what kind of ship might appear in the distance. After a heavy rain shower one of these really big ships appeared out of the mist and the river was dipped into a wonderful silver grey scenery.
Silbergraue Ankunft
30×30 cm, 2011, © Astrid Volquardsen
Looking for something to read on a Sunday morning? Well, I might have something for your:
The Pastel Guild of Europe had asked me to answer some questions for their newsletter. The February issue can now be downloaded.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea and I hope you enjoy the read.
Welcome to my newly designed homepage and blog. We tried hard to make the site and its navigation more clearly. Especially for the English readers a lot has changed, because the whole navigation and the information about my work is now completely in English.
Furthermore the tags will be in English for you as well. My new blog address is now: www.pastellbilder.de/blog/
After a long period of technical work and much work on layout and published images of my pastel paintings my new web-site is online.
I’m very happy that this new site is bilingual. From now on I offer an english sub-site with blog entries, information about my work and image galleries.
Skizzenbuch, Pen & Gouache, 2011Over 48 million people left Europe and immigrated to the USA. It is hard to imagine how great their desperation and hopelessness must have been and how brave they were at the same time. I wonder what they must have thought, when for the first time they had set their eyes on the busy Hamburg harbour (in north Germany) with its sailing and steam ships.
Till 1850 most people would emigrate via England, France, the Netherlands or the port Bremen (North Germany). In 185o Hamburg recognized that emigrants were a major economic factor and seaports like Hamburg became emigrant transship centers. In 1893 after a cholera epedimie the decision was made to build special housing areas for the emigrants and set up a system to prevent epedemics.
The Museum Ballinstadt in Hamburg has rebuild parts of this aera and in their exhibition they explain why and under what circumstances people left their native country.
