Abstracion I

Brigitte Thonhauser-Merk was born on February 18, 1943 in Vienna / Austria and lives in Perchtoldsdorf, a village located in the vineyards surrounding the capital. During a first stay in France she received her inspiration in painting with oil chalks. Laureate in a painting competition taking place in the building of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at Schillerplatz with a still life painted in oil chalk, she shows at the spontaneous invitation of Mrs. Matejka-Felden some drawings in a group exhibition at the Secession in Vienna. After her baccalaureate in 1961 she took advantage of a one-year stay in Paris, during which she worked as a translator in the French affiliation of an international group, to do self-study. In the sixties it was strongly influenced by the Cubists and the Expressionists. From 1965 to 1996 she stopped her artistic activities to devote herself to the education of her four children as well as to the decoration of her house in Perchtoldsdorf and she helped her husband to found his company Thonhauser GmbH. It was not until 1996 that she resumed painting with great enthusiasm and her style was then subjected to a remarkable change. She took courses in watercolor painting with Professor Colnago in Perchtoldsdorf as well as with Mrs. Mühlwisch-Krambichler at the School of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she also attended courses at Mag.Schnetzinger for painting with the oil, at Mme Hübler for the composition, at Prof. Wojtech Krzywoblocki for lithography and at Professor Sukopp for modeling and sculpture. It was in 1998 that Brigitte Thonhauser-Merk presented her watercolors of flowers to the public for the first time. Her success encouraged her to organize other exhibitions in Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and other cities in Austria. She becomes a member of the "Artistes Indépendants" Paris. Her acrylic paintings are regularly exhibited at the Art Up Deco Gallery and at the Salons des Artistes Indépendants at the Grand Palais as well as at the "Salon d'Art Contemporain" at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris and Honfleur. Other exhibitions follow in Florence / Italy, where she won the "Premio Firenze 2008" prize, in Mannheim and Leipzig in Germany. She received several medals and consecrations from the National Federations of French Culture and the vermeil medal of "Arts-Sciences-Letters" in Paris, of which she was appointed delegate for Austria.