The One World Painting is exceptional in the oeuvre of Ulrike Arnold, who has traveled to remote places on all continents, always painting in situ, creating colors from rocks, earth, and sand that capture the essence of these places in this painting.
THE ARTWORK
The One World Painting is exceptional in the oeuvre of Ulrike Arnold, who has traveled to remote places on all continents, always painting in situ, creating colors from rocks, earth and sand that capture the essence of these places.
In this painting, however, she has assembled earth colors from Chile and from Iceland, has joined Australian red pigment with green pigment from Armenia, black lava from Arizona with Senegalese red, white from the Easter Islands, yellow from Egypt, and many more.
One World Painting
Ulrike Arnold’s monumental work, “The One World Painting,” was recently displayed for the first time, suspended by a crane at the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona. The vertical ensemble of two canvases, painted from both sides with earth gathered across six continents and meteorite dust, is currently on view at the telescope through the spring of 2025. Designer Jason Hasenbank contributed to the hanging system, while astronomer Gerard van Belle contributed to its placement. This inaugural display marks a significant moment for Arnold’s powerful and symbolic artwork.
Catch a glimpse of this extraordinary debut!
COLLECTING EARTH
A COLOR ESSENCE OF THE WORLD
Earth has been the theme of my work over almost four decades, earth in a most concrete and tangible way: I use it when I paint, I paint outside allowing nature – wind, rain, and sun – to be my accomplices. As I have traveled the world to work on every continent, locations where I paint have included salt and sand deserts, volcanoes and prehistoric caves, rock formations and river beds. The painting materials are all provided by nature in situ, the colors are minerals, sand, incrustations, glim- mer, and mud, providing a wealth of shades of reds, blues, yellows, and greens. Since 2002, I have added meteorite dust to my canvases to include the hemisphere.
MAKING OF
I have used earth colors from Chile, from Iceland, Australian red pigment with green pigment from Armenia, black lava from Arizona with Senegalese red, white from the Easter Islands and yellow from Egyptian Aswan and many more.
The canvas is a dialogue of colors, a visual expression of
the diversity of the continents, their countries, their histories, and their peoples.
The One World Painting was painted with rock, earth and sand from the places marked on the map.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ulrike Arnold paints with earth, sand and rocks. She travels to remote places on all continents, where she paints in situ, exposed to the weather and the natural forces of the environment. She collects her painting materials and mixes them with a binder to paint her huge canvases. They capture the essence of the places, where she travels.
Her paintings are an open invitation to the viewer to connect to our planet, to trigger an awareness of our coming and going. They capture something of the beauty of the earth which has been resisting the onslaught of climate change and multiple crises. For 17 years, Arnold paints also with meteorite dust, which she gets from a Meteor researcher, she met by coincidence. This material is witness to the origin of our planet in the solar system. Her paintings pay homage to the earth and its place within the cosmos.
Arnold’s paintings can be viewed as a tactile micro- or a macro-cosmos. They preserve and structure a fraction of the skin of our earth from close up while also allowing for a perspective from outer space. They are a reminder both of the beauty and of the vulnerability of the planet we all need to protect.
Ulrike Arnold is represented by Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art.
CONTACT
Instead of filling out this form, you can also write an individual e-mail to mail@one-world-painting.com.
Ulrike Arnold
Bilker Straße 12
40213 Düsseldorf
Germany
