“This one is from FIJI?!” I exclaimed as I encountered the four-digit Postcrossing ID on my newly-received postcard. Yes, folks, I’m so happy to say that I received my first postcard from the lovely sovereign country of Fiji! To have gotten this over Official Postcrossing was such a crazy cool surprise – before this, my most rare card was from Luxembourg, with I believe five digits in the Postcrossing ID. This here is an art card showing the painting “To the Studios” by Frank Auerbach, a German-born painter who lives in Great Britain. He is considered to be a landscape painter, but has a unique style. For one, he works every day. It’s a simple statement, but I don’t think I could do any sort of job every single day… even if it’s house-sitting at my own house (eh, I take that back, that sounds amazing). Auerbach doesn’t particularly visualize what he’s going to paint, but rather paints a version, then scrapes it away and replaces it with a new one. He does this many times just for one painting, but with each version he uses his knowledge from the previous picture to better tailor the next. This painting here is called “To the Studios”, which is one of a few paintings of his titled this way that shows the city area (Camden Town, to be specific) around his studio. What a fascinating process and style! Thank you so much for your lovely choice of card, Michelle! And woohoo to my first Fijian postcard!
