CREATIVE CALLING

Angelika Zgainer’s global travels inspire her artwork

Travel has long been a favorite activity for Angelika Zgainer, who was born and raised in Germany.

While living in her native country, Zgainer, who holds climate and environment protection in high regard, studied environmental engineering and went on to work in the field with hazardous material. She immigrated to America – specifically Scottsdale – 30 years ago, where she met her now-husband, had two sons and worked on indoor air quality studies.

Zgainer counts yoga, meditation, fashion, baking, and traveling among some of her cherised interests. Her travels have taken her to India, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, Bali, Israel, and Canada, to name a few. These journies that she’s been on, from going on solo trips for months at a time, to finding her rhythm while dancing tango in Argentine and Uruguay, have shaped her life and inspired another passion: painting.

After starting a family, Zgainer settled down and immersed herself in paining classes.

“It’s never too late to start something completely different in your life,” says Zgainer, who has been painting for 15 years and founded Angelika Fine Art (www.angelikafineart.com).

She first created traditional figurative art in oils, but later switched to acrylic paint and began to produce larger abstract works of art, depicting landscapes, architecture, and figurative subject matter.

“Sometimes I use a poem or literature for an inspiration, sometimes it is a feeling or a belief I like to express by using bold colors and strong brush strokes to convey moments in my life, rendering myself to my analytic and emotional mind, to tell my story in a lyrical way without words,” says Zgainer, who also works in ceramics, on larger sculptures and assembles jewelry.

No matter what she is creating, Zgainer’s process is simple: “I always look for inspiration in my surroundings,” she says.

From the towering Monument Valley and vivid sunsets in Arizona, to Montana’s glaciers and trendy cities like Tokyo, Berlin, and Indonesia, Zgainer is constantly exploring new techniques and approaches to bring her paintings to life.

“My emphasis is on composition, lines, movement, and proportion and I also work with image transfers, mixed media, metal embossing and ceramics,” she says.

The work of Zgainer doesn’t end at creating the artwork –and winning numorous awards for it. She also started a painting club at her sons’ high school and hosted a semi-solo exhibition at Walter Art Gallery in Scottsdale.

BY MANDY HOLMES / PHOTO BY CLAUDIA JOHNSTONE