At this year’s Artisan Rhapsody in Vail, Colorado, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with German painter Miriam Vlaming, whose work bridges past and present through a deeply personal and tactile process. As both a gallerist and appraiser, I have long admired Miriam’s mastery of egg tempera—a rare and historic medium that few contemporary artists use today. Our conversation revealed not only the craftsmanship behind her paintings but also the philosophy that guides her art.
Screenshot of Miriam Vlaming adding egg into her egg tempera paint during our zoom interview
When asked how she first discovered the medium, Vlaming explained that she learned the process while studying painting in eastern Germany, in the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“It’s a very traditional, old way of painting,” she said. “It takes time and patience. You have to make every color yourself.”
Egg tempera, one of the earliest known painting methods, requires artists to hand-mix pigment with egg yolk, gum arabic, and distilled water. The result is a luminous, fast-drying paint that has been used since ancient times—and remains visible today in centuries-old works found in churches and frescoes.
During our conversation, Miriam demonstrated how she prepares her materials: cracking an egg into a glass jar, stirring in gum arabic (“the tears of the trees,” as she poetically described it), then blending it with powdered pigments collected from around the world.
“I have pigments from China, the Netherlands, Germany, America—some even ones I dug directly from the earth itself. Every color is pure. You can feel its life.”
Pigments ready for mixing in Miriam Vlaming's Berlin studio
Watching Miriam paint feels almost ritualistic. Each stroke is deliberate, yet her process allows for intuition and revision.
“I put a layer, I take it back, and I go on—like breathing,” she shared.
This act of layering—painting over and scraping back—creates a visible history within each piece. “Every fifth or seventh painting,” she added, “I return to years later. I paint over it, almost like adding a new skin to a memory.”
Each work becomes a time capsule, holding traces of past gestures and thoughts. It’s a process that feels both physical and meditative—a dialogue between what was and what’s becoming.
Always The Sun - Before and After
Vlaming’s themes are rooted in the fragile relationship between people and the natural world.
“I’m fascinated by human nature and the nature surrounding us—how everything connects. Even the Rocky Mountains, though so solid, are not as stable as we think.”
Her large painting Always the Sun, featured at Artisan Rhapsody, was inspired by Colorado’s mountain light. “It began as something else,” she told me, “but after seeing photos of Colorado, I wanted to rework it. The sun became the symbol—of energy, of life, of time.”
The sun in her work is both constant and transformative—echoing her process of renewal and reflection.
When asked about preservation, Miriam explained that egg tempera paintings require no special treatment.
“You don’t have to protect it. The churches in Europe are full of tempera paintings hundreds of years old. Once it’s dry, it never spoils.”
Her attraction to the medium lies in its organic integrity. “Oil and acrylic are faster,” she said, “but they feel like plastic. My work is about the living world, so I paint with living materials.”
That sentiment captures the essence of her practice—anchored in patience, purity, and a deep respect for natural processes.
Trained at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig (HGB), Miriam Vlaming belongs to the lineage of the New Leipzig School, known for combining figurative rigor with conceptual depth. Yet her voice remains uniquely her own—poetic, introspective, and timeless.
“When you make your own pigments, you don’t depend on the store—you are free. You can mix all the colors of the world.”
That freedom—born of process, patience, and curiosity—is what gives Vlaming’s paintings their rare luminosity and emotional resonance.