The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 40 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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After one year they will be shown forever in our German ONLINE GALLERY (archive)
Pictures will be shown for one year in our free German online show (embedded in our meditative color concept).
Information about our free services: German online show, tips and offers, “Enter into Art” bonus video, networking on the Internet.
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Editor: Gabriele Walter
The art and gift book introduces 41 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings and sculptures. The texts invite art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Special art and poetry pages have been incorporated to give artists an opportunity to present their visual work alongside their poetry. The book also deals with the topic “Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna”: Due to its programmatic character, his Pastoral Symphony is ideally suited to establishing a connection between painting and music.
Book series LOUNGE 5 – volume 2
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Flowers are a gift for every occasion. With gorgeous blossoms, art, and rainbow colors in panoramic format, this unusual gift book will take you on a soothing trip to deep relaxation. The printed flower bouquet was created with love to bring joy to your loved ones. Consciously experience the colors and shapes of the flowers as you breathe them in through your eyes like healing scents. Every year, eight artists are selected and awarded the Diamond Prize.
The images in the video represent a bonus selection of about 20 images per book that have been published in 2023-24 in the bilingual Enter into Art – gift book series:
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume XI
Editor: Kurt Ries
Visual artists have always traveled because for people who create art, it is essential to unlock new sources of inspiration. In Paul Klee’s artistic career, traveling played an especially large part. Time and again, he went to Italy, France and Switzerland. Both his trips to Tunisia and Egypt had a major impact on his work. On his quest to overcome the limitations of sensual experience and explore the secrets of nature, he encountered progressive European painters’ movements and eventually found his own style, which brought him world success.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume X
Editor: Kurt Ries
Venice stirs admiration and wonder and exerts a strange power over the imagination. At times its appearance resembles a theater production, at times a mirage from 1001 Nights. Strolling through it feels like sliding into a daydream – shimmering like mother-of-pearl, everything solid dissolves into water and colors. For centuries, the poetic melancholy of the lagoon city has been challenging artists and poets with its magic. Even its name stirs up associations with “Venus” who sprang from the foam of the sea.
Book series LOUNGE 1 – volume I
Editor: Gabriele Walter
A festive occasion like an anniversary or a vernissage is the perfect opportunity to enjoy a fine wine. This gave us the idea to create a series of books called “Art Château” celebrating the special relationship between wine and art. Wine as a cultural treasure goes far beyond drinking. Wine cannot be considered a muse, it is however, said that only those who value art, poetry, and music, can truly treasure it. .
Book series LOUNGE 5 – volume I
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Flowers are a gift for every occasion. With gorgeous blossoms, art, and rainbow colors in panoramic format, this unusual gift book will take you on a soothing trip to deep relaxation. The printed flower bouquet was created with love to bring joy to your loved ones. Consciously experience the colors and shapes of the flowers as you breathe them in through your eyes like healing scents. Every year, eight artists are selected and awarded the Diamond Prize.
Cubism in Hawai’i? Wasn’t Cubism mostly associated with Paris, Picasso, Braque, and the French-German gallerist Kahnweiler? Yet this Cuban artist found a natural affinity for painting in the Neo-Cubist style, particularly after being raised in Cuba… As opposed to Picasso, Derwin Leiva has no need to visit anthropology museums. His personal history gives him all he needs to bring together the natural appeal and poetic immediacy of Latin America, African and Oceanic, as well as European art and culture.
The images in the video represent a bonus selection of 20 images per book that have been published in 2022-23 in the bilingual Enter into Art – gift book series:
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 50 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VIII
Editor: Kurt Ries
While Gauguin and van Gogh were rather different people, they had some things in common. Besides frequently discussing Buddhist subjects, they shared an intense longing for the south, the sun, and the joy of exotic colors. After reading about the Marquesas Islands, Vincent, too, felt drawn towards the “savage”, now wanting to paint childishly simple pictures like those featured in old peasant calendars. Gauguin had only strengthened his convictions when talking about the suggestive expressiveness of colors.
Book series LOUNGE 3 – volume III
Editor: Gabriele Walter
This art and gift book introduces 47 selected artists from 23 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings, sculptures, and art objects mostly leaving out aspects related to the artists’ résumés. To learn more about the artists, please refer to their respective websites. The book invites art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Based on the concept behind Enter-into-Art, feel free to pick a painting, mindfully dwell on it following our instructions for meditative art observation, and relax.
The international “LOUNGE” contest is divided into the following award categories:
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 50 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VII
Editor: Kurt Ries
When Antoni Gaudí took over as main architect of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, his feelings towards Christianity– not unlike those of Daniel Defoe’s fictional hero Robinson Crusoe – were rather ambiguous. Inspired by his dedicated study of liturgy and the spiritual dialogue between art and nature, Gaudí finally found his faith as an architect. Similarly, Robinson on his lonely island developed a relationship with God through his conversations with nature.
Pictures will be shown for one year in our free German online show (embedded in our meditative color concept).
Information about our free services: German online show, rewards – winner blog posts for the annual jury awards in German, tips and offers, “Enter into Art” bonus video, book presentations – on-screen art shows, public relations / networking on the Internet
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Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume VI
Editor: Gabriele Walter
St. Francis of Assisi’s considerable impact on art and poetry cannot be questioned. His deeply felt connection with nature exerts a special pull on free-thinking people and functions as a bulwark against irrational zeitgeist and cultural decline. At the occasion of his 840th birthday, this idea brought together 60 artists from 24 countries to honor the saint’s love of animals with contemporary imagery.
The images in the video represent a bonus selection of 20 images per book that have been published in 2022 in the bilingual Enter into Art – gift book series:
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume V
Editor: Kurt Ries
He believed the “Fountain of Cressida” in Corfu was the place where Nausicaa had washed her laundry, but the island of the Phaeacians remains a dream. The German wholesale merchant Heinrich Schliemann was a cosmopolitan and a genius. Or was he just a dreamer? He sees Homer´s epics mainly as works of art but reads them in his own way. Eventually, he excavates a seafarers´ realm from the Late Helladic period and becomes the father of Mycenaean archeology.
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 50 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume IV
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Fairy tales used to be orally transmitted and kept changing in the process. Also the author of a literary fairy tale is free to let his imagination run wild and create fantastic wonder tales. Based on this idea, at the occasion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 265th birthday and the 230th anniversary of his death, 64 artists from 33 countries came together to honor the world-famous composer with contemporary imagery. It was also 230 years ago that Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” was first performed.
We are very pleased that – despite the difficult Corona situation – we are able to carry out 6 book presentations with on-screen shows in the Cologne-Kalk cultural center. This applies to the “Enter into Art” books that were published in 2021 with works of art from all over the world.
(cover, backcover, title page, music pages, chapter pages)
The book design awards are part of the “Enter into Art” book projects. For more information please see the title page and also the chapter pages in the books! Click on the red links for the books below!
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Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume III
Editor: Kurt Ries
Don’t we all long to live like flowers, alive with perfect beauty? The work of Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) is a seed that has firmly taken root in the world’s artistic heritage. It was a trip that inspired Monet to create his radiant garden in Giverny. After traveling through the night, the flower fields in Holland appeared before his eyes like a bright sea of colours, in which the blossoming individual flowers simultaneously dissolved and fully unfolded. Flowers unite the light energy of the sun and the mythical spirit of earth and water. Based on this idea, 67 artists from 29 countries came together at the occasion of Claude Monet’s 180th birthday to honor the well-traveled impressionist with contemporary artistic abundance.
The images in the video represent a bonus selection of 20 images per book that have been published in 2021 in the bilingual Enter into Art – gift book series:
Book series ART RETREAT – volume 6
Editor: Gabriele Walter
Small-format pictures from all over the world are not only suitable for an affordable as well as exotic art collection, but also for creating inspired refuges in living spaces. On the occasion of the 6th international “Enter into Art” art competition for the promotion of small-format pictures the art book shows – in addition to exquisite large-format pictures – over 150 works by artists from 36 countries and 5 continents. At the same time it is a poetry book for relaxation with art, poetry and colors.
Book series LOUNGE 2 – volume II
Editor: Kurt Ries
Name a tune you want to listen to again and again, because it goes straight to the heart. Millions on the internet click “Moonlight Sonata” in response to this call. At the same time, both the title and the history of this work have long been subjects of debate. The fact is that Beethoven reversed the conventional sequence of the first and the second movement, thus breaking with the classical sonata form, which may explain this word choice of “fantasy” in the original title. Based on this idea, 69 artists from 26 countries got together at the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday and – with boundless sensitivity – interpreted the “Moonlight Sonata” in visual terms.
Book series LOUNGE 3 – volume II
Editor: Gabriele Walter
The art and gift book introduces 33 selected artists from 20 countries around the globe. The interpretations focus mainly on the visible, specific side of paintings and sculptures. The texts invite art lovers to connect with the artworks themselves. Special art and poetry pages have been incorporated to give artists an opportunity to present their visual work alongside their poetry.
Editor: Gabriele Walter
“When life seems like a series of dreams, there is also in dreams poetic justice.”Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contest as part of the book “Art Retreat 2020-21 – Living with pictures”
Editor and curator: Gabriele Walter
Fascination of Worldwide Art and Color
Editor and curator: Gabriele Walter
Pictures will be shown for one year in our free German online show (embedded in our meditative color concept).
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 50 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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We are pleased to announce the solo art and gift book of our artist friend Gerhard Rasser from Austria. The paths of silence remind observers to be silent and walk without haste. Although every emotional turmoil seems to be smoothed out in these paintings, their empty spaces contain more action than it seems. Master Eckehart once opined: „To receive everything, we must let go of everything.“ Gerhard Rasser’s painting titles imply that this is a “Long Path” marked by temptations, abysses, and melancholy. A path of searching and getting closer, of losing oneself in worlds new and distant.
We are pleased to announce the solo art and gift book “Mysterious Worlds” of our artist friend Isao Kobayashi from Japan. The trademarks of Kobayashi’s works are their multi-layered depth and their tonal beauty. The artist is an excellent observer of hidden details. In a world full of secrets and mysteries, his paintings are signposts towards the truth. With his novelistic and dramatic touch, he takes observers into a mysterious universe, opening the door to our imagination. The introduction of a musical work aims at inspiring readers to expand their perception to the tonal aspects of art and poetry. Inspired by the artworks and a topic-related selection of her haiku poetry, the editor chose the koto piece “Akikaze no Kyoku” (Melody of the Autumn Wind), for which the composer developed a specific way of tuning the instrument – the “autumn wind scale”.
Editors: Gabriele Walter, Kurt Ries
With its purposefully structured content, unusual perspectives, and deep insights, and incorporating the sensitivity of people who create art, this art and gift book unravels the subject of traveling and invites readers to examine it in more depth. Eighty artists from thirty-two countries have come together to interpret traveling with their boundless imagination. Poets and artists are interested in experiencing selected places with a specific atmosphere, because their talent is based on their special power of perception and their sensitivity.
Town Hall Gallery in Cologne-Kalk: March 09 – April 03, 2020
Group exhibition with 36 artists from 26 countries (3 – 10 small-format artworks of each artist)
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 50 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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The gift book in German is also the exhibition catalog 2019. The foreword, the table of contents, the poems and further chapters are also in English. In addition to 292 images and the winning pictures in the larger format, the art book contains chapters on the topics “Apollinaire and His Time in the Rhineland”, “Apollinaire and Music”, “Exhibition Concept” and a detailed guide for mindful and enjoyable viewing of art and colors. In addition, there are 38 haiku poems (featuring the voices of birds), images with art objects, photos of the exhibitions and illustrations included. The book also contains a chapter on the topics “Polish Students visiting Cologne” and “Enter into Art-Information”. Last year saw the introduction of the new category “Featured Artists”. Eight artists get to present their work on double pages.
The book A Fine Art Journey is based on our test project “Touring the World Through Art” (link to the previous events of “Touring the World through Art”). The older test project has been expanded and continues under the new book title!
The book will be printed in both soft- and hardcover versions. The artist can then choose what he or she prefers. It is, above all, the poetic context that sets our art books apart from others. This art book will be a gift book with travel-inspired poems and an entertaining preface. The book and the numerous awards are powerful PR tools. All winners received a German blog post as a gift (see below).
Book series LOUNGE 3 – volume I
The book project “Excellent Art” emerged from the two winner exhibitions in Weißenthurm “Excellent Art” and “Nominee and Won”. The art gift book “Excellent Art – Exzellente Kunst 2019” is being released in March 2020 (publisher edition).
We are pleased to announce the solo art and gift book of our artist friend Takanori Iwase from Japan. The book is based on the solo winner exhibition held for Takanori Iwase in Cologne. His wood engravings are technical masterpieces. Through his delicate representation of light Takanori Iwases images convey a wonderfully lyrical mood.
The book design prizes are awarded according to the requirements of the book design, whereby the quality of the works of art naturally plays an important role. These prizes are awarded as part of a book project. The winning images will be selected solely from the participating images in the respective book. In our LOUNGE series we usually have about 20 to 70 participants per book. The artworks of the participants automatically take part in the respective competition.
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The art and gift book „16 times art“ introduces eighteen artists from sixteen countries by presenting four small works per artist. The group exhibition under the same title was held from 25 June – 21 August 2018 in the light-flooded foyer of Weißenthurm’s townhall on the left bank of the Rhine. In addition to the visual artworks shown at the exhibition the book also features several haiku poems from Germany and the Netherlands. As two of the poets are also visual artists, their work is presented under the heading: “art and poetry”. During the exhibition, three artists received an “honorable mention” and are featured more prominently on the cover, title page, and back of the book.
The gift book in German is also the exhibition catalog 2018. The foreword and the table of contents are in English. In addition to 219 images and the winning pictures in the larger format, the art book contains chapters on the topics “Living with pictures”, “Collecting art”, “Art, wine, poetry” (wine meditation), “Exhibition concept” and a detailed guide for mindful and enjoyable viewing of art and colors. In addition, there are 35 haiku poems, images with art objects, photos of the exhibitions and illustrations included. The book also contains a chapter on the topic of the two Prelude exhibitions “Homage to William Turner and the Rhine Romance” and “Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Wolfgang Goethe”. There is also a section on the haiku event in Cologne.
