Anna Burger - Limelight Over Wachau

“Limelight Over Wachau” is an expressive abstract landscape painted in acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas. The work pays tribute to Austria’s Wachau Valley—an area known for its dramatic hills, winding Danube, and vineyard-covered slopes—while reimagining the region through bold color and stylized form.

I chose acrylic for its intensity and flexibility. It allowed me to layer emotions quickly, letting light and color emerge with immediacy and energy. The vibrant yellow—the "limelight"—cuts across the composition like a divine spotlight, echoing sunrays breaking through stormy skies or reflecting off the Danube’s surface. The surrounding shapes melt into one another like memories: abstracted hills, flowing water, flickers of wine and stone.

This painting came from both observation and emotion. I walked through Wachau in early autumn and felt overwhelmed by the contrast between the wildness of nature and the geometric order of the vineyards. I painted this to capture that push-pull between chaos and calm.

My process includes using palette knives, brushes, and even fabric scraps for stamping texture. Gold details catch the light, changing the painting slightly depending on your angle—just like nature itself.

“Limelight Over Wachau” is a love letter to landscape, not as it looks, but as it feels.