The paintings below were created between 2004 and 2019. They explore landscapes and the interaction between humans and their surroundings. My aim was to capture the moment when a figure, gazing at the landscape, appears surprised or astonished. This astonishment emerges when human beings become aware of the strangeness of the world and start to question what once seemed self-evident. It is not merely astonishment at a particular object but a deeper, more fundamental wonder at existence itself—the realization that there is something rather than nothing.