about Nadine Lotterjouk

Painter, artist & founder of Crealumi

A warm hello and welcome! I'm Nadine Lotterjouk, and I founded Crealumi to share my passion project with you: a world of art, colors, and moods. For over 20 years, I've been immersed in the world of painting, a journey through materials, styles, and forms of expression. Art was never something I consciously sought out. It was simply there, a language that speaks through me naturally and, over the years, has found many ways to express itself.

Even during my studies at the IBKK Bochum, I sensed that creativity can't be planned, but rather erupts like a spark from a fire, completely unexpectedly, simply there. So I experimented with all kinds of paints: spray cans, oil, acrylic, watercolor, and later, airbrush. And I used them on a wide variety of surfaces, from smooth to rough, from soft to hard.

When drawing, I've always stubbornly used what I consider the only true tools: 2B pencils and two blending stump brushes, one thin and one thick, which create a "wow" effect because the hatching is no longer visible. It's similar with painting; my closest confidants are three brushes, with which I paint practically everything, and which I cherish and care for. A few others have come and gone, quickly relegated to the past.

Each technique was a new chapter, each material a new experience.

Over the years, I've created numerous works, murals, illustrations, and commissioned pieces in a wide variety of fields and for diverse clients. I had the opportunity to collaborate with Atelier DerArt, painting life-size costumes, including fruit and vegetable-shaped ones, for the brand "Freche Freunde" (Cheeky Friends). Their team toured Germany in these costumes, promoting their organic children's snacks. I also provided the color scheme for Teena, the mascot of the Cologne Toy Fair, and painted large-scale works at the Odysseum, the adventure museum in Cologne.

In 2012, I was awarded Best Newcomer at the international Airbrush Convention in Rosmalen (NL), after which I continued to enthusiastically pursue my painting. After years of technical precision in my airbrush work, I felt a stronger pull towards freer painting styles.

From 2015 to 2021, I was the co-founder and creative force behind "Piekserei," a tattoo studio that grew from a small workshop into a well-known venue for art and community. Together with a rotating cast of guest and team artists, we created a space over many years where creativity, trust, and meticulous craftsmanship thrived.

What was particularly wonderful was that we accompanied people across generations, from a grandchild's first tattoo to the commemorative photos taken by grandparents. It was an enriching exchange, filled with beautiful, fun, and unforgettable experiences as stories and life paths intertwined.

As varied as my path has been, my secret love belongs to painting. I was and am fascinated by French art, by Monet, whose color transforms into movement, and by Renoir, in whose paintings the human shines warmly and luminously, and by Cézanne, who was able to combine structure and feeling into a new truth.

And of course, Van Gogh—the movement in his paintings, the colors, the light, simply magnificent! His idea that the styles and temperaments of many artists together create a work that shines brighter than the work of any single individual—I love it! Like an orchestra, a united force, many voices, one spirit. This diversity, this interplay, is for me the heart of art.

This idea of ​​polyphony accompanies me in my art: I combine techniques and styles until they harmonize for me. Painting is a path full of adventures and insights. Ideas emerge, find their expression, and then something arises that reaches the viewer because it carries within it a sense of devotion and life.