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HINRICH JW SCHUELER – landscape paintings having done explorations in Australia, USA, Asia and Europe, deserts, coastal areas, endless plains and empty wastelands are points of interest in my artistic work as a painter.
Back in my studio , I reduce travel experiences to the essentials, what, regarding finished works, can be noticed as unusual, strange, bizarre and irritating. Paintings of mine, that work out this way, examine connections and transitions between naturalistic realism and abstraction, swinging in and taking their energy from this exciting border area.
This landscape paintings don't show a (photo-) realistic „all of what I have seen out there“, but reflect atmospheric experiences. Not aiming at an exact reproduction of what I've seen and found, very personal points of view ignitions my work as an artist.
Structures, patterns, geographic situations, spaces of light are turned into paintings, that always refer to something well-known, but often remain in mysterious states of suspense, allowing the onlooker different interpretations of this intensive and thrilling color plays, made of horizons, perspectives and vanishing points.
My „landscapes“ connect expending techniques of the old masters with abstract expressionist-styles of painting. These expressions are painted in sensitive techniques, in order to make my work special and unique. Positions of traditional landscape painting are united with ideas of contemporary art.
With special ways of composition, arranged vanishing points, sharpened and blurred areas of canvas, the onlooker is guided. Therefore the act of looking comes into consciousness itself. But with sections out of focus, broken and irritated perspectives, the onlooker's point of view, brought up with the effects of civilization, is moved on thrilling, floating, shaky ground at the same time. It's up to the onlooker to decide, what's real or already an illusion, what is fixed ground or already a kind of a gleaming mirage.
Avoiding geographical fixation of places, also avoiding defined scales and clarity of figuration, my „landscape“- images carry different meanings. They can always be seen in different, varied ways, what might be challenging. The finished image does not show a special place, it becomes a place, a place which the onlooker is able to fit with his own fantasies, therefore becoming part of the painting himself. |
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PDF- catalog "coast to coast " from Hinrich JW Schüler |
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(ca. 2,9 MB) |
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A couple of times I travelled through the deserts of Australia and the south of USA, later, back at home, I worked on landscape paintings, inspired by intensive nature experiences.
Deserts, known as empty wastelands, also have another side: spaces of diversity, fullness and infinity. Travelers can get aware of themselves, if they do not avoid having those aspects of consciousness. For some reasons deserts have a special role in religions, because they are landscapes of contemplation, in which some of the prophets got their connection with a spiritual reality.
The experiences of silence, quietness, being alone, walking in a space that is not captured by settlements, highways, noise and advertising signs can lead into meditation. Besides some interventions of civilization, most desert areas still are distinct, varied and origin landscapes, appearing between eternity and ephemeral presence.
Gleaming white salt lakes with horizons disappearing in glaring light, and some other, nearly monochrome sites change into colorful sandstone hills and endless rows of red dunes. Everywhere there are extreme changes and contrasts, surprises and unexpected discoveries, all of that is unusual, strange, bizarre, irritating. As well there are scenes of idyllic camp fires underneath the overflowing starlight, quiet rests in long forgotten shady ruins, that belong to abandoned villages located at the banks of dried out rivers. Scurrile meetings with locals at places with special, strange and intense atmospheres can happen there.
Back at my studio, I concentrated my travel experiences into colors on canvas. These „Painted Desert“- images don’t show a (photo-) realistic kind of "all of what I’ve seen out there“, but they reflect atmospheric experiences I have been into. My personal point of view ignited my work as an artist, not aiming at an exact reproduction of what I’ve seen and found. Regarding those paintings, they play with qualities of deserts: open spaced situations show meagerness and wealth, reduction to the essences, transitions and contrasts, spaces full of light, color, distance, solitariness.
My „Painted Desert“- images are a follow up of my series of „Abstract Landscapes“. Like them, they connect techniques of the old masters with contemporary expressionist styles of painting. This not really abstract, yet abstracting landscape paintings stress the act of viewing: the onlookers eyes are guided with a special way of compositions, vanishing points, sharp and blurred areas. But with sections out of focus and irritations of perspective, the onlooker’s point of view is sometimes moved on shaky ground. It’s up to the onlooker to decide, what’s real or already an illusion, what is fixed (desert-) ground or already a kind of a gleaming mirage.
Avoiding to point out a exact geographical fixation of places, also avoiding defined scales and clarity of figuration, my „Painted Desert“ - images always carry different meanings. These images do not show places, they are places, places that can be equipped with the onlookers own ideas and fantasies. Therefore the viewer is becoming part of the painting himself. |
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PDF- catalog "painted desert" from Hinrich JW Schüler |
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(ca. 2,3 MB ) |
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During the development of my "colour spaced paintings", I created a lot of various sketches regarding landscapes, that I visited. In a new series of his paintings, starting in 2004, the so called "abstract landscapes" appeared as a mixture of my colour space paintings and views of landscapes. Even this new paintings are made of intensive, clear and brilliant colouring, showing clarity of composition and strong expression.
Like my earlier works, the abstract landscapes as well are generated from a dynamic balance of contrasts: the polarity of darkness and light, passing over and marking off, centrifugal and centripetal forces, intensity and solubility of colours up to their material existence. The hues that I use are applied in the classical manner of watercolour painting which is worked out in many layers. Some of my works show up to 60 layers of different, translucent and highly thinned colours. These transparent layers give the possibility of many effects of depth and of light, that cannot be achieved with non- or semi liquid dye-stuffs.
Focussing structure, generality and universality of landscapes, I avoid going too deep into detailing and don't want my paintings to evoke too much of an idyllic atmosphere. Showing the idea of landscapes is more interesting for me than copying in a realistic manner of painting. To give an example, you may see a cloudy space in the sky flowing softly over the fading horizon into the foreground of the painting. Other unusual sights and colourings effect the onlooker's perception and make him sometimes feel like being suspended above a landscape in a balance between new-romantic sights and modern, free style, but well-organized kind of painting. My abstract landscapes are borderlining abstract and realistic painting, and gain power from their union and combination. |
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PDF- catalog "abstract landscapes" from Hinrich JW Schüler |
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(ca. 1,8 MB) |
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This series shows floating spheres of circles that are freely composed out of a colourful mist. They are filled with an internal power of illumination and fascinating brilliance due to the multiple layers of thin paint that create an impressive illusion of space on a 2D canvas. It appears that some rings are dissolving into their backgrounds while others seemed to be shaped by it. However, they are always faithful elements to their surroundings and define those through the structures and colours of the circle. The intrinsically connection between the ring and its space provides a basis of peace and harmony which are often offset by restless areas of chiselled inner structures or conglomerates of lines. Although the antagonism of the painted elements establishes suspense, the paintings of rings maintain a dynamic and floating sense of balance. The informal nature of those images prevents them from being interpreted as symbolic, narrative or geometric. |
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The term "colour spaced paintings / symphonic art of painting " denotes a notion of composition and colour scheme, which I have been developing and deepening constantly since 1994. The main intension of which is to evoke spatiality solely through my special method of colouring within the two-dimensionality of the "canvas " surface. This spatiality is evoked without construction of perspective or other systems of order and arrangements, - space appears only through the display of clear and pure colours. These hues are applied in the classical manner of watercolour painting which is worked out in many layers. Some of my works show up to 60 layers of different, translucent and highly thinned colours. These transparent layers give the possibility of many effects of depth and of light, that cannot be achieved with non- or semi liquid dye-stuffs. Other conditions to evoke coloured spatiality are the use of very high quality materials and the use of large formats.
The vision of room and space in the mind of the onlooker without the usual construction of perspective, is similar to an acoustic space when music is listened to. Which is why I subtitled my work the " symphonic art of painting ". This term illuminates the fact, that my style of painting is more guided by spiritual ideas than lead by the phenomena of the material world - as with music, which expressions can signify relations to my works. The essence of this kind of painting, that I work on and live for, is the spirit of colour; - the rhythm and harmony of the sound of colours on the plain surface is a special phenomenon with the quality of music.
The objects of the material world are not able to give leadership or to be an example, prototype or model for this kind of imagery. But in spite of this fact this kind of painting has nothing to do with chaos or arbitrariness; as the colours show a logical system of chromatics everywhere they are seen, in nature, and in art (German scientist, poet, philosopher and painter J.W. v. Goethe found out basic facts of an new theory of chromatics; - many artists (for example Runge and Turner) have worked with the system of colours he explored).
Recognising and working with this system, that Goethe discovered and which has an affinity to the composition of classical music, can bring out the "colour spaced paintings / symphonic art of painting". These images show a character of freedom without any symptoms of lack of will-power and irresolution (...which sadly can be seen in many works of modern art). The compositions of these paintings form through the polarity of darkness and light, passing over and marking off, centrifugal and centripetal forces, intensity and solubility of colours up to their material existence.
The result of this creative game with the afore mentioned polarities over a period of weeks, is a complex unity, built by dynamic forces and different qualities that hold each other in fragile balances. These works, on completion, do not exist to tell stories or describe material objects, but they are able - and that is their real profession - to talk directly to the sphere of aesthetic sensuality of man. Therefore my works do not depend on intellectual, highbrow speculations. |
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