Wolf Päschke (1951-2003)

Siegfried Wolfgang Päschke werd geboren in Krefeld (D), groeide op in Kleef(D) en woonde meer dan 20 jaar in Nijmegen (NL). In 1981 studeerde hij af aan de Hoge School voor de Kunsten te Arnhem in de vakken schilderen, tekenen, fotografie en grafiek.

Hij noemde zichzelf graag een ontdekkingsreiziger in de kunst. Reizend door verre landen deed hij de nodige inspiratie op, die hij vervolgens combineerde met het leven in Nederland hetgeen soms verrassende beelden opleverde.

Wolf on Saba in the Netherlands Antilles

De laatste jaren maakte hij dagelijks tekeningen die als een getekend dagboek beelden laten zien van hetgeen de kunstenaar om zich heen zag gebeuren, vermengd met herinneringen en ideeën over de toekomst. Hij tekende en schilderde zonder reserves. Door de directe, openhartige werkwijze leidde dat tot mooie, lelijke, brutale of ook evenwichtige resultaten.

Hij zei weleens: “Wat de dag brengt, wordt tot uitdrukking gebracht in de tekening”. Zijn werk kan geschaard worden onder de categorie Nederlandse moderne kunst.

De prijs is bespreekbaar

Contactgegevens:  Loes Jansen, zie www.MappaArt.org

Contemporary artist Henk van der Gronde talks about the Quest for his Holy Grail

Henk van der Gronde
Burgemeester Keestrasingel 25
4101 ZB, Culemborg
Telephone: 0345-520284
Mobile: 06-51490994
Email: hvdgronde@gmail.com
Atelier: ‘t Jach 32 , 4101 CM Culemborg
Website: http://henkvandergronde.nl

The beginning

On completing my studies in graphic design at the art academy in Arnhem (now ArtEZ),  I  spent some time studying the paintings, and philosophy of art, of René Klinkers and Hans Koopman at the Hogeschool Voor de Kunsten (HKU) in Utrecht.  During my artistic career, I have held various exhibitions, both individually and in groups with artists associations. Much of my exhibited work is now in private collections or owned by companies.

Landschap met rode toren Landscape with red tower

Het hoge water huis 2d-3d The high water house 2D-3D

Insect Insect

My working style

Most of my art is created intuitively, born from random moments captured by my eye, mixed with my mood, memories, and impressions. I work mostly in oil paints, which allows me to work longer on the painting but, of course, also requires a longer drying time. 

My work begins when I enter into a continuous dialogue with a selected canvas; asking with my eyes and responding with my strokes of colour. I work by applying layers of paint on top of each other on the canvas, like skin.  Then, with my fingernails or stylus, I make scratches in the skin and combine them with India ink to produce drawing-like effects to the work.

Stadt op rots City on rock

Stad met volle maan en vissen City with full moon & fishes

Vissen Fish

To give chance a chance, I like to surprise myself sometimes by turning the canvas while painting the picture. For me, spontaneity and immediacy give the canvas more character.

Painting is always a Quest for me. I am constantly searching for my Holy Grail.

“How do you create a work of art?”

So asks the article 10 Contemporary Artists Talk About Their Creative Process, from Park West Gallery.  The article then continues with,

 “That sounds like a straightforward question, but it has millions of potential answers. Every artist in the world has their own unique way they approach a blank canvas. Some come prepared with sketches and outlines. Others wait for a spark of inspiration until the last minute. They’re all performing similar actions—painting, drawing, etching, sculpting—but it’s the subtle variations in how they perform each one that really defines them as an artist.”

This post is the first in a series, in which other contemporary artists will talk about the creative process that enables them to “create a work of art”. And, as is only appropriate, this first post is from the modern Dutch artist Siegfried Wolfgang Päschke, whose artistic legacy is exhibited in the MappaArt galleries. 

The Early Years

Wolf was born in Krefeld and raised in Kleve, in Germany, close to the Dutch border. In the early seventies, Wolf moved to Nijmegen in the Netherlands. In 1976 he enrolled in the nearby Academy of Arts in Arnhem,  now part of ArtEZ, to study painting, drawing, photography, and graphic art. On graduating in 1981, he settled in Nijmegen to begin his life as an artist. Apart from his travels to Saba (1982), South East Asia (1992),  and South America (2002), he lived and worked in Nijmegen until his death in 2003. 

Wolf on Saba in the Netherlands Antilles

The Prolific Years

Although Wolf died in 2003, he left extensive records.  From these records, we know that for extended periods of his life, especially during his travels, Wolf produced a painting or drawing per day. In these images, he fused the daily scenes around him with his memories, dreams, and musings on the future. Wolf called this stage of actually committing an image to paper, the Primal Scream of the work. The resulting multiple journals of Primal Screams, produced in the years between 1982 and 2003, he called his Drawn Diary.

Wolf’s 21 journals with about 30 drawings per book.
The first book begins on June 13, 1994, and the final book ends in 2000

Later, Wolf then used selected images from this Drawn Diary, to create further works of art, including monoprints and larger paintings. Fortunately, among the records Wolf left us, was the following video. So, I leave it to wolf himself to explain the methods and processes he used to produce his art, in his own words, in three languages. 

October 2020 to March 2021

The MappaArt mini-exhibition in Nijmegen displays four paintings for sale from the modern Dutch artist Siegfried Wolfgang Päschke.

IJssalon Ghiani
Van Het Sant-straat 145
6523 BE Nijmegen
By bus stop line 8, direction Berg en Dal