Artist Travels To Scenic Locations To Paint The Pattern On His Shirt

An artist and a photographer have produced a funny series of works in which the artist travels to a ridiculously scenic place, sets up his canvas, and paints only the pattern on his own sweater.

Art is - of course - a serious business, but it doesn't always have to take itself too seriously. Hank Schmidt in der Beek and Fabian Schubert have used their work to set out to prove this.

Starting in 2009 and continuing to this day, the pair have travelled around the world with their canvas and camera to prove that all good artists are capable of poking a bit of fun at themselves.

Good for them, too.

The project is entitled Und im Sommer tu ich malen which translates to In Summer, I Paint and it turns out that quite a few people from within the world of art like their take on things, too.

According to the artist, Hank, the reasons behind it all are pretty simple.

Hank explained to Edition Taube, who have released a book of these photographs: "Basically, I paint whatever my wardrobe offers me"

That's as good a reason as any, Hank. It's definitely a silly idea, but not all silly ideas are inherently bad. Some of them can turn out pretty beautifully, don't you think?

There is a bit of reverence to their work as well, though. They've travelled to locations that have been visited in the past by some of the greats of the art world like Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Claude Monet.

Hank continued: "He was with his medium format camera to take some photographs, me with some canvases and an easel to make some paintings,

"Confronted with the immenseness of the mountains and the littleness of my canvasses, I decided to paint what's nearest to me instead of what's afield and giant."

The result is this, a selection of lovely patterns - that look to have something of a 1970s vibe for the most part - painted onto canvasses in front of often sprawling landscapes, but sometimes monuments and buildings too.

Sometimes Hank paints onto a single canvas with an easel, sometimes he paints onto larger areas. The only thing that remains the same is that he's just painting the pattern of whatever is on his chest at that moment in time.

If you want, you can lay your hands on a book of this series of photographs. As you might imagine, it's called Und im Sommer tu ich malen and is published by Edition Taube.

Featured Image Credit: Edition Taube

Topics: Funny, Interesting, Weird

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a freelance journalist and LADbible contributor. He graduated from University of London with a BA in Philosophy before studying for a Masters in Journalism at the University of Salford. He has previously written for the M.E.N Group as well as working for several top professional sports clubs. Contact him on [email protected]

@TPWagwim