Thanks to my brother-in-law, artist David Tomb, I learned of this humorous collaborative project, Painters Portraits, between artist Hank Schmidt in der Beek and photographer Fabian Schubert.
Painters Portraits Plein Air Painting Parody
The Painters Portraits are a series of photographs that feature artist Hank Schmidt in der Beek as a plein-air painter in the same locales where several famous artists such as Cézanne, C.D. Friedrich, Gauguin, Hockney, Hodler, Kandinsky, Marc, Monet, Münter and others worked. But he’s not painting the surrounding landscape. Instead, Hank is painting the pattern on the shirt he’s wearing.
Surrounded by the same spectacular vistas, churches, gardens, fields and other venues that inspired many an Impressionist, Schmidt in der Beek stands in front of his canvas with the paint-brush in his hand, painting stripes, diamonds and checks that emulate the sweater, shirt or hoodie he’s sporting at the time.
The project is described by Schubert as follows: “a conceptual and visual reflection about the picture-in-picture, a painting artist in the picture, a once painted landscape in the picture and a painted pattern of a shirt as a picture.”
THE BOOK
The ongoing series which began in 2009 has been published in a book “Und im Sommer tu ich malen” (‘And in Summer I Paint’) that juxtaposes the painting in opposition to the photograph of the moment of its genesis in 30 pages.
Images and information courtesy of Fabian Schubert, Zuby Blog and publisher edition taube