"Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter." (Paul Klee). 

 

The artist Gertraud Maria Zumtobel, born in 1963, has been painting since she was 19 years old. She devoted herself to professional painting studies in the 90s in the USA at Sleepy Hollow High School in North Tarrytown, New York.

 

She gets her inspiration from art exhibitions all over the world, such as the London Biennale, Venice, or visits to the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Art Gallery Vancouver and many others. This resulted in a desire and addiction to deal more and more intensively with this creative process. Until today this does not let her go.

 

Zumtobel's early painting consists mainly of floral and landscape watercolours. A few years later she begins to devote herself primarily to oil painting. In addition to the suppleness of the oil paints, they are particularly captivated by the intensity of the colors,  but also shine and smell. In order to feel the oil paint, Gertraud Zumtobel works primarily with his hands as well as with a brush. Feeling the feel of the colors up close and personal constantly inspires her to come up with new ideas.  

 

During her creative process, she is always amazed to discover that her works "come into being". Fascinated by this process of creation, the result of which she never knows beforehand, she simply tries out everything and does not want to commit herself. Gertraud Zumtobel is interested in both abstract and realistic painting, here the simpler, there the more complex playfulness with colors and shapes. The colors are usually applied lushly to realize fantasy, memory, dream and reality. 

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Despite the abstractness, the viewer mostly recognizes motifs; However, the artist does not reveal whether these motifs were consciously painted.

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In her various works, the artist symbolizes a connection to the outside world and presented this in her exhibition "Colours 22".

 

“When I paint, I forget space and time. I literally merge with oil and linen.” (Gertraud Maria Zumtobel)