The Eyes Wander Paths

I discovered the naïve art of Olaf Ulbricht through a friend of mine only just the other day: I was charmed by a picture he shared of one of Ulbricht’s village scenes, seen from overhead (above).

Typically, Ulbricht’s paintings depict rural scenes of people interacting with the landscape in daily life or festivities. From the ‘simpler compositions in his earlier work, Ulbricht’s pictures became steadily more colourful and elaborate in detail, and more static. While in his earlier work musicians and houses might float around a church in the autumn breeze, today his pictures tell little stories’. These are stories that are a joy to meander over, like a tourist discovering a new town.

A rich and vivid colour palette is a consistent characteristic of his paintings, which Ulbricht achieves using acrylic paint on wood, and the application of multiple layers of lacquer; the lacquer gives the bright colours a brilliant finish. The irregularity and individuality of the woodgrain are integrated into the painting as much as possible.

For a definition of Naïve style, I can’t go past that from The Gallery of International Naïve Art:

‘Naïve art is characterised by a refreshing innocence and the charming use of bright colours, child-like perspective and idiosyncratic scale. It portrays simple, easily-understandable and often idealised scenes of everyday life. The naïve artist – often self-taught - treats us to a uniquely literal, yet extremely personal and coherent, vision of what the world was, is or should be. It offers us, often in painstaking detail, a timeless and optimistic depiction of an ancient story or Biblical tale, an ordinary occurrence or current event, a special ceremony or daily activity. The naïve painting bustles with colour and excitement, brims with wry humour and candour, bubbles with unbridled empathy and love.’

Ulbricht is also a wood carver; discover more on his website, most of which is in German with some translation into English, portions of which are quoted above.