Norbert Schwontkowski (1949-2013, born in Bremen, Germany) makes his own paints, using chalk, linseed oil, copper paint, water with ground pigments, and glue. This paint of his own making, which has plenty of texture, he applies to the canvas in several layers. The result is oil paint canvases rich in texture, density and depth. Schwontkowski’s work is consistently made up of figurative compositions with an undertone of melancholy. The scenes in his paintings depict isolated people or motifs against a background of emptiness. Small figures stand in abandoned landscapes or are placed against all but desolate backgrounds, made up of many layers of subdued tones of his oil paint.

The focus in Schwontkowski’s work is upon mankind in all its aspects: the weaknesses and follies but equally the strengths. His paintings often convey to the viewer feelings of lightness, melancholy, grief, amazement or despair. Schwontkowski shows us worlds that teeter on the faultline of dream and reality.