Bernhard Kramer – Biography
I was born in 1961 and grew up in a rural environment on a farm in Marthalen in the beautiful Zürcher Weinland. After my school time I learned the profession of plumber, which I practised for ten years. Then I changed to the retail trade, DIY sector. I like working with people very much.
Already as a child I liked to paint. In the vocational school my drawing skills in the field of technical drawing were challenged.
Since 1991 I have been dealing artistically with painting. To deepen and expand my artistic ambitions, I attended various painting and drawing courses at the Migros Klubschule in Schaffhausen. At the centre of my artistic work are colours with their various gradations. The painting epoch of French Impressionism has always appealed to me very much. Accordingly, I also attended events in which the most important representatives of this epoch were introduced: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Paul Gaugin.
I was able to hold my first major exhibition together with other artists in the city of Schaffhausen in 1993. My interest in painting was also encouraged by my father, who created iron works. At many of his exhibitions, which he could hold, were combined with exhibits of other artists from the painting. Thus I got first impressions for this art area, which shaped me lastingly.
At the beginning of my artistic work there was the confrontation with Impressionism. This picture represents this creative phase:
Over the years I developed further: away from the purely representational towards the fusion of colours with the play of light and shadow. In my acrylic paintings my great connection to nature is expressed. My paintings should invite the viewer for a walk into nature with its variety of colours and forms.
In 1997 I allowed myself a trip into the literature with the novel «Getrocknete Rosen». This novel was an attempt to process an event from my biography literarily.
On my numerous journeys to nearby and distant regions I always get new impulses, which I process artistically.
During my years in Regensdorf (1997 to 2016) I became increasingly involved with abstract works of art. The proximity to the city of Zurich thus found its artistic echo.
Since 2000 I maintain my own website: www.artkramer.ch
After having worked for many years with figurative painting, I felt the urge to try out new concepts of art.
As with my representational paintings, the motifs in the abstract realm are a product of my artistic imagination. Spontaneity plays an important role here. In a trance-like state the colours are brought onto the canvas.
The colours and shapes grow out of themselves; when I finally take a break, I only have to make very small corrections. But it can take a long time until the right time is found for the correction work on the picture.
My preferred way of painting is acrylic. There have been attempts to work with oil. But from the point of view of the painting technique, acrylic is closer to me.
TODAY 2019
At the end of 2016 the company moved to Goldach near St. Gallen. Since February 2018 – after a long creative break – I am artistically productive again. Most of the new pictures are collages (Picture right) in acrylic, metal and real gold leaf, cardboard, fabric or other materials glued, painted or putty on canvas.
My studio is an unused kitchen. I feel full of new ideas that are just waiting to be realized artistically.
My motto is: Art is everything that the viewer does not expect.