Peter Padubrin-Thomys

About

The self-taught artist (b. 1968 Halle/Saale GER) works mostly with acrylics on canvas or paper at the moment after having focused for years on collages, linoleum- and woodcuts. His paintings often depict humans or figures resembling angels which he applies onto monochrome backgrounds. He contures his characters with a reduced brushstroke. Their heads, hands or limbs fill up the pictorial space disproportionally, which bestows them a unique energy and spontaneity. When the artist works with a contrast-rich and wild color palette his figures are reminiscent of Basquiat or they resemble – when he uses more delicate white, gray and pastel tones – Paul Klee’s angel drawings.

Peter Padubrin-Thomys deliberately chooses an outsider art or art brut approach for his acrylic paintings: they appear sketch-like and bizarre, raw and color-intensive. His figures emanate an aura with a magic appeal. Placed alone or in groups they develop a fascinating, dreamy and mysterious effect. They float through the image and appear to relate to each other meaningfully and don’t seem to follow any common rules. Oftentimes the figures reach their oversized hands or limbs towards the other or communicate with another like in the untitled motif from the series “In Pantoffeln durch die Träume” (“Through the Dreams in Slippers”). In some kind of game strong forms of expression occur. Other titles (like e.g. “Zwei Väter” “Two Fathers” or “Der Hüter der Herde” “The Guardian of the Herd”), which are sometimes written into the painting by the artist, give further clues to the content of the depicted figures or complement them imaginatively.

A naïve prevailing mood resonates through the pictures. At a closer look however it becomes obvious that Peter Padubrin-Thomys develops a special impetus – between mind and matter, inside and outside worlds, lightness and depth.