The photos by Fabian Schubert show Hank Schmidt in der Beek painting, uh, well, what he knows — his clothes — in classic plein air painting spots.

Through a widely circulated online article in Colossal, plein air painters have been getting a giggle out of a German photographer’s take on painting outdoors, a series of photos that have been collected in a book that walks the line between homage and humor. And they are well-shot pictures.

“Equipped with our painting and photo utensils, we were led to the landscapes of my plein-air-painting colleagues: Paul Gauguin’s Brittany, Claude Monet’s Normandy, Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh’s Provence, Ferdinand Hodler’s Lake Geneva, Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter’s Murnau region, David Hockney’s Woldgate Woods and eventually Caspar David Friedrich’s Elbe Sandstone Mountains,” says Hank Schmidt in der Beek, the painter captured in his collaborator Fabian Schubert’s photographs.

“At the Blaue Land”
“At the Blaue Land”
“At the Beach of Étretat”
“At the Beach of Étretat”
“In the Anse de Rospico”
“In the Anse de Rospico”

“This was no coincidence and had the following two reasons: Firstly, our sincere trust in these experts, who surely had good reasons for painting where they did. And secondly, the pure joy of painting when the wind pipes an off-key impressionist soundtrack through the arch of the Manneporte of Étretat, whips its way through your hair and off and around the sharp edges of the Bibémus Quarries. And when, sitting in the shade of Murnau’s charming chestnut trees, your beer-filled mug tastes just a tidbit — but quite a significant tidbit — like the sweet sweat of a Blue Rider.”


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