Landscapes and Mindscapes by Mati Klarwein

Although rarely thought of as a landscape artist, the natural beauty of the world about us, as made manifest in rocks and stones, flowers and trees, has always been an integral part of much of Mati's work.  Were it not for his tendency to integrate 'other' elements into his landscapes, interfering with our preconceptions and destroying the calm like a ghetto blaster in a cornfield, he would perhaps be better known as the versatile and creative landscape artist that he was.

The range of Mati's landscape art spans from the literal, as in 'Camouflage' above and 'Landscape Perceived', through the ambiguous - such as 'Wet Curve', below left, to the clearly visionary and dreamlike - such as 'Visit', below right.

Along the way we get everything from bizarre juxtaposition, as in 'Saint John', below left, to a subtle blending of the real with the imaginary as in 'Soundscape', below right.

But even the most literal have a surreal aspect to them (or is it super-real?), caused, at least in part, by an exceptionally vivid colour palette, along with the portrayal of a level of detail that you would not expect to see at the distance implied by the perspective and scale.

Mati liked to play with the boundaries of what is and what we perceive, referring to his landscapes variously as inscapes, mindscapes or (self-deprecatingly) as real-estate paintings.

Though some of the landscapes may be pure fantasy, many, like the Mallorcan scene above, are a more or less accurate rendition of a real location, subtly transformed in a way that transcends the mundane.

Mati Klarwein Gallery - Landscapes and Mindscapes

Landscape paintings, surreal landscapes, fantasy landscapes, magic realism.

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