Peter Nottrott

In conversation with Humph Hack - Curator

I asked Peter when he started painting. He told me, “I was lucky enough to grow up in a creative family and started painting when I was still a child”. Soon after he left school, he started making a small income as an artist and from there the big decision to combine his creativity with a career in art developed.

“That was 37 years ago”!

Although he attended a private art school in Hamburg, he considers himself a self-learner. “I prefer to teach myself what I want to know or be able to do. I apply this principle to painting, art and other areas my life.”

When asked about artistic influences he quoted Van Gogh, Monet and Nolde.“Van Gogh impressed me because of his authentic painting style, which was very important to him”. His admiration of Monet was based on the fact that his paintings were less about creating a realistic picture and more about capturing the feeling that the motif evokes. In the case of Emil Nolde it is the power of color in his work.

Peter has a beautiful large studio in Flensburg. He starts his day sharing a coffee with his friend from a neighbouring studio who is a goldsmith.

“When I’m painting, I like to listen to meditative music, which is also essential to the creative process” He told me that he attached great importance to a positive, quiet studio atmosphere. This allows him to focus all his energy and creativity into painting. Interestingly, “It’s important that there is always something good to snack on in the studio”!

Although he has worked in oil, he usually chooses to work with acrylic on canvas.

”The colours are bright and easy to work with and I apply them to the canvas either with a brush or with a spatula. They dry very quickly”.

The large scale of his work allows him to make large movements, with more creatively and intensity.

He prefers to paint abstractly. This allows complete freedom, for him, to compose an image using colours and shapes alone. “When I do include other elements, I'm less interested in recreating a water lily or a sailing ship, for example, than in expressing my feelings about them in the picture”.

When I asked him about the richness and vigour of his works, he said, “The vast majority of my works are very colourful, lively and positive. My own motto is: “I want to paint symphonies of colour...always lively, always full of energy and always positive.”

Over the years he has sold over 1,500 sold paintings to collectors in 37 countries worldwide.

Plans for the future?

“I want to paint a lot more colour symphonies... lively, full of energy and positive. Since I'm no longer as young as I was, my wish is to continue painting for as long as possible”.

June 2024

Selected works

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