Gerrie Wachtmeester

Gerrie Wachtmeester

Gerrie Wachtmeester was born in 1957 and educated at the Art Academy Minerva in the City of Groningen.
Wachtmeester derives his inspiration particularly in Westerwolde, a region of the Province of Groningen. His paintings are constructed in firm horizontal and vertical lines. The atmosphere is mysterious, often even a bit creepy. The desire of Wachtmeester to delete the antithesises of life itself, is to be compared with that of a romanticist. Actually, he is a romanticist, living in an imperfect society and he paints a world where things do fit together.
The way he works with compositions, symbolism, the ever present threat and on the other hand ever and again with the positive sides of life, reveals therefore a delicacy.
Wachtmeester loves the warm red colour of autumn, as it expresses comfort and protection. Landscapes and buildings are painted from his memory, with fantasies. Reality was at the utmost a motive for any subject.
His work might be inspired by the romantic painter Casper David Friedrich, but also by Meindert Hobbema and Jacob Ruysdael.
The flat landscape of Westerwolde, where his roots are fixed, is for him the most perfect landscape on earth.
By taking monumental structures out of their specific natural contexts, and by positioning them in a romantic scenery, Wachtmeester wishes to create harmony between spheres, dreams and reality. Human beings and animals do not fit in them. Their presence would disturb the calm image and leave insufficient space for one=s own fantasy.