Heidrun Rathgeb The Red Tent (Hardanger Vidda), 2022

Painting the night lit by the moon or the stars has always fascinated me. Often I am drawing outdoors at night as a means to remember the colours of a moonlit sky or the deep dark blue of a starry sky. I am always painting from my drawings, usually in egg tempera on panels that have been prepared in a traditional way with layers of fine gesso. I want my paintings to be small portable objects depicting such 'daily epiphanies‘. In that sense one could call them 'icons of nature'. 

In March 2022 I was crossing the high plateau of Hardanger Vidda in Norway through snow, when one night I saw a glowing red tent pitched on a frozen lake. This painting was done from a drawing made in situ.

Now living in southern Germany, Heidrun Rathgeb studied painting in London at the Slade School of Fine Art (MFA) 1996-99 and the Byam Shaw School of Art (1993-96).  Her work is based on experiences of specific moments in daily life. Small sketchbooks always at hand, Heidrun Rathgeb incessantly captures her surrounding environment in drawings. These drawings then form the source for her paintings and prints. Her work is not narrative in a sense of telling stories, much more it reflects glimpses in life, like a Haiku would do. The small scale of her work allows the viewer to connect with the quiet presence of her work. Most of the painting is done in egg tempera on panel carefully primed with layers of gesso. Her work is inspired by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Morandi, Bonnard, Klee, Munch, Winifred Nicolson, Edvard Hopper, Charlotte Salomon, amongst many other artists.