Stefanie Schulte

Carefully Planned Intuition

June 7th – 29th, 2024

Navigating between control and surprise, between rational planning and spontaneity, between colour theory and intuition, I try to explore a parallel to the idea of emotion and poetry shining through the almost mathematical approaches to music of baroque composers.

I like to see my studio like a colour laboratory: there are piles of carefully labelled containers with all the particular shades resulting from long procedures of mixing and testing. The mixing in itself, before even placing any brushstrokes, is an intriguing part of the creative process. It is like a journey in which I take decisions at traffic intersections: which way to choose? The compass of combined intuition and theory tells me where to go. Sometimes I take the wrong direction and there is no turning back. I abandon the path and begin on a new one. Sometimes the magic happens and the mixture hits that very fine point where the shade becomes truly exciting. These shades are the ones capable of forming the most dialogues, they are sociable and come to life in connection with other shades. Possibilities to place brushstrokes on the surrounding canvases with this particular colour will open up like empty slots for puzzle pieces.

I always work horizontally and see the canvas like a kind of map. It is one homogenous space in which the colours will interact, there is no up and down or left and right. It is that area of encounter where the colours can start talking to each other. The colours will first enter the white zones of the canvas, creating particular dynamics among them, and then move up into the layered dimension.

The paintings grow very slowly and organically, each brushstroke is a new sheet of tissue. In that process, some colours might change their identity completely, others might shine through in their original self. Deeply convinced of that existing connection between colour and the circle of fifths, I try to pass on simple and rhythmic messages, creating visual chord progressions, harmonies and dissonances.