Frauke Klatt
Texture and Feel
Having been an avid sailor for the majority of her life it is no wonder that when Frauke Klatt made the decision to start painting that she would look to the sea before anything else as a source of inspiration. Klatt only began her pursuit of a career in painting after achieving a teaching degree from the university of Hamburg and raising her three sons.
Klatt began her exploration of painting with watercolors, developing a unique process of working with the medium that allows watercolor to be painted onto sailcloth. This process, fade resistant and weathertight, was first put into practice on the back of a sailing jacket she has worn for many years. Working with watercolor in this unique way soon developed into an interest in the process of working with acrylics.
“My sailboats are often without a hull; the wind and the waves which carry the boats are the most meaningful elements. The crew is not visible – at that point in time when we look at the picture, we have taken over the role of the crew.”
Only One Can Win, 43x79
The versatility of acrylics as a medium opened up endless possibilities for Frauke and she let her imagination and creative vision take on an entirely new dimension - that of texture. Through the incorporation of thick impasto strokes, layered surfaces of sailcloth and burlap, and the addition of sand as a mixing medium her work becomes a collage of sense-memories of the sea, the sand, and the sky. In her works, the sea is often a multi textured thing, with the addition of sand creating textural bubbles in the foam on the crests of the waves which do in fact project towards the viewer, creating the sensation that one could at any moment simply tumble headfirst into the current.
Klatt's work embraces abstraction alongside the power of suggestion; through the use of simple shapes and textural elements, she is able to create a sensation as opposed to a detailed representation. The sensation is immersive in its scope thanks to the monumentality of many of her works. Her goal, she writes, is to put the viewer into the scope of the action as opposed to set apart from it.
Frauke is a master of the mixed medium. Painting on sailcloth, in itself a richly textured and meaningful material, Klatt’s love of the tactility of sailing is brought to the fore. Through the mixing of sand in with her paints she creates nautical paintings that embrace everything about the salt, the sand, and the sea that inspire her.
Able to work as a full time artist has allowed Frauke's work to change and evolve as she explores different ways to implement her technique. This spirit of inventiveness and creativity makes her a much beloved artist in her native Germany where her work has places of prominence in many celebrated private collections. In addition, she exhibits yearly in the UK and Europe to wide acclaim.