Ernst Grillhiesl, who signs his work “ErnstG”, is a contemporary German painter who works in watercolor. His landscape subjects usually include architectural elements, often set almost on the horizon with a deep but de-emphasized foreground.
Grillhiesl’s style is a combination of crisp, precise rendering of buildings and other artificial objects and a looser, somewhat softer approach to trees and shrubbery. The result is a visually appealing blend of accuracy and freedom.
He appears to live in a part of Bavaria where many of the houses and other buildings have red roofs, and a number of his compositions have a nicely subdued complementary color relationship in the setting of red roofs among the greens of summer grasses and foliage.
Though he has a websiite that includes images of his work, it’s not easy to navigate, particularly for non-German speakers. It’s much easier to view his work on his blog, which is arranged as a website with multiple image galleries.
The tagline on his blog, as translated by Google Translate, reads: “Everyday life brought to paper with a brush and paint”.
I have not been able to find much information on either location about how large his paintings are or whether they are for sale.
ErnstG was a long-time contributor to wetcanvas.com and is much admired for his work, most of which is done plein air.
Thanks, Doug. I remember seeing his work on WetCanvas. I assume that’s where I came across him, though I don’t always know where the links in my potential topics folders came from (grin). It is nice to know his work was largely done plein air, I wasn’t certain.
Looking at some of his pieces I get the sensation of a fresh, springy breeze – I love the feeling of fresh air that he’s able to convey.
PS: I’m ashamed to admit that sometimes I fully expect Totoro to roll into the frame!
Ha! Yes, some of them do have a Studio Ghibli vibe.