OBSERVATIONS FROM NATURE

Landscape and nature form a quieter strand of Fausto's practice. Working outdoors, he records plants, landscapes and particular places through drawings, watercolour and other studies made directly from observation.

Some of these studies remain independent works, while others become the starting point for larger oil paintings developed later in the studio. The transition from direct observation to painting allows the original encounter with a place or motive to be transformed through memory, composition and color.

The painting was developed in the studio from studies made in the garden of an historic villa in Guadalajara, Mexico, during a trip in 2022.

This group of works traces the transformation of a view from the Hotel Austria in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. The large oil painting (above) was developed in the Berlin studio from several watercolor studies made on site in 2019. The composition was subsequently transformed again, an increasingly abstract geometric painting (below).

Köppchensee (lake Köppchensee), 2020, gouache and chalk sketch on grey paper

Köppchensee (lake Köppchensee), 2021, oil on canvas, 63 x 47 in (160 x 120 cm)

Northeast of Berlin embedded in the natural reserve Tegeler Fliess lays a wilder pair of medieval water basins created for fish farming.

Manuel Antonio, 2021, ol on canvas, 47,3 x 59 in (120 x 150 cm)

The oil painting was carried out at the studio after a series of watercolor sketches drawn February 2021 at Espadilla Sur Beach. This beach is embedded in the National Park “Manuel Antonio” at Quepos, Costa Rica.

Spiegelsee (Mirror lake), 2018, oil on canvas, 63 x 47 in (160 x 120 cm)

In 1930 the banker Dr. Max Fraenkel purchased a large estate near the village of Kladow at the shores of lake Wannsee neighboring the summer residences of the Mendelssohn family and the Gessner family, respectively. The Fraenkel-garden stretches over several terraces and also includes an artificial Spiegelsee (mirror lake) allowing the blue sky und large pine trees to reflect.

Being inaccessibly separated from the city through the nearby Berlin wall the area was forgotten for decades. After complex restoration the park could be reopened to the public as a national garden monument in 2016 (Dr. Fraenkel Garten, Kladow).

The Painting was carried out at the studio after a series of water color sketches done at a the site during August 2018.