Eberhard Havekost (b. 1967)

A dramatic and imposing piece, Eberhard Havekost's D-D B02 depicts the arrival of a storm of seemingly apocalyptic proportions. The black, greys and deep blues of the storm clouds slowly encompass the picture plane as they roll menacingly across the canvas. At the bottom right, a man with his back facing toward the viewer, face hidden behind his camera, curiously documents the brooding skyline ahead of him. His determination to capture this tempest demonstrates humans' unrelenting curiosity and fascination with the heavens. In selecting a climactic moment, Havekost engenders an intense feeling of anticipation which resonates through his masterful brushwork. The artist uses technological tools from digital photography as well as film stills as source material for his paintings, experimenting with digital imaging programs during the initial stage of creating a work. Through these various digital processes, he plays with the tones and hues of the image as well as trials different focus effects. In D-D B02, Havekost further complicates and translates the original photograph through the intervention of his brush. While the final product of his artistic method remains the painting, it is the entire process of creation that denotes his painterly style. Rather than photographic precision, the artist offers a single arresting moment somewhat distanced from its original context, experienced and altered first through the eye, then the lens and ultimately, the body and brush.