As little as two years ago, Cochranites wouldn’t have seen the artwork of Hermann Brandt lining the walls of Cochrane Arts Central. But now, with a year and a half of full-time painting under his belt, Brandt’s work isn’t going unnoticed.
Voted in as the best local artist in the Cochrane Eagle’s Best Of Cochrane 2013, Brandt’s relatively-new place on the local art scene seems unimaginable as he sits in his home studio — Clear Air Art Studio — surrounded by artwork in various stages of progress.
The award comes as the icing on the cake for Brandt, who recently discovered seven of his oil paintings were chosen to be a part of this year’s Calgary Stampede Western Showcase.
“It’s nice that people, with no solicitation, voted for me,” Brandt laughed. “It’s amazing, I’m not trying to get any recognition or anything. This is more meaningful to me than having any paintings in the Stampede.”
Despite his rookie status, Brandt is anything but. Growing up in the “South African bush,” he said he’s been drawing since he could remember. Suffering from dyslexia and ADD as a child, he said drawing was his way of using words.
“Drawing and painting was how I expressed myself,” he said. “It’s like someone who is born without legs, they learn to walk on their hands. The words weren’t there for me, so I drew.”
After a brief, compulsory stint in the military, Brandt found himself at a South African art school studying graphic design. While he said he didn’t have any intention to pursuing a career in computer graphics, he did have aspirations of becoming an illustrator.
“I wanted to paint with a brush, not a mouse.”
By 1998, Brandt, his wife Wilmien and his son Carl (joined now by 11-year-old Amy) found their way to Cochrane. Although his life didn’t lead him down the road as an illustrator, his brushes still got plenty of use.
Describing the style of his artwork as representational, Brandt paints mainly in oils, with some acrylic thrown in. Many of his paintings are landscapes and wildlife, but he said he holds a strong interest in portraits and figures as well.
“My art is getting more technical and skilled,” he said about how his art has changed since taking it on full-time. “I’m understanding more about everything — composition, brushes, strokes — everything that is involved with creating a good painting. I see every painting as practice for the next one.”
With his sights firmly planted on what’s next, Brandt said he hopes to develop his art into a platform to raise awareness for issues facing Africa — documenting the struggles of endangered wildlife in Botswana or to bring attention to the struggles related to the AIDS/HIV crisis in his home country.
“I want my art to have a deeper meaning than just making a great painting — something more than just looking good on a wall,” he said.
Painting aside, Brandt keeps himself busy teaching drawing and oil painting classes at Cochrane Arts Central, where he works alongside local artists Marla Blackwell and Scot Paisley. To learn more about Brandt, visit his blog clearairartstudio.blogspot.ca or his website (which should be up and running soon) hermannbrandt.ca.
