Patricia, 2021

Watercolour, Ink, Gouache, Pencil

Category: Rainer Stolle

Rainer Stolle is a visual artist based in London, UK. He received a degree in Graphic Design at FH Krefeld in Germany in 1994. He explored the potential of digital tools in Magazine Design, Web Design and eventually Visual Effects for Film. Rainer has worked on acclaimed productions including Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Avatar. In 2003 Rainer graduated from Central Saint Martins in Ma Future of Textile (now MA Material Futures) and practises in digital fashion, film and illustration. Since 2011 he has collaborated as Codeture to produce experimental illustrations, short-films and digital-prints for fashion garments. Rainer has a strong interest in combining digital and analogue work methodologies. After spending 6 weeks at the Art Academy in Florence at the beginning of 2023 he wants to expand his practice into figurative oil painting.

‘I am a visual artist from Germany based in London, UK. I started regular life drawing in 2000 in New Zealand a few years after my graduation in Graphic Design in Krefeld, Germany. At that time I considered figurative drawing as an exercise that helped me develop skills in capturing the human form. My interest is also born from my fascination with the expressiveness of fashion illustration.

I came to London in 2003 and have been regularly attending a diverse range of lifedrawing sessions for 8 years, as well as establishing my own class. Over the years I have developed a more emotional approach to life drawing. Every drawing has a small narrative: there is a beginning a middle and end. A drawing can describe the multiplicity of the human experience: happiness, sadness, our darker psychic undertones, sexuality. In my approach to drawing, it is essential to me that there is no plan, no vision and no goal. I want to be surprised or walk into a situation and then see what happens. The choice of medium depends on luck. Sometimes I find the right medium immediately. Sometimes it takes a few attempts. Sometimes it is frustrating. The model is a driver. It is important to me to create the mental space to find a visual language expressing my emotion while drawing. In a way I am bleeding a feeling. The lines and marks that create each piece are markers of that feeling. ‘