"The Masters of Wine"
by Klaus Strubelview biographyAcademic Painter of Fine Art / Art Historian
We are in a historic, cool and airy wine cellar of a European Dominican Monastery in the 19th century. The door of the wine cellar is decorated
with artistically hand-wrought iron work and the cellar reveals many more authentic details and equipment.
In the left foreground, the master
of wine is examining the processing stage and the clarity of the new red vintage as he holds the wine glass up against the light.
The Friar in
the middle is sitting in front of a wooden wine cask tasting a white wine for body and bouquet. His face and the gesture of his hand show that that
this vintage is very good.
In the background one more cellarer is getting ready to taste a wine. He is seen using a special authentic wine
tool, a mouth-blown glass suction pipe with a wine collecting chamber with which he is getting a sample of wine from the cask. He then uses this tool
as a funnel and empties it into the wine glass next to him for tasting.
My use of two sources of light, - a natural one such as the daylight
shining in and an artificial one such as the candle, - creates a delicate tenseness in my composition. This illuminates the whole scene and puts
texture on the wooden oak casks, glass bottles and the rustic stone floor.
While I was university student in Germany, I also studied Art
History and traveled through Europe to visit historic landmarks, museums, cathedrals and famous monasteries. I often took the opportunity to rent a
boarding room in some of the famous monasteries because you could learn so much about the history and the various fields of expertise, - especially
the one that fascinated me: The making of wine and champagne.
For ages, the brothers in their different orders have represented the highest
level of culture. They were the keepers of science, education, inventions, literature, fine art, music and developers of world famous champagne and
excellent wines.
During wine tasting in their cellars, I was surrounded by historic tools and equipment, hand carved casks and had wonderful
talks with the cellarers.
These lasting impressions inspired me to preserve certain situations in the life of the Masters of Winemaking
The play of the feature in my works tells whole stories. Each mime in their faces, their gestures, their hands and fingers and many more details,
bring life into these captured moments. Now and then, I inject a little touch of humor in circumstances of their life; after all, they are only
human.
The artistic quality of my painting contains historic details and authentic tools the winemakers worked with.
I want my paintings
to be entertaining, conversational pieces for the art collectors and at the same time to be very
decorative.