Park Paths

“I feel most at home in colour,” confessed Walter Ophey. What could then be more obvious than to search for ways of using colour in drawings. Ophey developed a special technique of drawing with coloured crayons that soon became his trademark. He confined himself to reproducing contours and forewent any hatching or filling in outlines, so that large sections of the sheet remain white. His coloured crayons are unmistakable with the smears he preferred, using a finger to rub one side of all contour lines along the line. The Objects, such as the crowns of trees, paths in parks, or tree trunks thus either radiate or seem contemplative. Ophey mainly took scenes of everyday life as his theme and characteristically emphasized both the centre of the image and an unusual perspective. (Gunda Luyken)