Arts

From 1975 to 1981 Schotte studied arts at the famous Folkwangschule in Essen. He was cofounder of the Kunsthaus Essen, now an institution you cannot imagine the city’s cultural life without it. Unlike the Kunsthaus art residences Schotte, influenced by his fellow students Rainer Maria Reusch and Peter Osewald, dedicated himself to the classical way of painting. From this period date the pictures “Wheels on Fire”, “Departure”, “Are Birds free from the Chains of the Skyway” and “Arrival”.

While studying arts Schotte took several trips as a hitchhiker or by bike. On these trips he painted landscapes with water colours under the open sky. His devotion to landscapes lingered on. Over the years the landscapes were reduced to trees and woods, which Schotte considered as the roots of human existence.

An incisive experience took place in the woods of „Schauinsland“, which is spart of the black forest. Schotte had gone on a hike together with friends including a picnic. No one had watched out for the coming dusk. The dark forest became eerie and scary. While his friends got on the run, to escape from the woods, Schotte was overwhelmed by the feeling that human kind was originally born from the woods, and suddenly he felt at home. He went to sleep on a creek bank. This spiritual connection to the forest and the trees never relinquished, and dominated his further creative work. Far from any mainstream Schottes pictures are timeless documents about the connection between nature and human kind.

From the first 25 years of Schotte’s work there are only few pictures left in his own possession. They were either sold or given away to friends. Since the year 2009 Schotte only paints for himself. Trees and woods are again his subjects, and people close to him as portraits or in midst the landscape. Additionally Schotte archived the few works, which had been left from former times.