Even at the tender age of ten, Hartmut Schulz enjoyed drawing, but during his school years there was little opportunity to cultivate this talent. Even during his active service as a soldier and in the diplomatic service, there were only a few periods of artistic activity. During this time, he mainly produced pencil drawings. But the impressions he gathered from distant lands provided an endless supply of motifs for his later paintings.
After retiring, Schulz found the time and leisure to translate his impressions from forty years of stays and travels—from Hawaii to India—into paintings. These, combined with photos or slides of the respective subjects, served as the basis for his works. “The difference from a photograph is that one’s own emotions and impressions are incorporated into the painted image. And if one succeeds in conveying this to the viewer, then that also has to do with art,” explains the artist.
In 2010, Hartmut Schulz exhibited a selection of paintings from his early years as an artist at the Birkenfeld branch of the Kreissparkasse. Since then, the collection has doubled in size, and part of it is now on display at the Idar-Oberstein City Hall through early September 2026.
- The exhibition is open Monday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the lobby of the Idar-Oberstein City Hall, located at Georg-Maus-Straße 1.