Quiet Forest - Acrylic

Gerd Schmidt was born in 1963 in East Germany, where Russian ideology, particularly the denouncement of individuality, dominated the status quo. Growing up in this setting inevitably impacted Gerd throughout his youth and early adulthood. At the age of 23, Gerd entered the military to fulfill his country’s mandatory service, after which he spent six years in technical college earning degrees in tool making and construction.

In 2004, he moved to the United States and gained a new perspective, harnessing a spirituality and creativity he had never before recognized. Despite lacking formal training, he turned to art as a way of expressing this newly found romanticism and began capturing nature’s beauty in his signature birch tree landscapes.

 

His unique artistic style is achieved with self-taught techniques that beautifully combine color and texture. He illuminates his original paintings by incorporating organic materials such as gold and silver leaf mica flakes, further contributing to the organic look and feel of his original artwork. 

 

Gerd currently resides with his wife in their country lake house in Michigan where he is surrounded by the scenic landscapes that inspire him.  His work was featured in ArtPrize in 2018 and Our Town Art Exhibit & Sale in Birmingham, Mich., in 2019.