Autumn leaves and bird

Image Interpretation

A bird gazes after a turquoise butterfly – that single moment of silent wonder that Ri Meuser von Eschmar has captured for eternity here. The actual painting rests on a warm-brown, hand-painted mat, from which real autumn leaves and feathers seem to emerge all around – sometimes as a painted suggestion, sometimes as an almost tangible reality. This blurring of the boundary between image and world is no coincidence, but a deliberate intent: the work does not want to hang on the wall, it wants to grow into the room. The bird itself glows in deep ocean blue and warm gold – two poles that reappear again and again in Ri Meuser's imagery: blue as longing, gold as abundance and life. The delicate butterfly opposite acts like a fleeting guest, a breath of summer that is just saying goodbye. The autumnal mood of this work carries within it that melancholic beauty of transition – a mood that Ri Meuser has experienced time and again on her journeys through the seasons of the most remote regions of the world, from the forests of Central Asia to the vast steppes of Mongolia, and distilled into her art.

Technique: Mono Sgraffito on Silver Puran Foil

This work is a particularly rare example of mono sgraffito on silver Puran foil from the company Silver Plastics in Troisdorf – a special substrate that gives the painting a unique coolness and depth that could not be achieved with conventional supports. Ri Meuser von Eschmar applied her pigments – including luminous blue tones and fine gold dust – to this wafer-thin foil in several successive layers, purposefully scratching individual layers free again and glazing over them once more. This creates the play of depth, transparency, and luminosity typical of mono sgraffito: the bird seems to glow from within, as if its own light were burning behind the surface. The hand-painted brown mat is not merely a frame, but an integral part of the overall work – a stage that releases the motif into the room.

The Artist

Prof. Ri Meuser von Eschmar, born in Darmstadt, studied stage design in Darmstadt and fine arts in Aachen. Her affinity for unusual materials – industrial foils, crystals, pigments from the petrochemical industry, gold dust – was part of her artistic approach from the beginning and led to the development of mono sgraffito, a technique that made her the creator of a completely independent pictorial cosmos. Study trips to almost every continent, voyages on deep-sea fishing vessels off the coasts of Iceland and Greenland, and participation in archaeological excavations have shaped her unmistakable perspective on nature, animals, and symbols. With over 350 solo exhibitions worldwide – from the Harrods Gallery in London to the Earth Vision Gallery in Palo Alto – and international awards such as the Rubens Medal and the Golden Oscar (France), she is one of the preeminent artists in the German-speaking world.