Fred Buchwitz: BC Artist
FRED BUCHWITZ: BRITISH COLUMBIAN
ARTIST
by Victoria Farolan
I bought a painting of Fred’s last year, and I got a phone call from
Dale Larson informing me that Fred was coming to sign his paintings at the
Delta Shoppers Mall. I went with my family and met the artist whose paintings
I truly admire for their serenity, colours, and realism, but most of all
because they remind me of the landscapes of my hometown in Guimaras. In the
painting I bought, “Rocky Mountain Hideaway”, there is a cabin
and the light inside the cabin reminds me of the serenity of twilight, when
my mother would light the fire in the kitchen and prepare our meals. I would
go out to look at the sky fading into dark behind the green mountains surrounding
our home. Beside me was the sea, calm, and to my right, a hundred meters
away, a mountain stream flowed. A fire burned outside, but was slowly dying,
and the only other light was inside our “bahay kubo” (bamboo cabin)--as
my mother was cooking dinner. This was the only light as night crept in.
I now look at this painting and am reminded of my childhood days--the mountains,
the sea, the stream, the fire burning outside, and the light inside the
cabin.
I finally met the artist I admired, Fred Buchwitz, and had a picture with
him and my family, and he autographed the painting I bought a year ago. I
spoke to him and he told me about his paintings--that when he was younger,
he would paint right on the spot and quickly. Nowadays, it takes him longer
to paint because he wants to do things slower and better. What he does now
is he takes photographs of the scenes he likes to paint and then does his
paintings. He says it’s because of the light--the light changes so fast
that the colour hues also change. So, it’s better to capture the moment
with a photo picture, and then, work on the painting from the
photo.
Fred came to Canada in 1949 from his birthplace, Germany, when he was four.
They settled in the Fraser Valley in Southern British Columbia. Self-taught,
at the age of fourteen, Fred began dabbling with various painting mediums:
poster paint, then oil paints, until he devloped his own unique style. He
grew up with the natural surroundings around him which became his themes
in his paintings--from crashing waves of the West Coast to the exhilarating
mountain vistas. Fred resides in Delta, B.C. with his family, painting and
publishing new images for art collectors to enjoy.
For more information about his work, contact Dale Larson at 604 596-8203
or 604 531-8203.