A found object of painting

“Small Find in Violet” emerged from a section of a painter’s palette. What was originally part of a working process was removed from its context and became the starting point for an independent painting.

Material and construction

The work is based on a wooden panel onto which two separate frames have been mounted. An outer frame defines the boundary of the piece, while a second, inner frame contains the section of the painter’s palette.

Jute was stretched over this construction and fixed to the wooden panel under high pressure. This creates a taut, calm surface that surrounds and accentuates the highly saturated section of the image.

The small cut-out from the palette was then inserted into the central opening. This creates a deliberate tension between the reduced monochrome surface and the vibrant color structure of the found fragment.

Material, construction and pictorial idea interlock directly and make the structure an essential part of the work.

A picture within a picture

The colour-intense section appears like a small window within a larger violet picture surface. The traces of numerous colour mixtures condense into an autonomous pictorial world full of contrasts, transitions and discoveries.

The longer you look, the more relationships emerge between the individual areas of color.

Violet as pictorial space

The generous violet area creates calm and distance. It surrounds the small found object without taking attention away from it.

This creates a tension between concentration and openness, between the vibrant center and the calm surrounding space. The violet thus becomes not just a background, but an essential part of the composition.

Original painting by Mark Hellbusch

“Small Find in Violet” is a one-of-a-kind from 2026, created in the Hellbusch studio in Wiesbaden. The work belongs to the “The Palette” series, in which fragments of the painting process are further developed into independent artworks.