MARKUS THONETT ART
WELCOME TO MY STUDIO!
'VIEW UNDER HASTINGS PIER' - card cut £350
Making art for me is a way of digesting what I encounter in life, including thoughts, concepts and feelings that arrive from those experiences.
Some themes are recurring, and I find myself chewing on an idea that I had already toyed with decades ago. But questions like 'Why?', 'How?' and 'What if?' keep redirecting my endless search. 
'TWO BECOME ONE' - Grogged Terracotta Sculpture
I used to think this search was for answers, but I have found since that answers just stop the search. As soon as an answer is found the search is off!
Making art goes beyond simply making nice things. It is a constant balancing act between exploring the unknown and safely moving within one's comfort zone. I try never to go so far out that no one, including myself, knows what I'm on about.
But, on the other hand, I don't stay with the 'comfortable' and the 'known' either.That just leads to already familiar outcomes and to making nice things to look at. 
'FINAL STROKE' - Found Object Installation - 2023 Markus Thonett
Now my process has become less like a probing search, and more like a meandering conversation with an old friend. Work is becoming ever more like play, resulting in less filtered outcomes, and less contrived results. This makes them more conducive to sparking off an interesting conversation.
If I had to explain the purpose of what I do, then I would say that it is the sparking off of conversations that may not have taken place without encountering my work. 
'LOOKING UP' Carved and stained melamine - £750
As far as the choice of medium is concerned, everything is game to me. As a young artist, I was often asked what my area of specialisation was, to which I would answer: I specialise in not specialising! This open approach has led me to develop some genuinely unorthodox processes and opened doors to discovering interesting and unique ways of working, a great approach for exploring possibilities. 
'LAVA' - Found Object Work. Paint on Metal. SOLD
But I have also learned that specialising, even if temporarily, can advance the work much further in any chosen direction.
Today I specialise in different mediums for periods of time. Processes and materials that keep coming up are found objects, card-cuts, mono-castings, and in recent years, greenish paintings. I have recently rediscovered a process that really suits what I currently want to express. I call the process 'Card Cuts', and the result has a similar effect to block printing or lino cuts. 
'CROWN HOUSE' - The first house built in St Leonards on Sea. SOLD Prints for sale
My current work is all about celebrating my relationship with our new home in St Leonards and Hastings. Here on the south-east coast of the UK, we have found an amazing and diverse community full of artists and musicians.
My work is showing current and historic sites and music venues (interior and exterior) as these places are bringing me no end of joy - and it is this joy that I would like to share with my audience!
'BARNABY'S' - Card Cut SOLD
My card-cuts are often sparked off by a memory, a place or an event. I find that the limitations of this process are precisely what makes it so attractive to processing complex imagery or interpreting soft and multi-tonal imagery into just the two tones of the board and its substrate.
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'HIS PLACE' - Robertson St, Hastings £500
'THE NIGHT IS YOUNG' - St Andrew's Mews, Hastings £1000
'GOAT'S LEDGE' SOLD Prints for sale
I have shown my work in various international galleries over the years as well as done commissions of private sculptures 
I also have my slightly older work on this site for you to enjoy. This work may involve carving, painting and sanding, and even burning, to bring about the exciting textures, representing the history of material things, reflecting life and life's experiences. These you can see on the page 'greenish paintings', above, or by pressing the button 'greenish paintings', so called due to their low negative environmental impact. I enjoy conversations occurring that otherwise would not have happened, coming about due to my work stirring up emotions or thoughts.
'Approaching Peace' - SOLD
Back in the beginning of 2024 I held a one man exhibition in St Andrews Mews, Hastings, called '4 Rooms-Plus'.
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I was born in Germany to artist parents (Will Thonett and Marianne Tralau), and studied in Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design (now IADT), Dublin, Ireland.
I taught sculpture and drawing at university level for seventeen years at
D. I .T, as well as teaching art to children, troubled youth and post grad students over the years. I held many exhibitions in both Germany and Ireland during those years.
Since meeting Tessa we have travelled the world, always making art wherever we landed - we lived in Upstate New York and Cameroon, Africa, before moving to the UK (Tessa's homeland) in 2004. We moved to Hastings in mid 2022.
I taught sculpture and drawing at university level for seventeen years at
D. I .T, as well as teaching art to children, troubled youth and post grad students over the years. I held many exhibitions in both Germany and Ireland during those years.
Since meeting Tessa we have travelled the world, always making art wherever we landed - we lived in Upstate New York and Cameroon, Africa, before moving to the UK (Tessa's homeland) in 2004. We moved to Hastings in mid 2022.
An Interview from 2022 about my life's work up until then,
with Lesley Samms from Pure Art:
with Lesley Samms from Pure Art:
Markus Thonett Art
Click the button below to see a short interview with Tessa and myself about the exhibition which ran for 2 months at Bannatyne Spa Hotel, Hastings, in July and Aug 2022