About

Born in Darmstadt in 1941. My first impulse to paint and to draw probably came from my father, who painted blossom pictures in the Japanese manner for some of the villagers in the place we had been evacuated to. Then back into the Chaolithic of Darmstadt – growing up with plenty of room and plenty of chances to let a playful, creative streak run wild. Primary school gave me my first training. At fifteen I hitchhiked to the Côte d'Azur. Lived on the street in Paris several times – later came journeys to countries that were still far away then. In my youth I exchanged ideas with painter friends; the best known of them became Karl Hermann Kraus. Whatever I did for a living, I often used my lunch breaks to make things as well; otherwise I preferred to work at night – painting, sculpture, wood and ceramics. At the age of thirty my pictures were destroyed in a house fire. What draws me is the permanent act of making something new, not the search for a style of my own, however often that is recommended. The white canvas attracts me magically, and mostly without intention I invent and I find there, filled with lived daily life, with ups and downs, with news from around the world, with music and literature – and not least it is nature that leads me to new ways of seeing, to new worlds, often in the form of a story.

Editorial note on the historical text below: The reference to being “81 years old” comes from the earlier website and is no longer current. The exact date when the text was written is not documented. Hans Philipp Osterbrink was born in Darmstadt on 22 December 1941.

I am now exactly 81 years old... or perhaps already 9 months older?

But perhaps I was already conceived millions of years ago, when life began.

Or even billions of years ago... at the hour of birth of the earth?

Then, however, I would be much older, for the earth was not the beginning! So I must have

always existed - purely theoretically - Or perhaps not!

And my paintings therefore would not come only from the imagination of my mind...

Are they, too, part of eternity?

Questions remain.