Meet the Artist
Hi! My name is Tobias Nolte. I’m a self-taught landscape artist from Germany.
If you haven't heard of me before, here you can read more about who I am and why I love to paint landscapes. You can also contact me here.
My First Steps
My first drawings weren’t on paper or canvas. They were straight on the walls of my nursery. Rainbows, trees, and wavy lines, all scribbled with wax crayons. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew I loved colours long before I had the words to describe it.
Ironically, I really wasn’t good at art in school. Too technical, too rigid. Still, one piece from that time survived: a small watercolor landscape I painted at the age of 11 (with a little help from my mom - thank’s mom!)
I had no idea this would become my path one day.
But maybe the painting already knew.
“Don’t compare yourself to other artists. Only compare yourself to your past self and your past artworks. Art is a personal journey.”
A New Beginning
I didn’t study art, but geosciences. Not because I loved data, but because I loved forests, rivers, coastlines, and mountains. I wanted to understand them and protect them. Art felt too abstract during that time, I wanted to express my love for nature with science.
Years later, when I moved into a new flat for my first job, I had a simple idea: to paint a large autumn landscape for my bedroom. Red trees, distant mountains. A forest bathed in gold. I hadn’t painted in years, but something clicked. All these evenings, when I painted it, changed something. Art has returned as a quiet companion. Not as a career plan, but as the perfect counterbalance to my analytical job.
“It is not my intention to replicate a photo. I abstract, exaggerate, and invent.
My art arises from the freedom to reinterpret landscapes..”
Here I am
In August 2023, I took a bold step and set up a small stand at a garden festival. Surrounded by flowers, I presented my paintings for the very first time. I didn’t know what to expect.
And then it happened: someone stood still in front of one of my paintings. It was a dark and moonlit seascape. They saw something in it and they bought it. That moment was like a door opening.
After that, everything changed. I connected with other artists in my hometown, and we began organising exhibitions, for example in the castle hotel Bad Wilhelmshöhe. Several of my artworks have since been displayed in various public spaces around Kassel, including the IntercityHotel Kassel.
What started as a personal journey began to resonate with others. And that gave me the courage to keep going.
“That moment you sell your painting for the very first time will always remain in your heart.”
Art and Nature
Nature has always been my deepest source of inspiration. Whether hiking through forests, standing in silence by the sea or crossing open landscapes on geological expeditions, these moments stay with me. They shape the way I see the world and the way I paint.
In 2024, I walked the Camino de Santiago. The long days of walking, surrounded by wind, weather and raw landscapes, brought a new depth to how I experience nature and to how I express it on canvas.
My artworks are not about photorealism. They’re about emotion, memory, and atmosphere. I exaggerate colours, simplify shapes or add surreal elements to create a feeling rather than a replica.
“While painting, I leave this world behind and dive deep into the landscape. Everything else fades away… only the canvas remains.”
My Mission
Over time, my landscapes have become more than just nature scenes. They’ve turned into emotional spaces. I now integrate figures, objects or unusual lighting conditions to tell stories, sometimes using strong and vivid colours, sometimes working in black and white, or with pale tones. Each painting becomes a way to express something I’ve felt or lived through.
I believe landscapes can carry deep emotion. A distant horizon, a dark forest, or a single light in the mist can say more than words. My mission is to use these scenes to move people, to create moments of silence or recognition, to take them out of their everyday life and into something quieter, more reflective.