"The order of the world is the beauty of the world."
Simone Weil
"Ines Scheppach's drawings are so dense in line and expression, that they can be considered paintings rather than drawings. The artist calls them "Drawn pictures". Situations of life in their manifold forms are her subject matter. Beauty, age, loneliness, rebellion, pain, joy, grief, helplessness and shelter are only a small selection of the subjects dealt with in the paintings of the artist.
Human and other beings, animals, nature, architecture, scientific phenomena are the means by which she expresses her thoughts. Where ideas seem difficult to transport, a personage can be seen, which seems to come from mythology, but these figures never appear just as figures but have a symbolic function. With these means of expression Ines Scheppach succeeds in expressing emotions, atmosphere, conditions of human life in her very special way.
Characteristic for all her work is an intrinsic aesthetic sense. Even figures that were originally planned as malicious, finally turn out to be amiable. Her choice of themes never seems to come to an end, Ines Scheppach creates new cycles, uses new techniques to explore unknown phenomena by drawing them. For instance cellular structures, cobwebs are eloquent elements of her artwork as are labyrinths or marble structures. The artist always succeeds in merging even contradictory forms, figures or intentions into a harmony that conveys the impression that every element has always been in just that place.
The resistance which the chosen subject or material offers to the artist is essential to her, because it enforces the technical as well as the spiritual dialogue; to her coping with problems means mastering them. Thus Ines Scheppach's work radiates calmness and harmony and invites the spectator to linger for a while and let his eyes go for a walk. Ines Scheppach's working process means minute Sisyphus-like occupation. Occasional plans to become more spacious usually fail. Even her paintings in larger formats show the fineness and lucidity that is her typical style. Many of her paintings show the fine humour, her specific, almost artistic playfulness, that Ines Scheppach's work stands for. The originally blank paper is covered completely - no clear patch of paper can be seen in the paintings. Her remarkable capacity to join contradictory elements in an unusually harmonious whole is immanent.
The technique:
Ines Scheppach's favoured tools are pen and colour-pens, even though she sometimes experiments with other techniques. Chalks, charcoal, oil pastels: Ines Scheppach draws. Even her watercolour pieces are drawn - with an extremely fine brush. Her cautious use of colours, her space-filling compositions, her unusual choice of themes are as typical for the artist as is her permanent search for new means of expression. Small formats and lithography will certainly not be the end of her artistic development, which will never change the distinctiveness of the future pieces of art created by Ines Scheppach."
Lydia Jantzen-Philipp (2005)
Born 1953 in Stuttgart
1969 - 71 Freie Kunstschule Stuttgart
1971 - 77 Staatl. Kunstakademie Stuttgart bei den Professoren Grau und von Stockhausen