A LACK of space was at the heart of why Tomakin’s Joachim Straub developed a love of painting and sketching.
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He was living in Cootamundra more than 30 years ago, and his wife Ursula had a pottery studio.
“I thought I had a good hand so I thought I would take it up as a hobby,” he said.
Unfortunately the studio was tiny and there wasn’t enough room for both of them.
“She told me to go to TAFE and learn painting, even though I was absolutely hopeless at it,” he said.
Twice a week he went to TAFE, and a mentor played a part in getting him hooked.
“I had a wonderful teacher, Alan McClure, who was a cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald; he got me really interested,” he said.
Joachim and Ursula moved to Canberra in 1983, when Joachim took a job in the public service.
“I was very busy and I couldn’t pursue my hobby, but I worked in the Edmund Barton building, which was next to the National Art Gallery,” he said.
“We became members and that kept the dream alive. I always bought Australian Artist magazine and almost every lunchtime I would be in the gallery’s members’ lounge.”
When he retired at 60, Joachim realised it was “so good to have a strong hobby”.
“I realised I needed and outlet for it, and we didn’t have that in Canberra, but we had it when we moved to the coast,” he said.
The Straubs moved to Tomakin in 1995, and Joachim joined the Batemans Bay Arts and Crafts Society and South Coast Pastel Society.
On Sunday mornings Joachim gets together with five fellow Eurobodalla artists to sketch.
He has lost count of the paintings he has completed over the years.
“I have no idea; a few hundred, and far more sketches,” he said.
It is hard to define the category of artist Joachim belongs to.
“I would call myself an expressionist leaning towards abstract,” he said.
“I use water colours, oils, acrylics and mixed media.”
A good example of the latter is his use of pages from Encyclopaedia Brittanica and photos in his works.
Joachim enjoys the challenge to daily life that his art provides.
“It is what you see interacting with nature and life and yourself,” he said.
“It is satisfaction and frustration with moments of utter elation.”
