Kuhler viaduct in Wuppertal as a large-format watercolor. - The Kuhler viaduct over the Steinweg in Wuppertal as a large-format watercolor.

Slow Down. Pleasure up.

Thomas Schürmann, 2002 - 2015, Aquarell,
Schmincke Horadam, Rives Arches Grain Torchon,
Size: 105 cm x 47 cm

The picture - painted from 2002 to 2015 named Slow Down. Pleasure up. shows the Kuhler viaduct in the german town Wuppertal-Barmen as a realistic watercolor painting. The brick arches line up monotonously next to a narrow lane of wooden sheds. The scenery is interrupted by a poster of the tobacco producer Camel.

Slow Down. Pleasure up.

The Kuhler viaduct over the Steinweg in Wuppertal as a large-format watercolor.

The model lolls lasciviously in the Camel cigarette advertising on the advertising poster. To her right, the bows of the Kuhler viaduct swing bow after bow into the background. Maybe that's why the picture has something so exhilarating about it. The monotonous and even row of bricks is broken up by the large poster.

Well, the model seems to call us. Come down. Have more fun. Perhaps also pleasure. We would like to follow the request of the good looking model.

Maybe the place is not the right one. Here on the noisy street? In the rather shady alley next to the Viaduct in the evening hours? Camel has switched several motives with this model 2002, in all the model has this brick-colored dress on. Sometimes she sits, sometimes she stands, looking dreamily into the viewer's face or out of the picture. But even though she calls out to us: Take it easy! - we can't do it. Don't stop. Don't take a break. We drive past and feel longingly empty.

The painting

The painted time corresponds approximately to the year 2002. The picture was painted in several sections with Schmincke Horadam watercolors on Rives Arches Grain Torchon paper and finished in 2015. The bricks in the picture are all individually painted and shaded.

Attention to detail

The details show the high precision and attention to detail that characterises all my pictures.

Million bricks 

The Kuhler Viaduct

The Kuhler viaduct on the Barmer Steinweg is a viaduct built predominantly with bricks over Carnaper street, Steinway and Sedanstreet in the german town Wuppertal in Northrine-Westfalia.

It is the highest bridge along the former, so-called "Rheinische Strecke" with its Wuppertal part from Wuppertal-Vohwinkel to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen. The line was opened as a double-track line on 15 September 1879 and was opened as a competitor line to the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahnlinie (BME) line running in the Wupper valley. It was largely in operation until 1991.

The line is characterised by the many tunnels and elaborate buildings that characterise the northern townscape of the city of Wuppertal.

On the initiative of the Wuppertal Movement, the track was developed into a combined footpath and cycle path together with the City of Wuppertal since 2005.