Paint Palette

Ohio History 

Paint Palette from Behalt

Can you imagine using a mess like this to create the beautiful pictures in my last post? That's what the Behalt artist, Heinz Gaugel, did. Well, he'd already had a lot of practice. Born in the German Alps in 1927, he moved to Canada in 1951 to begin his self-taught artistic career. Mr. Gaugel created ceramic, stained glass, fresco, and painted art for both public and private buildings and churches.

That all changed in 1962 with his first visit to Holmes County, Ohio. After hearing an Amish blacksmith's wish for a place where tourists could find out why the Amish live the way they do, Heinz Gaugel began detailed research into Anabaptist history. Painting commenced in 1978 in his private workshop, until 1989 when the partly finished mural was moved to the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center. Visitors could watched Behalt's progress until 1992 when Mr. Gaugel completed the massive canvas cyclorama, a complete circle measuring 265 feet in diameter.

Sgraffito - German Immigrants

The outside of the museum had another larger-than-life depiction, though much smaller than the mural. Immigrants' Arrival in the New World was also created by Heinz Gaugel using a technique of reverse art called sgraffito. First layers of contrasting colors of plaster are applied to the surface, and then carefully scratched off to create the picture. I'd never seen anything like it!