St. Petersburg Painting

"In Germany, the name von Kotzebue is readily associated with culture and creativity, with adventure and travel, and with intelligence and style. So naturally this description also perfectly fits Otto von Kotzebue a refined and sensitive man, an educated architect and engineer, a multi-talented designer and painter. Although von Kotzebue has lived much of his life in Germany and Italy, his paintings reflect a special love for America. From the streets of Manhattan to the plains of the West, from fast life to farm life, he captures the softness and gentleness of America, the heart rather than the hardness of America. He manages to combine structure with design, early morning light with late evening sunsets, aesthetic sensitivity with ordinary scenery producing a hazy glow of reality, a drowsy excitement of life which attracts and stimulates, but never irritates the viewer. There is a classical restraint in his paintings as he projects his quiet blues, yellows and oranges, onto towering skyscrapers, rugged oil wells, departing landing strips, or country landscapes. Von Kotzebue seems to challenge the observer to be as creatively relaxed as he is by suggesting a mild incompleteness in his paintings especially as one ponders a solitary man resting in full contentment in the middle of metropolis. Otto von Kotzebue is indeed a very unique artist, most difficult to categorize, not quite impressionist, who portrays an honest late 20th century, industrial world as we would like it to be." Dr. George W. Smith, Psychologist and Counselor