The Surrealism Website
Roland Heyder (1956 - )


Roland Heyder was born in Singen in Germany. He is entirely self-taught and has been active as a professional artist since 1980. As with many self-taught artists he has developed great skill in representational art.
One can see the obvious influence of the verist surrealism of Dalí, and he clearly works within the style of the Fantastic Realists that emerged in the 1980s. He is a great traveller, having undertaken study trips to Singapore, the Philippines, South Africa and the USA which have influenced his imagery. Since 2001 he has been working on the Canary Islands.
He usually works on canvas prepared with at least two coats of gesso. He makes a sketch on paper, then draws in the canvas before painting with acrylic and then in oil. This gives his paintings a luminous quality. He shows a mastery of painting but also of perspective and the depiction of depth. In his paintings he often depicts a dramatic event, and there is in many of his works an underlying enigmatic narrative which the viewer is drawn to explore.
He has had many solo exhibitions.

You can see more works on Roland Heyer's website www.heyland7.de
A number of his pieces have appeared in the Dreamscapes series of art magazines.