Scottish Office Purse and Beans, 1985

Sylvia von Hartmann was born in Hamburg, Germany, she studied there at the Werkkunstschule before attending Edinburgh College of Art, and she was made a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1983. She is a person whose life and work are one. This unity leads quite naturally to the never-ending conversation between human beings throughout history; the conversation about the meaning of our lives and our purpose.

To this artist, a leaf is not just a leaf or an apple: to her, they are passionately specific, particular, and forever part of the time, day, and place with which she associates them, the emotions with which she invests them, they are entries in her diary.  Christopher Andreae, 1993