From afar, the Sailershäuser Wald community wind farm near Haßfurt looks like any other. However, when you approach the giant wind turbines on foot, one of them immediately catches the eye. Its base features a stunning constellation of planets. An artwork with fascinating colours and amazing depth, reaching four meters high and running 32 meters around the entire turbine. Its creator, artist Reinhold Albert, painted it with the help of SATA spray guns. A man of many talents, Albert not only loves the artistic aspect, but also the technical challenges of his work: painting the wind turbine, for instance, was initially anything but easy...

Reinhold Albert boasts quite an array of talents and has a resume that could fill a book. Born in 1959 in a small village in Franconia, his creative nature became evident early on. His father, however, stood in the way of any early artistic career and insisted that he first learn something respectable, and so Reinhold Albert started an apprenticeship as a toolmaker. He says of himself: “I’m still grateful to my father to this day! That apprenticeship was the best foundation I could have ever built.” His own professional title “communication toolmaker” refers explicitly to this technical background.

Later, Albert studied design and communication design at a vocational school and later at a university of applied sciences. He lives as a freelance designer, trade fair stand and stage builder, painter, illustrator and product designer. He always remains independent and enjoys his freedom.

“Even as a student I took on freelance work, and when I had put some money together, I took off and went to Africa. These travels changed my attitude to life profoundly. I wanted to study the art of indigenous peoples, and I learned so much: Art plays a completely different role there. Art and spirituality are not a parallel world, but a fixed part of everyday life. I recorded my experiences in a book – called Mama Afrika lächelt [Mother Africa Smiles]. My own artistic expression then changed radically, away from the technical and more towards the organic. Since then, I have crossed the Sahara four times and spent a total of five years in Africa.”

In the 80s and 90s, it was the big nightclubs of the day that brought him lucrative orders. In Würzburg there was even the largest nightclub in southern Germany. The owners had the American audience in their sights above all – specifically the GIs stationed in the huge barracks in Franconia. The soldiers, who liked to party on the weekends and spend their money, were a big source of revenue – the owners hired Reinhold Albert to design their locations according to the taste of the US audience. At that time, fluorescent paint was on trend. Since its effect strongly depends on being processed properly as well as on proper UV lighting, Reinhold Albert also took care of the lighting concept. After this period, the jack of all trades made a name for himself as a stand builder for trade fairs. He developed his own stand construction system, which consisted of screens he designed himself and a modular support system. As with his fixed interior concepts, he is also an expert in dividing and visually enlarging rooms, guiding the audience and providing all the functions a stand needs. Here, too, he benefits from his technical training.

The expertise he acquired at trade fairs, including in terms of organisation and logistics, also benefited him in his work in stage construction. He designed and developed show tents for the Rock am Ring rock festival and implemented stage designs for Andrea Berg and Wolfgang Petry. The backdrop of the “Musikantenstadl on Tour” was also designed and made by Reinhold Albert. The stage design of the event series is on the move throughout Europe and will be set up and dismantled more than 450 times in total.

In order to have everything at hand during a job, he built a mobile airbrush station, with a holder for his spray guns and space for all the accessories. When asked which SATA spray gun is his favourite, he shrugs. “I love them all equally. All 24 of them. They’re not just tools to me, they’re friends. And as far as functionality is concerned, I’m more than impressed regardless. In all these years, not one of my guns has failed. Not once.”

One of his latest creations is the artwork on the wind turbine in the Sailershäuser Wald community wind farm. Commissioned by the operators, the artist decorated the base of the turbine with a representation of the planets in our solar system. This proved to be a challenge both in terms of design and execution – not least because these turbines are outfitted with an anti-graffiti coating. Conventional paints do not adhere to the surface. Reinhold Albert researched and experimented with preparations, primers and paint formulations for over a year. He sprayed and weathered test surfaces until he found a paint structure that met all requirements and even withstood a high-pressure cleaner. The formula remains, of course, top secret. As soon as the weather permits, further wind turbines will transform into all-round paintings, with varying informative themes. Reinhold Albert’s ideas are as endless as the anecdotes from his life.

That is saying something, because the likeable Franconian is an almost inexhaustible source of stories. They are about adventurous missions, stars, and a plane that he built, painted and flies himself. Or a chain of fish shops in Ivory Coast, all of which bear his logos. You can read more about these exploits in the detailed interview on our website.

We hope that Reinhold Albert will write many more chapters of his life with SATA by his side. Or rather, paint more chapters.

- Information and work examples at: real-gestaltung.de

- Mama Afrika lächelt is available on Amazon.