I am full-time contemporary Australian painter having completed a Master Degree at the European Academy of Arts in 1997. I generally paint under the name "Max Horst". Exploring the nature of people and the relationships between them, my paintings are very often short stories of small, daily moments of life. I distill these relationships through simplified forms and shapes, developing my own code of symbols - a code which is constantly changing and developing over time.

In my quest for simplicity and honesty I draw much of my inspiration from cave paintings and naive art, "because I find them very honest as a form of art".

Using oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, I may mix them with drawing techniques. Natural pigments of earth colors are the base of my palette. With an intuitive preoccupation with color, form and line my work belies a carefully considered composition and an appreciation of the nature of human interaction.