Centre Forward About to Shoot

This small but fascinatingly painted picture combines several features characteristic of August as a painter: a flat, sketchy forest silhouette and dotted sand of the football field under the player’s feet, as well as an interestingly painted spectator stand between the two. The vibrant excitement on the latter is expressed by a thick layer of various colours on the canvas, applied with an indistinguishable abstraction that has a completely unexpected effect when compared to the flatness of the football field and the forest massif. The prosthetic-looking limbs of the player, where August has tried to capture light and shadow, are nicely held together by dark knee socks. The movement of the centre forward feels convincing; the ball he has kicked in the air looks like the Moon that is thrown back to orbit.