Antonia Halter
You are a self-taught artist and have been interested in art from a very young age. How has your artistic practice developed over the years?
I was always the artsy kid in my class, doodling on worksheets, in between math equations and all over my notebooks. My sisters used to push my abilities when I was little. They were themselves very creative, and they taught me to sketch simple faces and characters. So, from early on I loved to draw faces and portraits, sketching the people from magazine covers and tv. I never stopped drawing, even when I was busy with my education, or when people told me there isn’t a future in art and I should just give up. I kept going anyways, maybe that means I’m just stubborn, maybe that means I need the creative outlet. Either way, I love to keep developing and learning every day.
Your background is in landscape architecture. How has this education influenced the way you think about composition, nature, color, or space in your paintings?
I pull my inspiration from my surroundings. In my education to be a landscape architect I was taught to look, to see, to analyze the complex landscapes around me. Every landscape has its composition, its meaning, its atmosphere and its unique colors and textures. Every person sees their surroundings differently, sees the world differently and has different beliefs and views. So, in those ways, landscapes are a lot like people. Everyone is unique, has many facets, and is seen or experienced differently through different eyes. I would love people to have a glimpse into my way of seeing the world.
Antonia Halter | Liberation | 2025
Portraiture and plants both play an important role in your work. What draws you to these two subjects, and how do they connect with one another?
Portraits reflect the world. They don’t just show you a person, they show the world reflected on their face. I love to see the beauty of the world reflected in every facet of the portrait, and to me the most beautiful part of the world is nature.
Many of your paintings explore ideas of strength, confidence, resilience, and personal freedom. Why are these themes important to you?
Expressing one’s own strength is hard, expressing other people’s strength you admire – might be even harder. I appreciate the strength and resilience that many people have. I love to show their power and confidence in my art, as creating these works builds and strengthens my own as well.
Antonia Halter | Selfportrait | 2026
You have also created self-portraits. Does painting yourself feel different from painting other figures, and what do you discover through that process?
When I was a kid I loved doing self- portraits, but mostly because I didn’t have much access to other references, outside of some magazines or tv. But I could just never get it right, it was always off. Either it was unsymmetrical, or it didn’t look like me. I was frustrated for quite a while, thinking I’m just bad at it. So, for years I then only drew off of references I found anywhere else, trying to learn about portraiture. It was only a few years ago that I realized that my face just isn’t symmetrical! That was quite the revelation, as it just made perfect sense. That’s why I could just never get it right before. In the meantime, I have grown up, and as it happens to most people, I had developed a bit of a self-image problem. I didn’t love my own face at all. That’s why I kept only doing portraits off other references. I realized only last year that I must do something about it. So, I started to challenge myself, doing one self portrait per week for the full year 2026, trying out techniques and mixing it up. It might sound cheesy but with each piece, I am learning to love my own face again. I am discovering new techniques, new art mediums, new perspectives and some self-love. I absolutely love this ongoing process, and I might have to keep going after this year. Creating self- portraits is healthy for me, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
Antonia Halter | Joy | 2025
You describe painting as a way to express things that can sometimes be difficult to put into words. Are there emotions or experiences that you find easier to communicate visually?
There’s a lot of emotions I prefer to communicate visually instead of ever saying it out loud. I grew up in the rural parts of central Switzerland, where people talk about the weather and nothing more. The past years I’ve learned to be a lot more open and blunter, when it comes to expressing my own experiences and feelings. But it still often feels wrong or difficult to really use only words to describe what’s going on on the inside. I think art can say things much clearer and louder than any words ever could.
Antonia Halter | Confidence | 2026
You often work with one or two layers of oil paint. What do you enjoy about this approach, and how does it affect the character of your paintings?
I enjoy that I can freely and loosely paint, without thinking a lot about layering paint, or painting softly. I used to do a lot of illustrative portraiture using fineliners on paper. I guess through painting in one or two layers, my work regains a certain illustrative character, reminiscent of those illustrations. It feels right to me, even if it isn’t the classical or “correct” way of paint with oils. I do think the classical way of painting in many soft layers, using mediums and working on a painting for months is fascinating and gorgeous, but I don’t see myself doing it that way anytime soon.
