Written by: Mladen Pleše
Photos: Goran Vranić
…
Recently, the painter Stipe Nobilo called me in the evening. “Turn on channel 3 of the HRT (Croatian Radio Television), the late Vladimir Kranjčević is conducting the HRT Symphony Orchestra with Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. They’re excellent.”
This call didn’t surprise me at all because Stipe Nobilo, one of the last great painters of Dalmatia and the Mediterranean, has loved classical music since his student days. While his colleagues were enjoying themselves in the Vinodol restaurant, he was across the street in the Istra hall, attending fantastic classical music concerts. Now, when he reads for several hours a day, Nobilo always listens to music by the “Four B” composers: Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, and Brahms.
For his Korčula landscapes, filled with vibrant colors and light—known to critics as “Nobilo’s landscapes”—he says they are similar to Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical creations.
“From a single musical note, Bach creates any musical form—from an oratorio or sonata to a symphony. That’s how I paint. I can paint a square centimeter in a million variations. I’m essentially composing paintings. In them, I have sixteenth notes with dots, and the large empty spaces on the canvas are quarter notes with big codas and dots. This is why, even if I lived another 300 years, I would still have something to say and paint.”
Nobilo tells us he doesn’t copy nature but creates and portrays it through landscapes.
“I invent motives; they come from my thoughts, and they are essentially composed landscapes.”
He dislikes being categorized into stylistic movements or as a trend-following painter because, as he often emphasizes, he has always avoided belonging to any artistic groups or directions. However, he admits that he could be defined as an individual expressionist who draws beauty from nature.
“My paintings are details within a whole; they are puzzles that I separate graphically, coloristically, and compositionally within the image. I’m a painter of narration and motives, baroquely expansive. Without that, I could be an abstract painter, but I don’t want to. Abstraction is fine, but it’s created rationally, and I am emotional.”
A great compliment for him was when a fellow painter Vatroslav Kuliš said that he could recognize a Nobilo painting even from 500 meters away, among 50 other works. Nobilo saw this as proof that he had synthesized his own identity and integrity as a painter.
“When you achieve that, it’s bingo. I’ve accomplished that,” he concludes with satisfaction.
In his unique artistic expression, it’s evident that he has established harmony and balance between his inner self and the external world.
“I’ve remained a traditionalist and classicist my whole life, and like a Renaissance man, I am always seeking harmony and balance between my surroundings and my inner self.”
Nobilo never followed trends but remained a painter of the Mediterranean, never abandoning the figurative or the landscapes of his Korčula, its sea, and nature.
Another unique aspect of Nobilo’s paintings is the absence of people.
“That’s true, but everything else that you see—boats, olive groves, gardens, vineyards—are all products of human hands. So, in a way, people are still present in my paintings indirectly.”
The process of creating his paintings is long.
“I build and add to them, often returning to an already completed painting, repainting it several times, adding and reducing, and in the end, I am rarely completely satisfied.”
One more thing: Nobilo never works on commission.
“I don’t cater to anyone. If someone wants one of my paintings, they can come and choose.”
Critics describe Nobilo’s paintings as revealing what the average eye doesn’t notice in nature—what’s invisible becomes visible, reality transforms into the mystery of art, and his imagination takes tangible shape through his paintings. His works are recognized for their Arcadian color schemes and Mediterranean motifs, which critics have said are metaphors for paradise gardens, a notion reinforced by the lush vegetation and opulent surroundings.
He says that talent doesn’t diminish, and that years and experience enrich and multiply it.
“Life and artistic maturity make painting fuller and of higher quality. Paintings become a substrate of everything you learn and experience throughout life—what you’ve seen, experienced, read, and learned. In the end, all of that crystallizes into one complete substrate,” says our interviewee.
After completing the Pedagogical Academy in Split, Nobilo was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1967, where he graduated in 1971. He had his first solo exhibition in Zagreb in 1976. One of his paintings was given by former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as a gift to then-U.S. President George Bush during a visit to Washington.
Nobilo returned to Korčula in 1987, where his wife and two children awaited him. He returned partly because many great French painters lived in the provinces on the Côte d’Azur in Antibes—Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, and the brilliant Vincent van Gogh. He also returned because his beautiful family summer home from the 18th century, where he now lives, was waiting for him.
The path leading to the palace is full of the ethereal aromas of lavender, thyme, rosemary, mint, and marjoram, giving off otherworldly scents. From the terrace, which he calls his command bridge, there’s a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the islands and the sea, a scene beautifully reflected in his paintings.
The living room is filled with his works, books, and CDs of classical music, while his small studio, adjacent to the living room, is partially covered by a glass roof that lets in plenty of natural light. This is very important to Nobilo, as his paintings are full of color, brightness, and sunshine.
By education and interests, Nobilo is truly a Renaissance man. In addition to painting, he reads extensively, follows literature, listens to classical music, and is well-informed about political and cultural events not only in Croatia but also around the world.
Around Nobilo’s palace, on 2,000 square meters, there’s a vineyard with 3,000 vines, an olive grove with 150 trees, and a fruit orchard. Annually, depending on the harvest, he produces between 80 and 450 liters of high-quality olive oil. Under optimal conditions, he produces 600 to 700 liters of wine, both Grk and Plavac varieties.
“If I didn’t work physically, if I didn’t mow the grass, tend to the vines and olives, and fish, I wouldn’t be in the shape I’m in today. Plus, while pruning the vines, mowing, or sitting in the boat waiting for fish, I’m thinking, contemplating, and planning what I’ll paint.”
Nobilo usually gets up every morning at 5 a.m., and depending on the weather, he decides what to do. If it’s nice, he goes to the vineyard and the field; if it’s bad, he goes fishing or to the studio. From late spring through the summer and into early autumn, he spends most mornings from 5 to 8 a.m. working in the vineyard or garden, mowing the grass or harvesting olives. Then he buys bread and newspapers, continuing his work on the land until 10 a.m. After that, he goes to the studio, where he typically spends at least eight hours a day. Without exception, every day.
For him, it’s no problem to come to the studio and paint immediately after several hours of digging in the vineyard.
“That metamorphosis, from physical work to painting, is very important because it means I don’t waste time.”
Due to fishing, gardening, and harvesting olives and grapes, Nobilo has true laborer’s hands. They are in stark contrast to his gentle paintings, full of emotion. However, when these rough hands pick up the palette knife (Nobilo paints with a palette knife, not a brush), they transform into the delicate hands of a virtuoso pianist.
“With the palette knife, I can achieve effects and details that are impossible to achieve with a brush. It’s true that because of the knife, I have to hold my body differently, which is one of the reasons I paint more slowly.”
He uses brushes only when painting gouache.
Nobilo gives the impression of a happy and satisfied man. He is always smiling, cheerful, and content. It’s no wonder that his joyful and optimistic nature is immediately evident in his paintings.
Given that he enjoys a top-notch artistic status, and his paintings are highly sought after by not only buyers from Croatia but also many foreign tourists visiting the Adriatic, Nobilo doesn’t exhibit much anymore. In fact, he finds it increasingly difficult to part with his paintings.
“I often wonder why I sell them at all. My wife and I don’t need the money anymore. We have enough. We’ve helped our children, who are settled. I have buyers, respect, and a standard. What more do I need?” concludes Stipe Nobilo.
