Artist Oliver Hoffmeister

“Hide and Seek” is a quiet exploration of memory, imagination, and place—told through the eyes of artist Oliver Hoffmeister.

In this short documentary, filmmaker Alan Fentiman captures Hoffmeister’s process as he responds to Berwick-upon-Tweed—a town steeped in layered history and shifting borders. Commissioned by Berwick Visual Arts, the film follows Oliver’s journey through sketchbooks, daydreams, digital archives, and studio experimentation as he constructs a world where the documentary bleeds into the fictional, and history merges with instinctual mark-making.

Oliver Hoffmeister is a UK-based artist whose practice blends painting, drawing, and installation, often grounded in themes of nostalgia, playful observation, and overlooked moments in history. In Hide and Seek, he works across media—from archival postcards to watercolor sketches—to develop a playful yet deeply personal visual language rooted in the imagined and the remembered.

Shot on location and in the studio, the film reveals a painting process that is at once intuitive and reflective, beginning with rough gestures and evolving into conversations with the canvas. The resulting works don’t demand to be understood—but invite viewers to find their own meanings, just as Hoffmeister does in his own search for narrative.

🎥 Filmed and edited by Alan Fentiman

📍 Based in Newcastle upon Tyne | alanfentiman.co.uk

🎨 Artist: Oliver Hoffmeister | oliverhoffmeister.com

🏛️ Commissioned by Berwick Visual Arts | berwickvisualarts.co.uk

Click here for more films about artists in the North East of England.