Love tennis? The excitement of a match, the speed of the ball, the extraordinary skill of the players?

Then this painting might be just for you!

The Match is an original oil painting on paper inspired by a tennis match between Stan Wawrinka and Alexander Shevchenko at the Swiss Indoors Basel tournament.

I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to watch some of the tournament, and naturally, I took my sketchbook along.

Watching professional tennis is thrilling, but for me there was an additional challenge: could I capture the extraordinary speed, movement and energy of the players in a drawing?

As the players raced across the court, I raced across the pages of my sketchbook!

It is a wonderful exercise in observation. There is barely time to think. You have to look, respond and trust your hand to follow what your eyes are seeing.

I came home with a wonderful collection of sketches, full of movement and spontaneous marks.

I returned to those drawings and developed them into this expressive oil painting.

The Match captures something of the excitement of being there, the concentration, the movement, the tension and the extraordinary physical skill involved in professional tennis.

I love working from direct observation. Whether I am drawing people, musicians, dancers or athletes, I am fascinated by the challenge of capturing life as it unfolds.

A drawing made in the moment has an energy that is difficult to recreate from a photograph. It records not only what I saw, but something of the experience of being there.

In this painting, I wanted to preserve that immediacy while exploring the possibilities of colour, composition and expressive brushwork.

Look closely and you can almost hear the swish of the racket and the satisfying thwack of the ball!

For a tennis enthusiast, The Match is a wonderful reminder of the excitement of the game. For an art lover, it is an expressive celebration of movement, observation and the beauty of the human body in action.

And perhaps it will bring back memories of a particularly memorable match of your own.

An original painting to enjoy for years to come.

Artwork details

• Title: The Match | Swiss Indoors Basel

• Original artwork: One of a kind, only one original exists

• Medium: Oil on paper

• Dimensions: 37 × 27 cm (height × width)

• Inspiration: Stan Wawrinka playing Alexander Shevchenko at Swiss Indoors Basel

• Technique: Developed from original observational sketches made during the match

• Style: Contemporary figurative and expressive painting

• Themes: Tennis, sport, movement, concentration and human expression

• Artist: Sibylle Laubscher

• Collection: You & I

• Created: Entirely by hand in Switzerland

This is an original, one-of-a-kind painting. There is only one in the world, and once it has found its new home, it will no longer be available.

Packaging and shipping

Your painting will be carefully protected between two sheets of cardboard for transport.

If you are interested in this piece, do not live in Switzerland, contact me and we can sort out transport to you.