Hasler Martl never attended art school. Nonetheless he denies being a "primitive" or "naive" artist, and surely such a label  would't do  justice to his art.
Part of the year Hasler spends in the small village of Tragoess in the Styrian alps. There he paints, carves wood and plays the accordeon. What he does the rest of the year or how he earns his living he is reluctant to disclose.
Haslers paintings come from the tradition of alpine folk art, but are absolutely independent in their motifs and full of shrewdness and wit. When Hasler illustrates an "old folktale" one never knows if the old folktale ever existed before Hasler "remembered" it. But as soon as he tells ist or paints it it doubtlessly becomes an old folktale.The "Prick Twitcher" shown here is an example: a legendary figure which, according to Hasler, haunts the Styrian mountainrange and is especially dangerous to men.