Petra Hies was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1957 and pursued studies in Visual Communication at the Darmstadt University of Technology. Upon completion of her studies, she primarily devoted herself to the practice of free painting. Her artistic considerations are primarily concerned with color and form structures, serial processes, and analytical considerations of color presence. The artist's works are based on the use of wood in its natural state. Tree slices, found objects, and OSB boards are transformed through the application of oil paints in her studio in Sachsenhausen, thereby giving them a new lease on life.