In 1979, after his very first solo exhibition in January, Ficht decided to end his six-year collaboration as an assistant to the Bernese artist Rudolf Mumprecht. From then on, he chose to dedicate himself more fully to drawing and to playing music on his double bass. Between 1979 and 1985, he exhibited his work annually at Galerie Ringmauer in Murten.
At the time, an art critic described his drawings as follows: 'Every form is first a line drawn in Indian ink, enclosing bright colours or outlining transparent shapes—cascading hieroglyphs of a deeply personal nature.'

For his fourth exhibition at this gallery—then a key venue in the Bernese cultural scene—in late September 1981, Ficht created a self-portrait for the exhibition poster, depicting “restless shapes” swirling in his head. A journalist, visibly impressed, presented the self-taught artist by quoting one of Ficht’s remarks at the opening:

'To reflect, while the pen follows the thought.'