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On painting \ 2
It is a kind of a Zen feeling to sit in front of a big empty canvas. Clear morning light falling though the windows of the studio. Silence. As time rolls slowly by I make up forms, colors and movement in the back of my head. And I wait and sort of watch at the great rectangle of whiteness in front of me. Painting is a lot about waiting and watching. Waiting on a reflection of the mysterious, a signal from within, on something missing. The studio as a laboratory. Everything is possible.
The question I get asked most of the time during studio-visits or exhibitions, is where I get “my inspiration”. After 16 years of painting, to me, inspiration is not something you can get, or gain or even beg, borrow or steal. Inspiration is always already threre. You just have to make yourself be able to receive it. Inspiration arises at the moment you decide to start painting. And there’s lots of it around. It is the force in nature that makes plants grow, whales swim, planets turn and galaxies swirl.
Don’t think about or doubt what you are doing. Don’t be afraid of failure. Love the possibilities of yet another voyage into the unknown. See the miracle of what unfolds itself before your eyes out of nothing. Don’t visualize or fantasize but react on what happens in front of you. Let your hands and body do the work and don’t think or worry. Something wants to manifest itself through you into what you make. You're not in command, you're the servent, the messenger. Be free in the moment and you will find yourself an open window for inspiration to come sailing trough exactly when or where needed.
To be continued…
Sundance, 200 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas
(click on the picture for a bigger version)
On painting \ 2
It is a kind of a Zen feeling to sit in front of a big empty canvas. Clear morning light falling though the windows of the studio. Silence. As time rolls slowly by I make up forms, colors and movement in the back of my head. And I wait and sort of watch at the great rectangle of whiteness in front of me. Painting is a lot about waiting and watching. Waiting on a reflection of the mysterious, a signal from within, on something missing. The studio as a laboratory. Everything is possible.
The question I get asked most of the time during studio-visits or exhibitions, is where I get “my inspiration”. After 16 years of painting, to me, inspiration is not something you can get, or gain or even beg, borrow or steal. Inspiration is always already threre. You just have to make yourself be able to receive it. Inspiration arises at the moment you decide to start painting. And there’s lots of it around. It is the force in nature that makes plants grow, whales swim, planets turn and galaxies swirl.
Don’t think about or doubt what you are doing. Don’t be afraid of failure. Love the possibilities of yet another voyage into the unknown. See the miracle of what unfolds itself before your eyes out of nothing. Don’t visualize or fantasize but react on what happens in front of you. Let your hands and body do the work and don’t think or worry. Something wants to manifest itself through you into what you make. You're not in command, you're the servent, the messenger. Be free in the moment and you will find yourself an open window for inspiration to come sailing trough exactly when or where needed.
To be continued…
Sundance, 200 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas
(click on the picture for a bigger version)
On painting \ 2
It is a kind of a Zen feeling to sit in front of a big empty canvas. Clear morning light falling though the windows of the studio. Silence. As time rolls slowly by I make up forms, colors and movement in the back of my head. And I wait and sort of watch at the great rectangle of whiteness in front of me. Painting is a lot about waiting and watching. Waiting on a reflection of the mysterious, a signal from within, on something missing. The studio as a laboratory. Everything is possible.
The question I get asked most of the time during studio-visits or exhibitions, is where I get “my inspirationâ€. After 16 years of painting, to me, inspiration is not something you can get, or gain or even beg, borrow or steal. Inspiration is always already threre. You just have to make yourself be able to receive it. Inspiration arises at the moment you decide to start painting. And there’s lots of it around. It is the force in nature that makes plants grow, whales swim, planets turn and galaxies swirl.
Don’t think about or doubt what you are doing. Don’t be afraid of failure. Love the possibilities of yet another voyage into the unknown. See the miracle of what unfolds itself before your eyes out of nothing. Don’t visualize or fantasize but react on what happens in front of you. Let your hands and body do the work and don’t think or worry. Something wants to manifest itself through you into what you make. You're not in command, you're the servent, the messenger. Be free in the moment and you will find yourself an open window for inspiration to come sailing trough exactly when or where needed.
To be continued…
Sundance, 200 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas
(click on the picture for a bigger version)
On painting / 1
The art of putting some colored substance on any kind of surface goes back to the dawn of humanity. The oldest yet discovered cave paintings were found in 1994 in the Cave of Chauvet in the Ardeche, France and were made, not by Cro-Magnon hunters, but, surprisingly, by Neartherthals, some 38.000 years ago.
The famous paintings on the walls and ceilings in the caves of Lascaux (France) were made by human hunters between 28.000 and 15.000 years ago. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art.
Altamira (Spanish for 'high views') is a cave in Spain famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings, featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. The paintings are about 15.000 years old.
Also in India, North- and South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, cave paintings have been discovered dating back back at least 12.000 years.
Great ingenuity was displayed by ancient artists. At the Lascaux caves were found pestles and mortars in which colours were mixed, together with no less than 158 different mineral fragments from which the mixtures were made. There seems to have been no shortage of pigment large lumps have been found at some sites. Shells of barnacles were used as containers. One master employed a human skull. Cave water and the calcium it contained were used as mixers, and vegetable and animal oils as binders. The artists had primitive crayons and they applied the paint with brush tools, though none has survived. All kinds of devices and implements were used to aid art. Important lines were preceded by dots, which were then Joined up. Sometimes paint was sprayed. Stencils were used. Blow pipes made from bird bones served as tubes for applying paint. By these means, the more experienced Magdalenian painters were able to produce polychrome art. (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html )
The reason for ancient men and women to be painting is largely unknown. There might have been a spiritual or religious meaning to the paintings or they just liked to make and experience art, just as we do. It might gave them fun, entertainment and excitement. In a way, these caves may have been the first ancient art-galleries and museums.
Closer in time, during a visit some years back to the beautifully carved and painted murals of the Valley of the Kings at Luxor in Egypt, I somehow recognised on a much grander scale, a style of expression somewhat similar to my own. While they invented, I copy or borrow; we all stand on the shoulders of giants…Maybe I carried these ancient symbolic signs with me since I was very young, seen in books or learned in school or maybe I've drawn them out of Carl Jung's collective unconsciousness, who knows… maybe I've been a Farao in one of my former lifes after all… Still, what remained was a sense of deja vu.
The ancient tombs of Egypt do not simply represent decorated burial sites or a grave-yards, they combine myth, legend, religion and spititualism with art on a level of the highest form, in an attempt to trancend the bounderies between life and death. To me they revealed something of the mystery of life on earth, of space and time. Stepping into an ancient Farao's tomb is crossing a tresshold of 5000 years. Almost all of the people and their doings, the battles, the politics and all worldly strivings have since long been forgotten. What remains is the work of some of the most highly skilled crafstmen and artists that ever lived, reaching out to us across the milennia.
So, if you’re an artist, you might keep this in the back of your mind next time you start a new painting; you’re following a impressive tradition that goes back almost 40.000 years. Can you feel the breath of those ancient artists in your neck? Maybe like them, you possess this unstoppable need to express, to make sense, to find a way to understand life on a deeper level by creating an image of what you experienced, something you saw or just felt a moment ago. Or maybe you looked at how mesmerizingly beautiful the sunlight fell on a flower and you sensed the desire to capture and behold that precious moment for all eternity…
What can be the purpose of an artist's strivings? This drive, this irressistable longing to fill the virgin white (or black) void with color and form? This human need to reflect, to materialise, to form, to bring to life, to become, to create…. Scientist Freeman Dyson defines the universe as something trying to become conscious of itself. And thus mankind as one of the products of this purpose. One of the most elegant descriptions of the word God I've ever heard. Jung states something similar; God needs mankind to become conscious of him (or her)self.
From the start, to me, painting has been a journey into the unknown, a voyage from logic into intuition. Big questions create the need for big answers. I have no answers, not in words. Intuition speaks without words. When we are speechless we start to visualize. Painting reveals consciousness on a level beyond words, that's why I sometimes need to stop talking and start painting.
It's just another way of communicating. It's a kind of public prayer.
To be continued…
Mystique, 150 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas
(Click on the image for a larger version)
On painting / 1
The art of putting some colored substance on any kind of surface goes back to the dawn of humanity. The oldest yet discovered cave paintings were found in 1994 in the Cave of Chauvet in the Ardeche, France and were made, not by Cro-Magnon hunters, but, surprisingly, by Neartherthals, some 38.000 years ago.
The famous paintings on the walls and ceilings in the caves of Lascaux (France) were made by human hunters between 28.000 and 15.000 years ago. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art.
Altamira (Spanish for 'high views') is a cave in Spain famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings, featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. The paintings are about 15.000 years old.
Also in India, North- and South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, cave paintings have been discovered dating back back at least 12.000 years.
Great ingenuity was displayed by ancient artists. At the Lascaux caves were found pestles and mortars in which colours were mixed, together with no less than 158 different mineral fragments from which the mixtures were made. There seems to have been no shortage of pigment large lumps have been found at some sites. Shells of barnacles were used as containers. One master employed a human skull. Cave water and the calcium it contained were used as mixers, and vegetable and animal oils as binders. The artists had primitive crayons and they applied the paint with brush tools, though none has survived. All kinds of devices and implements were used to aid art. Important lines were preceded by dots, which were then Joined up. Sometimes paint was sprayed. Stencils were used. Blow pipes made from bird bones served as tubes for applying paint. By these means, the more experienced Magdalenian painters were able to produce polychrome art. (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html )
The reason for ancient men and women to be painting is largely unknown. There might have been a spiritual or religious meaning to the paintings or they just liked to make and experience art, just as we do. It might gave them fun, entertainment and excitement. In a way, these caves may have been the first ancient art-galleries and museums.
Closer in time, during a visit some years back to the beautifully carved and painted murals of the Valley of the Kings at Luxor in Egypt, I somehow recognised on a much grander scale, a style of expression somewhat similar to my own. While they invented, I copy or borrow; we all stand on the shoulders of giants…Maybe I carried these ancient symbolic signs with me since I was very young, seen in books or learned in school or maybe I've drawn them out of Carl Jung's collective unconsciousness, who knows… maybe I've been a Farao in one of my former lifes after all… Still, what remained was a sense of deja vu.
The ancient tombs of Egypt do not simply represent decorated burial sites or a grave-yards, they combine myth, legend, religion and spititualism with art on a level of the highest form, in an attempt to trancend the bounderies between life and death. To me they revealed something of the mystery of life on earth, of space and time. Stepping into an ancient Farao's tomb is crossing a tresshold of 5000 years. Almost all of the people and their doings, the battles, the politics and all worldly strivings have since long been forgotten. What remains is the work of some of the most highly skilled crafstmen and artists that ever lived, reaching out to us across the milennia.
So, if you’re an artist, you might keep this in the back of your mind next time you start a new painting; you’re following a impressive tradition that goes back almost 40.000 years. Can you feel the breath of those ancient artists in your neck? Maybe like them, you possess this unstoppable need to express, to make sense, to find a way to understand life on a deeper level by creating an image of what you experienced, something you saw or just felt a moment ago. Or maybe you looked at how mesmerizingly beautiful the sunlight fell on a flower and you sensed the desire to capture and behold that precious moment for all eternity…
What can be the purpose of an artist's strivings? This drive, this irressistable longing to fill the virgin white (or black) void with color and form? This human need to reflect, to materialise, to form, to bring to life, to become, to create…. Scientist Freeman Dyson defines the universe as something trying to become conscious of itself. And thus mankind as one of the products of this purpose. One of the most elegant descriptions of the word God I've ever heard. Jung states something similar; God needs mankind to become conscious of him (or her)self.
From the start, to me, painting has been a journey into the unknown, a voyage from logic into intuition. Big questions create the need for big answers. I have no answers, not in words. Intuition speaks without words. When we are speechless we start to visualize. Painting reveals consciousness on a level beyond words, that's why I sometimes need to stop talking and start painting.
It's just another way of communicating. It's a kind of public prayer.
To be continued…
Mystique, 150 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas
(Click on the image for a larger version)
Zondag 1 mei 2011 opening expositie bij Galerie “In de oude school”
In het hart van Nederland ligt, temidden van het Veluwse natuurschoon, galerie “In de oude school”.
De galerie is gevestigd in Stroe (gem. Barneveld) en heeft zich de afgelopen jaren ontwikkeld tot dé galerie van midden Nederland voor professionele hedendaagse kunst uit binnen- en buitenland.
Zondag 1 mei 2011 opening expositie bij Galerie “In de oude school”
In het hart van Nederland ligt, temidden van het Veluwse natuurschoon, galerie “In de oude schoolâ€.
De galerie is gevestigd in Stroe (gem. Barneveld) en heeft zich de afgelopen jaren ontwikkeld tot dé galerie van midden Nederland voor professionele hedendaagse kunst uit binnen- en buitenland.
Expositie bij Galerie Tolg’Art in Wierden
Galerie Tolg’Art is gevestigd aan de Tolgaarde 6-8 in het centrum van Wierden, vlak achter gemeentehuis en bibliotheek. Het aanbod in Tolg’Art is zeer divers. De galerie bemiddelt in beeldende, hedendaagse, abstracte en figuratieve kunst. De galerie toont uiteenlopende werken van gerenommeerde kunstenaars en jong aanstormend talent. Het aanbod van schilderijen, beeldhouwwerken, sculpturen, keramiek en glaskunst wordt gekenmerkt door kwaliteit, originaliteit en techniekbeheersing. En van meerdere kunstenaars heeft Tolg’Art werken in stock. Achter de galerie bevindt zich een permanente beelden- en sculpturentuin. In deze tuin is het werk van verschillende kunstenaars te bewonderen. Ook in Wierden kunt u nu in sfeervolle, warme en kunstminnende ruimtes genieten van kunst in wisselende exposities.
Opening: vrijdag 1 april van 19.00 – 21.00 uur
Galerie Tolg’Art
Tolgaarde 6-8
7642 ez Wierden