(1956) The Netherlands
Autodidact
I’m started painting in 1972. Two teachers, both artists, inspired me to choose my own themes and I experienced with different materials. They invited me to make big paintings on the walls of the class-room. That was also the first time I discovered the way of painting with pigments. In 1987-1988 I decided to paint only with pigments on a water-base. I’m using these pigments because the Japanese painter Kaii Higashiyama inspired me to do so. These pigments are mixed with casein or/and with an acrylicglossbind. Then diluted with water.
Ten years long I only used the colour blue. Later I changed my pallet. In 1995 I discovered that the landscape was my most important theme and that I got my inspiration from the experience of the landscape. My reflection on this landscape has never stopped since then. I’m interested in a possible sacral dimension of the landscape, therefore I call myself a religious painter. The light in the landscape is for me a metaphorical reference for this sacral dimension of the landscape. I’m inspired by the work of Anselm Kiefer, Casper David Friedrich, Armando and Kaii Higashiyama.
My landscapes are a testimony of freedom. Freedom of mind, freedom of experience. They are an attempt to express the experience of the real landscape in a painting. In a time where the real landscapes are “hiding” because our minds are more and more entangled in virtual reality-landscapes my paintings try to reveal the power of the real landscape -especially when you walk in it.
Often I use photo’s. Sometimes these photo’s are old (1920-1940) and they give witness of a landscape that has gone. A history that has passed. I use also photo’s I made by myself of interesting landscapes like rivers, moors and mountains. These photo’s figure as a starting point to paint a totally new landscape. My paintings express the process of giving meaning to the landscape and the special attention I give to the horizon. Literal and metaphorical spoken heaven and earth are meeting in this horizon. The horizon can therefore be a starting point to think about your life: where do I come from, where I’m going to, and so on. Painting is for me a search for meaning and the landscape can be metaphorically speaking a road to self-understanding. I like the unexpected possibilities in painting (with water-based paint). Poetry is an great inspiration for me.
During the years I had small exhibitions in Amsterdam, Badhoevedorp, Epen, The Hague, Deventer, Malden, Nijmegen, Nunspeet, Den Bosch.
See also the other pages on My Work as a painter in the menu
More pictures of my work:
on Saatchi
on Behance
on Weebly
betekenisgeving & levenshorizon 