SOME PAINTERLY PONDERINGS

In my paintings I search for the intersection of the slow moving power of pondering and the spontaneous eruption of inspiration, the intersection of ancient techniques of craftsmanship and the even older tradition of doing whatever you feel like, let's just call it the intersection of liberty and constraint. It's a quest that never finds satisfying answers, but sometimes provides pretty pictures.

The lust for liberty, a common motivation for young people to pursue an artistic career, often encounters what one might call the paralyzing ocean of possibilities and thus the longing for the comfort of constraint. In my case this resulted in my interest in old painting techniques. I studied at the Classical Academy of Painting in Groningen, finished in 2013. More recently I followed an education in decorative painting in Paris and I worked three years in one of world's most renowned workshops, atelier Mériguet-Carrère, to learn more painting techniques.

Even so, my calling is that of an artist and the difference between an artist and a craftsman besides the curious habit of the first to spoil his work with his signature, is the freedom of expression. What I express in my paintings is not at all transparent to me, but I tend to find subjects in wild voluptuous natural formes clashing with rigid architecture, let's just call it the intersection of liberty and constraint.