Statement – English

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS GROW ON THE EDGE OF THE RAVINE

“The most beautiful flowers grow on the edge of the ravine” is a saying that really appeals to me, and also seems to fit my way of painting and drawing. Searching for the extreme limits without falling over the edge of the ravine. By letting go, you seem to reach the essence in an earlier state.
My oeuvre consists of oil paintings, lithographs and pencil drawings on paper.

Landscapes, with or without human figures ; paths that lead somewhere, but whereto, this is not visible because of the abundance of light and paint at the end of the path. I try to create a painterly illusion of a landscape, I hope one would like to wander down the path to see what is happening out of the boundaries of your sight. My landscapes can be divided into the series rural landscapes and the series paths in the forest, both often on big sized canvasses.
The rural landscapes, often in black and white or black and pink, are raw, abandoned landscapes with elements like lampposts, electrical cables and kerbstones. These rural elements all serve as a steppingstone in freely applied layers of paint.
In the series of paths in the woods I work with a restricted pallet of colours, with green as the contrast colour. As the spectator I hope you are seduced to walk the path into the woods, which is filled with an abundance of light, as on a hot summers day ; through the overexposure, spots of light arise, which almost eat away at the green branches and change their figurative form. An abstract way of painting, which is put within boundary by the diagonals and the relatively thin way of painting the path that leads into the forest.

The human figures, often seen from behind, assume a posture through a suggestive touch of paint but sometimes almost disappear into the environment and the paint. You can look over their shoulder, to see what they see.

I am searching for an atmosphere of “unheimlichkeit”, stillness and decay. Frozen scenes, like in a film-still, unrelated to time and within that given their dualism, is what fascinates me. The use of overexposure, through which areas that are painted as a flat surface of colour, but in the context of the painting also reveal something figurative and three dimensional, are also such a dualism. The field of tension fascinates me.

The saying is also really fitting for the relationship between the use of really thick layers of paint and the figurative side of my work. Figures that assume a posture through a suggestive touch of paint but sometimes almost disappear into the environment and the paint. The way of painting varies from really thin to applying the paint in a raw manor and in thick layers. With my pallet of restricted colours, sometimes reduced to black and white, I try to create a painterly illusion of a landscape.

My work has a strong connection to photography, which reveals itself first in the basis of my work : the use of my camera as a sketching book. I collect photographical images that I encounter and by taking a photo, I choose the cut-outs of my image. I am inspired by the over- and under exposure in photography (and nature), as I used to influence both while working in the dark room, now I do this during painting. Also the strong against-the-light, by which figurative elements become really flat, is an element that inspires me and I use that in my paintings.

The last few years I have also started working on bigger sized canvasses (200 x 130 cm.) and I have started working on larger series of paintings with a similar theme. The last year I have been most inspired by the full moon ; the dualism of the night ; the darkness as well as the light in the darkness, beautiful as well ominous. The thing that appeals to me and “triggers” me to take photos, is the dualism that speaks from these kinds of moments.

During painting a mixture is made of the moments that the painter wants to recall while working in his studio and all of his other and further associations. Through the translation into paint an interpretation of the first pictorial image is made, and is also broadened through the suggestive touch of paint.