Notes To Myself #1
Notes To Myself marks the first series of paintings in which I started exploring with the boundaries of my obsessive perfectionism. The idea was to start with a specific color combination in a triangle pattern and gradually change the appearance. Each painting evolved out of a dynamic process from the beginning to the end. Each added layer gave rise to the intensity of the colours and created new levels of depth. By painting layer upon layer and intuitively adjusting the pattern and colours, each artwork resulted in an interaction between perfection and imperfection.
In Notes To Myself #4 there is a moment in which I added a red color, even though I knew it wasn’t a good decision and eventually needed to change the painting again. Those experimental choices and deliberately using different colours as background layers fuelled the interaction between order and chaos. These moments of decisions and doubts in the painting process are fundamental to find that peace of mind. Adding those under-layers is similar to the glazing technique from the Renaissance. However those painters used it to complement the colours instead of working against themselves. For example the Verdaccio, a monochrome green under-layer was used underneath painted skin parts in ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Botticelli ca. 1486.
The exploration in my own painting process, also extends to my artistic practice and position as an artist. I react to contradictions I come across in daily life in such a way that it can broaden my perspective and that of the viewer. For the series Notes To Myself, I used the painting as an object and I placed it opposite of printed media. As a reaction to a question that continuously keeps bothering me: “Why museums are allowed to commercially market their artists, but when an artist makes prints of his paintings it’s not done”. By using a digital canvas I printed the series on museum quality art paper in a limited edition of 50 prints. The artwork on paper shows every brushstroke, just as the original painting, but due to the material, size and technique it gets a totally different experience.
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Notes To Myself #2
Oil on linen
100 x 100 cm
2014
Notes To Myself #3
Acrylic on linen
100 x 100 cm
2015
Notes To Myself #4
Acrylic on linen
100 x 100 cm
2015