Look at me! Painting

Painting started sometime in 1978 as a student in a rowdy mood. Paintings that have been sold completely against expectations in the now closed art dealership Reker in the P.C. Hooftstraat in Amsterdam. However, that was the basis for trying - initially without relevant training - to shape the world surrounding me at the time. Later I visited the Free Academy The Hague in the 1980s and in the following years I also followed a number of necessary courses in all kinds of areas in the field of model and portrait. A few courses at the Classical Academy in Groningen provided an excellent addition to my career as a painter in the more figurative and realistic field. The ever-present search for the right form of expression makes the work worth making. In my second profession as a teacher I meet many people; other people now appear on canvas, sometimes from other parts of the world, sometimes from my immediate environment. I try to avoid adding aspects to my subject just because it might appear 'modern'. It makes more sense to me to try to catch that moment, others might have missed. In that sense, I feel related to photographers who always work that way. The difference that I can decide what that particular moment should be and how it must be painted. I try to work in series; a theme or a certain way of expression then forms the common thread. This creates series of works on paper and series in which screen printing has been experimented with. Also a series with larger work on canvas in which the image should convey a more monumental impression to the viewer. So my work shows several directions: a predominant experimental direction with a preference for structure, tone and limited use of color. The trigger is the processes of life, sometimes current events or ordinary everyday things.