Paintings
Flood
Lost in a forest of trunks. Trunks? They turn out to be the vertical supporting parts of a backrest. There you stand, walk or swim in this somewhat post-apocalyptic environment. Watch ‘the making of flood‘ on youtube.
Circle time VI
A continuous tubular frame circle. Where normally at the place of a hind leg the tube bends in such a way that the imaginary hind legs are connected in this way, they now bend just the other way, making a connection with an adjacent chair. In this way they can no longer be constructive without each other. In the light of a circle discussion: what a connection! The goal of a good meeting.
Now for the reflections. Normally these are under the actual seats. A different reflection, that is also an enrichment for a meeting, isn’t it?
Shadowdancing III
An even more exuberant variation on the subject of shadow dancing or Shadowdancing. Where I dropped ‘dressed to impress’ in the description of Shadowdancing II, this is certainly more appropriate here. All kinds of greats from the art and design world come together at this party.
A colorful collection of chairs all busy with his/her own shade. A memory with a wink to my own past as an outgoing student: everyone dancing in their own bubble.
Family portrait II
Commission
(Not for sale)
Through a kind of visual taste exploration, I questioned the customer about his family members and himself and thus finally chose chairs from the birth years of the five family members that match more or less with their character in terms of appearance. The table comes from the interior of this Breda family.
Seance
A circle of chairs of various colors. But also all copies to which I have devoted a work before, Escher in Oirschot for example, or that they played a role in a work, see The last supper II or III. Surrealist René Magritte’s Legend of the Centuries is strangely enough still steady on the ground, but following the circle the others become increasingly enlightened.
Een cirkel van stoelen van diverse pluimage. Maar ook allemaal exemplaren waar ik al eens eerder een werk aan heb gewijd, Escher in Oirschot bijvoorbeeld, dan wel dat ze een rol speelden in een werk zie bijvoorbeeld Het laatste Avondmaal II of III. Legend of the Centuries van surrealist René Magritte staat gek genoeg nog steady op de grond maar de kring volgend raken de anderen steeds verlichter.
Converge
Three shapes, namely a chair back seen from a low (top of the picture), high (bottom of the picture) and frontal (middle part) point of view are the basis of this work.
The brain tends to tilt the shapes so that they respond to the ‘normal’ laws of the central perspective. That produces a thrilling dynamic surface. The chosen colors reinforce this even more.
Rietveld
Rietveld is the first watercolor where I, stuck in the background, made the rigorous decision to cut it away. That unintentionally turned out to be a golden opportunity. By mounting another background behind it with some space in between, the light creates shadows on that background, creating a dynamic and much richer tonal depth. Rietveld is a pattern, a field full of Zigzagchairs of Gerrit Rietveld.
Theatrum Anatomicum
Commission
(Not for sale)
A chair in ‘Evidence based surgery‘. When I received an assignment from that corner, I immediately thought of the Anatomical Theater. That is where medical knowledge was shared and in that sense a nice starting point in this regard. I turned the benches into chair backs. Reverse seats show their intestines.
Radiate
Backlighting remains a fascinating thing and for a painter, especially with watercolors a huge challenge.
Reflections regularly occur in my work. But often with a twist, the apparently normal turns out to be chafing on closer inspection, but putting the finger on the ‘pain point’ is not that easy.
Babel interior II
What would it look like when you look up along the wall of chairs stacked up to a huge tower? No two chairs are the same. The harmony that towers I had drawn earlier, at least in appearance (Tower of Babel, Tower of Babel II) had, has already been exchanged for an enormous variety in Tower of Babel III. This is could be a detail from a lower point of view looking up from the inside against the wall.
Parade
My interest in visual rhythms and patterns combines very well with the use of the isometric perspective. Here lines that in reality run parallel also run in the drawing. So there is no vanishing point, so you can easily connect far away and close by, as Escher convincingly demonstrates in Bol en Hol. Each of the depicted chairs has been allocated the same space, namely an isometric cube. Carefully arranged side by side, this results in a colorful procession. By calling the Parade, it is also an ode to my carnival past.
The last supper III
Chairs in a circle. Different types of chairs, each with their own character, than the step from a meeting through a meal to the ultimate last meal is no longer a big one. Yet, in 2000, I did not make that choice lightly. In 2002 the oval The last Supper II followed with a completely different point of view: right above the table/circle. In this case, the calamity comes straight at you, the betrayal is done and the sacred chair collapses. Don’t burn yourself on the halo! The remaining seats remain nailed to the ground. Still.
Ejection seat II
A cartoonish version of my classic chair with real springs. A real quill in this case and it shows.
Dimensions
Alice in wonderland is the best-known work in which another world is reached through a mirror. A mirror or reflection is a rewarding starting point in art. Who does not know the famous work ‘Reproduction forbidden‘ by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. It goes without saying that the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelius Escher, very much inspired by perspective and perception, also made many prints with reflection as subject matter, such as this one. It is no different for me. Playing with the obvious when it comes to mirroring offers a variety of possibilities such as this watercolor.
Tower of Babel III
After having built two earlier towers (Tower of Babel and Tower of Babel II) with all identical chairs (which makes stacking a bit easier), one with all different chairs could not be avoided. It will be the moment just before the confusion of tongues kicks in and messes up the building process.
Parts of this construction I later reproduced in Babel interior II en Babel II.
