What is painting about? That is always the big question.

There is art that tries to sell, comment, that is propaganda. Below you see some examples.

Why do I fall for a painting? If a painting tries to sell me an ideology, tries to convince me how to live, it often doesn’t pull a string. Of course can I be touched by the subject, the involvement of the artist for the good course can lead me to new insights. It can shock me; make me rethink. But it is the way it is painted, the composition, the use of colors, or the twist given to the subject that pulls the trigger. See the painting of Beckmann in the collage above.

First and for most I am a painter, so the illusion of light fascinates, hence my love for the Baroque. There light plays a very important role, it often tells you where to look.

No doubt the fact that I grew up in the ‘surroundings’ of Rembrandt will have contributed. He was the master of creating the illusion of light.

Long ago I saw his self-portrait in the National Gallery of London. I thought a spotlight was directed on the painting, but could not find it. A couple of days later I returned with a friend and she was convinced of the same, but she too could not find the spotlight.

There are many stories about the ‘Dutch light’. The reflections on the water, the constant changing of light and shadow, the clouds passing by… This view on Haarlem by Jacob Ruysdeal shows it.

In Amsterdam my studio had roof lights. So many times the sudden change of light shocked the hell out of me. I thought somebody had entered the studio and turned off the light. Instead some clouds had come for the sun. Has this typical Dutch phenomenon made me more aware of light? 

Through the years I developed a way of building up paintings in which the colors loose some of their strength. Nowadays we have the luxury of tubes and a much broader range of colors to choose from. So we can improvise much more than what could be done in the old days. I paint layer upon layer, scratch away, put on and can get off track quite far. There is a cost to be paid, the colors will not be as bright as in the beginning.

Yet… that light…

In 1987 I found a series of beautiful art books on a second hand market in Milano. I bought 7 books about the various museums of Italy. The trip back to Amsterdam was a heavy one…

In one of those books there was a reproduction of the ‘lady with a unicorn’ by Raffaello Sanzio. The ruby on her chest glowed off the page! 

That ruby kept on lighting up in my head for years.

And then I saw an exhibition of watercolors of Emil Nolde. These too had colors that overwhelmed me. As with all, at a certain moment I want to achieve the same. What was the secret of the ruby, those colors of Nolde?

In the same period I visited a museum of butterflies in Germany. 'Natura Artis Magistra'; nature is the teacher of the arts, nothing can compare to it. Again I saw colors that flared. I should have bought a winter coat, but went back home, shivering, but with a butterfly (they seem leaves of pure colors floating in the air… I painted them for a container of art books, pinned up in a case containing ‘Madame Butterfly’, shown at the theatre where the musical ‘Miss Saigon’ played and in 2009 I painted ‘Butterfly man’). 

In 2010 I started to paint fantasy flowers in mixed media on paper. The white of the paper played a big role in making the colors flare. I started to try to get the same effect with oil paintings.

In 2006 during the making of the works for the ‘Gesù Redentore’ (click on the name to go to the chapter) I tried out a tube I was given in 1982, but never used. I discovered the magic effect that Hollands Rode Goudlak’ has on the under laying colors.
 

These colors enriched my palette. I went in search of other colors that create the same effect. By giving this role to the white of the canvas and these new colors I could have parts of the works ‘flash’ off the painting. In 2012 I started my ‘Flower’ series. The most recent is 'Flower 040'. In these works I concentrate mainly on the power of colors. Click on the image below to go to the chapter.

Barcelona, June 2018.