Part of a new painting which is under construction.
A lot of people ask me how I am able to create the textures in my paintings.
My paintings are made with paint on canvas. Nothing more, nothing less. No acrylic gel medium, no sand, no glue, no textile, nothing of any other kind of 'aid'. I build my paintings, sculpt them using palette knifes, brushes and my fingers. That's why there is so much paint on my pants, and that's how the reliëf rises on the canvas.
Before I start to paint, I've got to free my mind. If I don't succeed in that, the painting will not be good. It's not always easy to free your mind when you're tight up with the issues that confront us on a daily basis, especially when they are more serious and numerous than average. In that case it takes a lot of concentration to 'step up' but when I succeed it's a perfect get-away from daily life. The result of my paintings, though not figurative, always is autobiographic. But everybody can 'read' them using their own interpretation.
Saturday evening I read that Simon Vinkenoog, a famous Dutch writer en poet, was dying. He had an enormous brain haemorrhage. Sunday early in the morning he died, his family was with him.Simon would have become 81 next week and was a lightning example for humanity in positivity and staying young in his head. Always happy and full of energy. I admired him and his lifestyle at his age. He was a bright light and still performing on stage with Spinvis. He was not only an artist, but also an expert in the art of living! Or as we say in Dutch 'een levenskunstenaar'. You would not have given him 81 at all! Also he was the ambassador of marihuana, smoking joints every day til the day he died.
Lately I saw a documentary on television (made by Hugo Borst) about Jan Ykema, a former Dutch professional skater who, after finishing his career, was heavily addicted to cocaine and speed for some time. A black period in his life. He rehabilitated, but not without his 'medicin' as he calls it... smoking a joint from time to time. It calms him down and lightens him up. People who suffer from chronic pain also benefit from this medicin. In the Netherlands marihuana is not forbidden, like in many other countries. But under pressure of European laws etc... the laws about buying and growing it are getting tighter. Hugo interviewed Jan, and also his son (a teenager) who was very happy that he got his father back and understood that smoking a joint is not that bad at all. Drinking alcohol every day, is much worse.
Jan Ykema's demented father is staying in a home for the elderly. He was sick, getting sicker and did not want to get up and could not walk anymore... until Jan one day decided to put marihuana-leaf in his tea.. In a few days the old man recovered, got out of bed, started walking again and was much happier....
Maybe we should give the elderly who don't enjoy life anymore, the choice to drink some marihuana-tea from time to time and brighten up their days! Life would be much more beautiful for them and I think it would save a lot of costs in medication and sleeping pills as well!Why not learning from this?... Why not trying to learn the art of living? Just like Simon Vinkenoog! Why does everything has to be so strict and why can't everybody loosen a bit?
Get a life!
Wiped outThe weather last week was warm and sulty. It was 32 degrees Celcius/90 degrees Fahrenheit. When the temperature is this high it tears the energy and inspiration out of me. I've worked very hard lately and said to myself that taking a week off would do me some good. So I did some jobs in my house, slept in the shadow of the nut tree in the garden and read this beautiful book: 'La sombra del Viento' of Carlos Ruiz Zafón... (English title: The Shadow of the wind), which has already been read by at least 15 million people worldwide.
I can tell you, I've read a lot of books, but this is absolutely the most fabulous one I've ever read. To me Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a fantastic artist. I envy him for his talent, for his imagination and the strength to compose it into a book. It took him 7 years to write the next book: El juego del ángel (The angel's game) which I'm absolutely going to read and immerse into this promising story. I cannot wait! I wonder, does Carlos ever feel uncertain? Does he ever doubt himself, feeling small, just like me?
It happens to me every time after taking 1 or 2 weeks off.... I get uncertain and find myself thinking that I lost 'the magic touch', that I cannot do it anymore. This goes skin deep, every time again. Up til now I've always retrieved 'it'. Today I stepped into my studio again.... and screwed up. So now I'll be giving myself some peptalk and start over again tomorrow.
