About Light
I paint light as I would paint matter. It comes running from the window, it bang against dark objects that it meet, it lands on the table and it pours down to the floor like streaming water. In fact whenever I paint it, light is the object of my painting; all the other object are there just to show where the light is.
About Groningen Landscape
The perfectly straight line of the
horizon is the most dominating factor in the
Colours, trees, houses, and other
details, although necessary, are secondary to the phenomenon of the horizon.
Since landscape changes all the time
because of the season, weather, or hour of the day, for each painting, I must decide
precisely which of these moments I want to capture in my painting.
Whether I paint still-life, nude, or landscape, I always
start with making a sketch with a model or in nature. Later, I use these
sketches as guidelines for creating the painting.
The human eye is a very complicated and sophisticated
optical tool. Therefore, I always rely on my personal vision as the basis for my paintings. The
human sight cannot be substituted by a camera, which has very limited
possibilities.
Painting the Human Body
I wish I could say that painting the human body is like painting any other object. This was my view when I first started painting live models. I soon learned that this is not the case. The human body tells a story that is extra-artistic, a story that is connected to the "real" world, not only to the world of art.
So when painting a human being one does not only paint light and color, but also a human story. The position of the body, the gender, the color of the skin - they all tell us a story, a personal story of emotions. I found in the painting of the human body additional depth which I did not know before.