Blog

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Seal Yellow on Blue

 

 

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Seal Strokes

 

 

A new adventure for me is to dive in the world of expression and abstraction. Forget about figuration for a minute and just go back to playing with paint. No goals, just playing around and having fun. This way of working makes me falling in love with painting even more. Just throw some paint on a paper or canvas and see what happens. Love it! As a working tittle I just call them Seal Strokes, because they remind me of the old chinese calligraphy movement a bit, except I use now letters at all. Just strokes of paint.

 

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          Mati Enso

 

 

After the many Enso Circles I made with firm edges, I started to play with Enso’s with soft edges , in oil colour. This one here was the first one I made in a bigger format, 100×120 cm on canvas. The painting was made for the studio where Mati shares her powerful Breathing Work Sessions. I have been so lucky to have experienced a coule of deep sessions with Mati. They are nothing short of being wonderful! Allready looking forward to the next one.

 

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          Enso

In search of a new image for the front cover of the second Savituriya album called Parivartan.

 

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          Enso

 

 

After playing with the Enso circles I really got the hang of it and extended working with them.

 

 

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          Savituriya

 

 

For the Savituriya album cover I started playing with circles on paper. ‘Savitur’ is a sankrit word meaning Sun or the Ultimate Creative Source. So inspired by the old Enso paintings from the Zen tradition, I started to experiment with my own version of circles. This was a lot of fun since it is so far away from my normal painting routines. The hardest part was to hand paint a circle in one or two moves that looked strong and visualy interessting. In the process I may have painted up to 70 different circles. Some of them are really nice, but I felt this one suited the best for the album cover.

If you enjoy listening to Mantra’s you can have listen here: Savituriya

 

 

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Autumn Leaves

 

 

Totally being in awe of the lively yellows and oranges of the tree leaves all around.  Besides their amazing colours they also show a different kind of elegance.  They seemingly surrender to their fall with so much grace.  I strongly felt to paint them on a rather large canvas.

 

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Dez

 

This portrait of a young boy named Dez was a commission for Marcel of Kadanz.

 

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          Manu

 

 

Manu, the Love of my life! He is my sweet, 7 year old son, and gives us so much joy and love. He walks life wich such an open Heart, it is dazzling sometimes. Ofcourse, I allready did a lot of paintings of him, and probably, this will never stop.

 

 

 

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Marco

 

 

This painting of my good friend Marco is the final piece of the triptych called ‘Without a Mask’.  Marco is a great inspiration in honesty and his dedication to be real all the time.

 

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Auke

 

Auke Hamers is a very good friend. We meet in Truth, Arts and Humor. Auke is a gifted film maker and photographer . We met long ago during the making of his short Dutch film ‘Ik Speel Niet Meer’ about comedian and actor Josef van de Berg. Nowadays, Auke and I play in the same rock band called OBIA, where he plays the mighty bass guitar. Also we are both gratefully part of the Naropa Sangha.

 

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Naropa

 

 

Naropa is my Dangerous Friend. He is my powerful Heart Master from the Sacha Lineage. There is a deep connection between us and I am very grateful to know and love him.

 

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Book Cover for Marsh Königs

 

 

Marsh Königs, from the VU University in Amsterdam wrote an impressive book about Traumatic Brain Injury In Children. To be honest I didn’t really undertand half of the content he writes about, but he was so kind to explain it to me in lamer terms. One of the main issues was that permanent brain injury is often not easy, or at all recognisable, even though it is there. I was honored when Marsh asked me to do his book cover. He actualy wanted me to do some expressive paintings or drawings for it, but somehow I felt that photography was much more suitable for a serious subject like this.

 

 

 

 

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Ben

 

 

 

 

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Free Tree

 

 

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KraalBoom

 

 

This lovely little apple tree grew in our backyard when we were still living in the Kralingseweg in Rotterdam. I just had to paint it.

 

 

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Rdam Live Paint

 

 

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Jos through the peekhole

 

 

 

 

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Little Dead Mouse

 

Little dead mouse in oil colour on a very tiny panel of 6×6 cm, made for Nationaal Muiseum.

 

 

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High Ceiling

 

 

 

When I saw the high seiling in the big church in Alkmaar, I was in awe. The way the light filles the room and seems to add space is just wonderfull.

 

 

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Portrait of Theo Maassen

 

Painted this portrait of Dutch top comedian and actor Theo Maassen. The portrait was painted after a photo by Mike Roelofs. Published by Atelier Magazine.

 

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Finished Street Live Portrait

 

Street Live was a lot of fun this year, but I didn’t manage to finish my portrait just that day. So I took it to the studio and finished it there, a bit later. This is a girl I met at Rotterdam Central Station. To me she had a beautiful look in her eyes, so i asked if i could take her picture to paint a portrait after it.

 

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Street Live Rotterdam 2

 

Next week i will attend the second edition of ‘Street Live’, a live painting event in Rotterdam. If the sun comes out, it will be a fun day painting.

 

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Feb 2014

Portrait of J.P. van Aalst

 

Feb 2014

Film premiere Mee boven de Wolken

On 9 Februari i did the premiere of my documentairy film in Lantaren Venster, Rotterdam. It was the second docu i’ve been working on, but the very first one i did by myself. So directing, photography/camera, sound recording, editing, some music and the sound post. Still i couldn’t have done it without the great help of Auke Hamers who did a wonderful job with the colourgrading, the titles and cave me some general advice.

The film shows the story of  the Dutch painter, poet, secluse and psychonaut J.P. van Aalst . I’ve been following him for about two years with the camera before i started to edit his story. The reactions of the audience was overwhelming and heartwarming. Also J.P. himself was very happy with the film. It was a very much fun project, but there’s an obvious reason why you don’t see people making movies on there own that much… It’s just too much work. Haha, i’ve learned that the hard way, but still i’m glad i did. Now let’s go back to painting!

If you speak Dutch you can see the movie here… Hope to put up some English subs later.

 

 

 

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26 Nov 2013

Portrait of Djura

 

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1 Nov 2013

Another Portrait of Aimee Teegarden

Aimee is just fun to paint; so i started another portait of her at a clinic at Kunstacademie Leiden in May. Later this year i finished it in the studio. This one was made with Winsor & Newton Oilbars. It’s a bit less abstract than the spraypaint version…

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Street Live Rotterdam

 

 

7 Sept 2013

‘Street Live’ Live Painting Rotterdam

September the 7th, i will join a crew of street artists in a Live Painting session just outside the Me Like Painting studio and the RR Gallery in the city centre of Rotterdam. Feel very welcome to come and take a look…

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31 May 2013

Aimee Teegarden at Minerva Academy

I had a great time at the Minerva Academy in Groningen where i had the pleasure to do a Acrylic clinic. I used this opportunity to paint a portrait of Amy Teegarden.  All the present students grabbed a canvas and started painting as well. They were very enthusiastic and made some very nice paintings. I think we all had a very good day!