Diver I Painting

I went to art school in the late 1990's. after which I have been active as a painter Since about five years my painting has been taking a new direction about which I am very enthusiastic. The results of which I like to share with you on Saatchi. The figures in my work are absorbed in their own world. Often there is a link with science (mathematics, astronomy). They employ strange devices that resemble telescopes, musical instruments, typewriters or binoculars. They seem to investigate their world, diving into it and trying to make sense of it. Not unlike the beholder of the paintings that capture them. Often they only possess one eye and in that respect almost all of them are cyclops. So, in a sense they are handicapped, but they try to overcome that handicap by using technical aids. The “one eye only” is also a reference to the flatness of paintings that seems to represent (a) space: in order to see three dimensions one needs both eyes. The inspiration for my work is mainly formed by distractions from reality. The paintings are based on reproductions of other paintings. Non-heterogeneous elements are arranged next to each other in collages, which are then form the basis for a painting: a kind of "sampling" so to speak. A form of appropriation that is based on the realization that so much has been done before, that you can also create something new by pouring existing shapes into a new mould. My work, my paintings and collages, comes from a great interest in the artificial, and, in particular, two of its characteristics: the derivative and the fantastic. "derivative" means to me: Reality in a compressed (perhaps abstracted) form. For example, a reproduction of a painting or a map of a city. "fantastic" refers to the artificial fantasy. For example: the monster of Frankenstein or some paintings by the surrealists. This personal definition of artificiality forms the basis of my work. Sometimes accidental, sometimes fully conscious. Often in the execution of my paintings, often in the underlying themes or ideas.