Downward Gaze Painting

I am a portrait / figurative artist based in Venlo, Netherlands, working mainly in charcoal, pastel, graphite and silver point. I draw portraits, plus sometimes vintage scenes based on antique photographs, re-imagined classical/mythological golden oldies, and some anthropomorphised forces of nature. My main focus is on Humans, with a bias toward the female form, and toward issues on a planetary scale. My approach to inspirational input is that of an omnivore, feeding in 360º on both 'high' and 'low' culture. My creative output has always been similarly divers in form. (i.e. sculptures in stone/metal/wood, paintings, murals, digital photo-based work) Only recently I have been able to narrow things down a bit. Over the last decade, I was forced to focus on one mode of expression (2D, digital), and a couple of years ago I returned full circle to the place where my creativity once sprouted... DRAWINGS Early 2020, I started drawing again, after not having done that for more than a decade, and not this seriously since my childhood/adolescence, when I hardly did anything else. I draw in a sparse yet naturalistic style, capturing many details but also adding layers dealing with realities of existence beyond the obviously visible. They are expressed in colour, direction, gesture, texture, juxtaposition of elements. My images are spiked with a promiscuous mix of style features, which often makes labeling them as such into a somewhat laughable exercise, merely justified by heightened findability. I guess what I make is usually called 'outsider art'. Facing the world as it is evolving, in my current situation, this is my natural response. I try to steer clear of explicit commentary, or attempts at 'activism', focussing instead on developing my draftmanship and chasing beauty in different ways. Still, behind all of my pieces there is also the incredulously curious alien, attempting to process present day reality on Earth while trying to stay sane. ------------------------------------------- In the decade preceding my current adventure as a late-blooming draftsman, my medium has been a Mac with Wacom tablet and much maligned but truly magnificent Photoshop. Plus a high end printer (commercial art printer for large formats) to get physical output. The output consisted of photomontages/manipulations. Scroll down for a couple of them that I left on the page.