What's Happening Painting

Solitary confinement in an abandoned old institution. That was at the origin of Vincent Vinkestijn's Imaginairy Friends. The recognizable style of figures and creatures arose when the emerging artist was away from all stimuli and social contacts from the outside world. “I wanted to know what the psychic would do to me and create a world of my own,” Vincent explains. "Already after the second day I felt myself being watched by the creatures and I started talking to them now and then." The then student at the Art Academy graduates with his Imaginairy Friends. After his studies, Vincent briefly focuses on his work as a graphic designer, before resuming his Imaginairy Friends after eighteen months. With the path he has taken with this, he feels a real connection for the first time. Where he was first looking for his own identity, he has found it completely with this work. This quest almost cost him his participation in the Art Academy, but fortunately Vincent found his mission with the Imaginairy Friends. Vincent now produces a lot of work. His Imaginairy Friends are now more framed. “The lines and the flatter are tighter. You can see that I felt very different in my own skin then. It was more aggressive, but it also contained cheerfulness. Now I am more controlled. ” The acrylic works take the viewer into a world of figures. Always framed with thick black lines and colored with up to three basic colors, accompanied by white and black. Vincent starts his work blankly. Without story or thought. He lets the lines come out of his hand and only sees at the end if it is something. “And it actually always is. It is very rare that a work is not to my liking. At the most, I don't like the colors ”, he says. The abstract style is most suited to the artist. One of his inspirations is Karel Appel. His use of color in particular influenced Vincent's style. But Leopold Rabus also has an effect on his way of thinking. Vincent is enthusiastic about his freaky way of adding something to reality. A still life by Vinkestijn, on the other hand, is not likely to emerge. “Realism is not for me. I don't find it challenging ” Vincent's work is his passion. He prefers to paint every day. Exhibitions become the crowning glory of his work. “I want to show my work to the world. Preferably in a place where many people come, such as the municipal museum of The Hague. But I love how Piet Parra presents his work.