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| from the series FANTASIES; no.32, digital art |
Inspiration
The female body already inspired
me when I was a kid, but the first nude who actually posed for me was a
girlfriend. I was just a teenager, 15 years old when she stretched naked on my
parents’ bed, of course during a time I was alone at home. A couple of clumsy
drawings, but we thought they looked quit well. As a student there were the
models at the academy, and during my whole life I asked women to pose, whether
or not I was in a relationship with her. When I lived in Amsterdam we had a small class together with
colleague artists, from who most were females. Every Friday we had a model,
often the same girl, but not always. We paid her a small amount, for us to
study and sketch.
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| from the series FANTASIES; no. 1, digital art |
The early works
Apart from the sketches and
drawings I made from girlfriends or my wife, it took till the eighties until I
made the female nude to one of my favorite subjects in my art expressions.
Maybe I thought that it was a subject which belonged to the pass. It was the
time of environmental art and political statements. But what comes first has to
go first, and following on my “Indian” period the nude more or less slipped
into my art, as by accident. Still looking for the right expression and
searching for ways to paint and draw the beautiful curves. This matured during
my time in Amsterdam and even more in Antwerp , living with my
girlfriend. Still working with models; women I knew, young as well as older as
age doesn’t matter in painting.
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| from the series FANTASIES; no. 3, digital art |
Digitals
After I moved to Spain
digital expression became more important; not only because of the evolving
possibilities and techniques, but also because I made the digital way to my
profession. More and more I earned my living as an Internet and multimedia
specialist and of course this affected my art. The digitals I create are not
only about the nude female body, but it is still one of my favorite subjects.
In the beginning I used analogue created paintings and drawings I made earlier
and which I re-worked to digital creations. The more I discovered the graphical
tools, the more I could rely on them to create a digital image from scratch. Of
course I sometimes still use existing images or photos to re-work, but mostly
also this basis is from my hand.
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| from the series FANTASIES; no. 12, digital art |
About me
In 1980 I had my first
solo-exhibition, why I schedule that year as my start as an independent and
self-employed visual artist. Before I worked mainly as an illustrator, which I
still did after 1980 to make a living. Especially in the beginning art was a
side-income, which became more and more important during the years building
contacts. A lot of my work is in private collections but also in museums and
companies.
I created a lot, thousands of
works, from very small to extremely large, and I never bothered about materials
but used what I thought I needed for the specific work or series I was
creating. That is why a lot of my art is mixed media.
Not only in my visuals the female
body is important, also in my writings, as most of my stories are about the
intercourse and relation between men and women. That untouchable subject
without we would not exist as human beings.
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| from the series FANTASIES; no. 21, digital art |
Background
I’m from an artistic family. A
grandfather was into pottery, and another wrote (historical) stories and books.
My mother liked to draw but never matured in the matter as women had to be
there for their siblings in those days. I draw and write since I remember, but
was quite late taking classes because of several reasons. What formed me mainly
was my stay of almost three years in the US
where I followed art-courses at the Palomar
College in San Diego where I had my first experience
with computer-art, as the digital revolution was still called in the beginning.
Afterwards I studied at several art-schools, as well in the Netherlands as
abroad. The classical way which I followed in the beginning, looking for my own
way later, but still; classical themes are never far away, even in the digitals
I create today.
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| from the series FANTASIES; no. 33, digital art |
Digital art
As mentioned above Palomar was my
first experience with computers and therefore digital art. Experimental and
still in slow motion compared by today, the possibilities to create were mainly
in ASCII and copying machines: re-creating what already existed the digital
way.
After I returned to Europe I had
the luck that Rank Xerox Benelux invited me to work in their showroom, thanks
to my experience in the US .
I had the chance to use their prototypes for over a year and the company did
more. They made it possible to show the work I created worldwide; from the US till as far as Japan .
Also during my time in Amsterdam I had several possibilities to experiment
digitally, but the real turn came after a six month course Internet Developer
Expert in Antwerp .
That is where I could work with, back then, still very expensive tools from for
example Adobe and Macromedia. The possibilities grew and therefore my way to
express and experiment.
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