PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS

Just like with photography, I started painting watercolors and making pen drawings around my student days. In the beginning I tried to copy an existing work as best as possible, such as the watercolor of the horse race from Vaarzon Morel and the Geisha to Knops below. A phase later I often worked out a motif that I had captured in a photo during holiday or while traveling. Such as the charcoal drawing of the Groot Begijnenhof in Leuven below.

Over the years I have made a number of works that I then gave as gifts to friends on a special occasion; sometimes such a creation comes 'back to the nest' years later, such as the aforementioned charcoal drawing. Its time with the recipient has come to an end and it is respectfully offered to the creator who can add it back to their own collection with great gratitude.

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Over the past decade I have switched from watercolor painting to acrylic painting; the multitude of brilliant colors and especially the fast drying process are attractive advantages compared to more classic oil painting. But with acrylic you can work opaquely, but if it is sufficiently diluted, 'glazing' is also possible where different thin layers can be 'stacked on top of each other'.

In the collage below, the painting is of Banff in Canada, based on a photo taken by my daughter Julie during her trip to the US and Canada, is also acrylic. The 'friendship' with acrylic has taken on an extra special dimension after I met Vedic Art in recent years; see these works further below under Portfolio/Vedic Art.

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And 'deep down' I feel that the use of oil paint is also 'calling' to me, the maturing process of the slowly drying paints, the intoxicating turpentine smell that releases so many precious memories of my father and uncle's creations, will at some point regain their place. to join my Creative Life. But everything in due time.....