(four seasons...) art & imagination: `blue remembered earth' by alastair reynolds

trailer for blue remembered earth by alastair reynolds

in the thread on the four seasons, i discussed the novel `the botticelli secret' in the previous post. it did not really capture me, but it rekindled my enthusiasm for botticelli's wonderful painting `primavera' (`spring').

it then struck me that the four seasons are in fact a result of our earth revolving around the sun. did you know that the seasons do not have equal length? on the northern hemisphere currently (and for a long time to come) summer and spring are longer than autumn and winter...(see this website on the length of the seasons). the landmass on the northern hemisphere being the larger by far, this is likely to contribute to global warming.

but to be honest, it provides me with a nice opportunity to discuss one of my favourite writers: alastair reynolds. here we have a science fiction author who imagines whole worlds and futures in an astonishingly visionary way. and more importantly, the science in his fiction to me is always daring yet convincing. it is clear that everything is carefully thought out and executed, just like in the `primavera', with amazing eye for detail and yet never forgetting the larger picture.

it turns out that reynolds is a scientist, who worked for ESA before turning professional writer. no wonder then that his descriptions of space and science are so rich. still, no author really captures me if the characters remain too `flat'. in this respect also i find reynolds' books fascinating. the humanity of the (human(oid)) characters is ever present, and rings true.

doesn't it tell us something though, that the word for `imagination' is ... `imagination'? in other words: creating images? a writer creates images in our minds. art and imagination are seldom far apart.

perhaps no coincidence then, that reynolds imagines art-rich africa to be so important in the scheme of things to come. in `blue remembered earth', one of the protagonists (sunday akinya) is a future artist. not only are reynolds' descriptions of her works intriguing, he also manages to capture something of the struggle that each true artist faces, in any time. simply an engrossing and wonderful novel, thank you alastair!

(four seasons:) botticelli's primavera

sandro botticelli, primavera (`spring', painted around 1482)

still on the topic of the four seasons...i recently read marina fiorato's novel the botticelli secret. as a novel, it didn't really touch me. but reading such `historical' works always helps me to understand a bit about long ago times. there were some strange historical mistakes in the book, but overall i could enjoy it enough nonetheless. (eg. in 1482 the protagonist refers to the statue of david by michelangelo...which was created around 1501-1504... that sort of thing).

the idea that botticelli's primavera depicts some sort of political plot strikes me as far-fetched but is actually a serious academic idea, it seems. i find the regular interpretation (that it is an elaborate allegory on the fertility of life) more convincing. it doesn't really matter to me, the novel helped me to look at the painting once more in great detail, which is a joy. the enormous diversity of plants used is amazing, for instance. and even though i remain ambiguous about any deeper meanings, the painting itself remains alluring in a to me undefinable way. i did not really learn much about botticelli from the book though, contrary to what i had hoped.

four seasons: autumn again

autumn leaves (own work, 2013, digital, click on the image for enlargement)

well it is autumn, actually, so i thought i'd put up one of the many many pictures i take year round of nature and what strikes me. photography is such a different medium than painting, yet it serves me very well to look through my camera and record images. one day i hope to integrate these two media more.

(finishing old work) four seasons: autumn

autumn (own work, 1996-2012, 40 x 55 cm, click on the image for enlargement)

see previous post...i remain a bit ambiguous about these cardboard panels. i like them for some reasons, but the photographic representation lacks convincing qualities i believe.

i think colours can convey many many things, and i like this type of experiment. however, i have diluted the experiment somewhat by going for non-seasonal colour effects during reworking.

finishing old work 4: winter (four seasons)

winter (own work, 1996-2012, 40 x 55 cm, click on the image for enlargement)

i painted a four-seasons series, as a johannes-itten-like experiment, in 1996, working with diluted oils. i like this type of painting, actually my first real painting (1982) had a landscape background also made of rectangles.

so last year i decided to restore this series, refining the colours in three of the four (the summer panel i still like as it is), using diluted acrylics.

art & spirituality 4: mare de déu amb el nen dormint

mare de déu amb el nen dormint (own work, 2009-2013, 50 x 40 x 60 cm, click on the image for enlargement)

`mother of god with the sleeping child' would be a too literal translation of the catalan title, see this previous post on some background of mare de déu.

you will notice that this sculpture is very different from the earlier statuette `sketch' that i made. the statuette has an active and playful jesus, joyfully interacting with maria. here, jesus is sleeping and maria seems in compassionate contemplation of ... the human condition, if i may interpret for you.

yet there are also great similarities between the two sculptures. the painting technique, and the ideas behind it for instance. in the painting, as in the form, i was looking for non-classical emotive expression.


detail of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)


detail of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)


detail of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)

again, in this madonna sculpture mother and child are not of the same skin colour. in my own small way, as a mostly humble artist, i try to comment on issues/conditions in society that i would like to see improved. one of those issues is the to me absurd one of racism. we are all human, we are one mankind. i have tried to put that feeling in this sculpture, as well as in its smaller predecessor madonna statuette (where i reversed the colours of mother and child).

about the painting: it was a long and arduous task. to achieve lustre and depth, many semi-transparent layers are needed. each layer requires a deft application, to maintain the same fluidity of the paint which is quick-drying. yet there are difficult nooks and crannies in this sculpture, where the brush can hardly reach. with my rsi this was really taxing. more taxing however was to achieve a harmonious balance of colours, with the spiritual atmosphere that i wanted.

some more pictures to give a more complete view (although photos really do not capture the serenity of this work):


side view of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)


side view of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)


detail of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)


side view of mare de déu amb el nen dormint (click on the image for enlargement)

art & spirituality 3: vortex of life

vortex of life (own work, 2013, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for enlargement)

as an artist, i try to create images that reflect on life, on society, existence, i don't know. life, existence, the universe, they are a complete mystery to me. and many others, i presume. still, we try to create some meaning, some order in our lives. even, preferably, security and control over our situation.

but in my perception, we are so tiny and insignificant, and our real influence on events is often negligible. we are simply swept along, with some luckier than others. is it any wonder that we cling to each other, and to religion?


detail of vortex of life (own work, 2013, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for enlargement)

art & spirituality 2: mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (cont.)

[continued from the previous post, which you should read first]

so as promised a bit more about the sculpture itself. its form arrived in 45 minutes, and i wanted spontaneity all the way. the final painting i took up 2 years later than the preliminary painting (itself 2 years later than the clay form). in the painting, as in the form, i was looking for non-classical emotive expression.


detail of mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (click on the image for enlargement)


detail of mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (click on the image for enlargement)


detail of mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (click on the image for enlargement)

you may have noticed that mother and child are not of the same skin colour. in my own small way, as a mostly humble artist, i try to comment on issues/conditions in society that i would like to see improved. one of those issues is the to me absurd one of racism. we are all human, we are one mankind. i have tried to put that feeling in this statuette, as well as in its larger successor madonna statue (where i reversed the colours of mother and child).

the apple (`poma' in catalan) in traditional iconography stands for the original sin, or so i gather. jesus accepting the apple is taken as jesus accepting mankind's sins as well as his fate regarding this (the cross, to wash away these sins). here it should be taken as nothing but joy of life, or if you wish to be philospohical: the joy of the fruit of knowledge.

illustrating the traditional apple iconography, behold below the beautiful middle panel of the portinari triptych by hans memling (1430-1494, ironically the best reference on wikipedia is the catalan hans memling page!):


hans memling, mary and jesus (middle panel of portinari triptych, click on the image for enlargement)

let me end this post with a rear view of the statuette:


rear view of mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (click on the image for enlargement)

art & spirituality: mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma

mare de déu amb el nen sostenint una poma (own work, 20 x 20 x 30 cm, 2009-2013)

mare de déu means `mother of god' in catalan, and refers to maria as mother of jesus (see also roman catholic mariology). avid readers of this blog may recall my earlier posts on mary and jesus, and the wonderful `mare de déu' romanic/gothic sculptures to be found in catalunya, especially in some barcelona museums like the museu frederic marès and the museu nacional d'art de catalunya.

in hindsight, i probably only posted some images of these sculptures (as illustration of the wonders of anonymous artists), and did not sing their praise as extensively as i should have. let me correct that omission now: i find many of these polychrome madonna sculptures from the 12th-16th century to be absolutely marvelous, especially the ones made in catalonia.

what i find so marvelous is their individuality, their lack of superficial symmetrical-face-beauty, their playfulness, seriousness, compassion...expression i suppose. and of course the dedication with which they were crafted and painted. together, this achieves for me a level of spirituality which really captivates me.


mare de déu amb el nen (from palera parish, anonymous catalan artist, beginning 15th century, now in museu d'art de girona)

anyway, my first sketches to create such a sculpture myself (!) date from 1996. they were intended for a wooden sculpture, but i never found the time and energy to start such this assiduous undertaking. take a look at this wonderful video from the getty museum on spanish polychrome sculpture to get an idea what i'm talking about!



well. i do not mention very often that i am usually in poor health, but this is a major reason for me not to undertake everything that i would want. i have found a way around though, because i have been making polychrome clay sculptures for many years now. a few years back i decided to make a fair-sized polychrome clay `mare de déu'.

but first i made a quick sketch in clay (45 minutes). i liked the sketch so much that i decided to paint it as well. the first unfinished version i lent to a dear friend on his sickbed, which lasted almost 2 years. after his death, i turned to finishing the polychrome. the result you see above. i will write more about the sculpture itself in the next post.

[to be continued]

frida kahlo & recognition as an artist

frida kahlo, self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird

a few days ago, i spoke a good friend. and she said she admired my persistence in my artistic endeavour. because, she said, she would find it very hard to keep up the necessary motivation in similar circumstances.

to summarize: her perception is that i'm not getting so much recognition as an artist. and for her personally, the lack of such recognition would be a good reason to chuck it all in.

a double-edged compliment if ever i saw one :-) ! lucky for me, i have a different perception of recognition. as i wrote many times before, i'm not so impressed with the 'upper echelons' of contemporary art. that world is so much driven by fashion, money, competition, name dropping, and `entartainment', that real artistic merit often becomes irrelevant.

recognition for me comes in the many many people who have expressed to me personally that they were touched by one or more of my works. and also in the numerous fellow artists who have expressed their wonder at my themes and techniques. but it also comes from what my friend called aptly my inner compass. for me, i'm very content to be at a stage where things have been coming together for many years. for the first decade of my artist life, i was often frustrated by my lack of sufficient capability to create what i wanted to create. especially when painting, since drawing and sculpting mostly came reasonably naturally.

now, instead of frustration i'm often amazed at what comes out of the creative process. of course, on a different level i still lack all sorts of capabilities. but the difference is that this lack does not hinder me in creating works that evocate what i want them to. and that often amazes me, especially since a large part of this is beyond my conscious control. anyway, the gist is: i have enough inner compass to see that what i am doing has more quality than i could have hoped for twenty years ago...and that alone is enough recognition for me.

what in heavens' name does this have to do with frida kahlo, you wonder. well, you may not be aware that she garnered relatively little recognition during her lifetime. she was often seen primarily as the wife of the then-acclaimed artist diego rivera.

also this week, i borrowed a book from the library on 20th century latin-american art, wishing to expand my horizons a bit. only to find that frida's works were the only ones to really impress me. especially (but not only) her self-portraits are simply astonishing. [i restrict myself to showing only the above painting from wikipedia, since they are all copyrighted, and hope that its use is covered by the same fair-use policy as wikipedia's].

so, to sum it up for this post: recognition during one's lifetime is a happy circumstance for an artist. but let us be thankful that many artists have other considerations to create art as well.

finishing/restoring old work 2 (academy days): our lady of the stars and the planets

our lady of the stars and the planets (own work, 1986-2014, 50 x 57 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

i started this painting somewhere in 1986, when i just started out with acrylics. i was forced to start using acrylics since i had developed a serious allergy against all oil-based paints and their associated fumes already then. this in turn was largely due to my non-stop painting which for years took part in the same room where i slept (me being a poor student).

the painting was a complete experiment, in materials as well as form, and it didn't work out satisfactorily. but the result was intriguing and hung on my wall for well over a year until i finally gave up on trying to improve it. its merits were a certain freedom of expression, but its limitations were severe and i didn't have a clue how to proceed. i always kept it, hoping to one day find inspiration for a reworking.

this reworking took place the last few weeks. once again i had to cross certain unknown lands to get here. i decided to clarify some facial structures, and to simplify the background. then, using some painted cardboard parts that i had removed from the painting earlier, i cut out some stars. used palettes i tried in many combinations, to create planets. and i added seashells to our lady's clothing. i collected those shells last year, during endless walks by the seaside between st. maartenszee and bergen. (i will come back to those shells in a future post, but let me say already here that i picked just one sort, because i thought it would work very well in paintings. the surface of these shells is simply amazing.) of course, planets, stars and seashells refer to the traditional role of maria as stella maris (star of the sea), a guiding light for seafarers.

as in almost all my works, i find a great difficulty in achieving `the' fitting expression. most often it needs to be a mixture between some (soft) sadness, some contemplation, some compassion and some (small) smile as well. [postscript 2014: changed the expression once again, and added some hair elements...to make the painting more unambiguously uplifting]

the religious connotation is largely the same as in the `notre dame des anges' series, but i wanted some surprise and childlike qualities in the painting. i'm not sure how well i have achieved these qualities, but i do have a strong sense that it is finished now, and should be taken as it is, with all its history and possible shortcomings. [and it probably has a strong `outsider art' feeling for many viewers. i have decided to not hold back this side of my art, especially when restoring/finishing older work].


filippo lippi, madonna and child (mid 15th century)

filippo lippi was the teacher of sandro botticelli, his influence on his pupil is clear to see. the star on maria in the above painting refers to her role as stella maris.