african drummer (finishing really old work 1)

From a marketing point, my Career Manager has advised me to start writing using Proper Punctuation, you know, capitals...;-)

however, my brand manager has firmly opposed this, saying that a sudden shift in punctuational behaviour might project an unstable brand image, something a commercially-aware artist should always avoid like the plague. (should artists avoid the plague? one notorious dutch artist whom i do not admire recently repeated his belief that artists should try everything in life...)

they are now fighting it out in the bahamas, where i've sent them mainly to be able to work in peace and quiet ;-)


african drummer (own work, 1982-2012, 30 x 20 x 20 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this sculpture is one of a number of really old works (in this case 30 years old) that i have decided to finish, using the painting techniques which i have acquired in the meantime.

these techniques are certainly not spectacular in any sense, or innovative in a grand fashion. but they are fulfilling to me personally. and i have got to the point where i am confident that i can put in the appropriate finishing touches or radical changes to old work. touches or changes which were elusive to me before.

for this sculpture, the finishing touches were a 'simple' 6 layers of translucent acrylic paint on top of a transparent layer of acrylic medium (for restoration and protection purpose of the cracked clay underneath). building up colours in a glaze is of course an age-old technique, but it has taken me years to develop it for myself. and it's not so easy to actually perform, as one needs to work smoothly, without hesitation, consistently across a 3D surface with nooks and crannies and other difficulties.

open access, elsevier boycott

On his blog Tim Gowers recently petitioned for a general boycott by scientists of Elsevier´s scientific journals.

His reasons I find excellent, as do many others, which has resulted in over 3,000 scientists now signing the petition on www.thecostofknowledge.com.

Let´s hope this initiative really takes off. I wrote on this subject on my visual arts blog earlier, and I find it truly heartening to see people taking a stand. Open access and open source can be (in my not so humble opinion) a way to reduce the poverty and the technology gap between rich and poor in this world.

Since society most often has already paid well for the research, it is extremely unfair that important knowledge should not be available to the public unless they can pay exorbitant prices.

We might think that mathematics is an important example (ok, I think so too, a little biasedly...) but consider important medical research, which can directly save lives...!

So open access is the first step, really. And money should not be a dominating force in the dissemination of human knowledge.


the open access logo

france bans fracking in shale gas development, netherlands gives permits

in an earlier post i wrote about shale gas protesting in france (protest song by my brother here).

this week the french government has banned the use of fracking in shale gas exploration/development.

this is extremely good news, and shows that protest can be effective.

sadly, at the same time my own government has given exploration permits to a number of companies to look for shale gas even in the area where i live. so i just signed a protest petition on www.gnmf.nl (in dutch). i hope that many people will sign, and protest in other ways as well.

mountain blaze

mountain blaze (own work, 2010, 80 x 200 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this large painting is hard to photograph, i find, because it is difficult to avoid reflections of light and also because it is difficult to get the colours approximately right. still, the photo should help to explain the sense of adventure that i had while painting it. i did not know where i was going, i just painted very boldly, as if i knew what i was doing...

going from very bold strokes to finer brushes, but maintaining the `firesome' spirit of the mountain, was quite a challenge. like i said in previous posts: it feels like it isn't really me who is painting. i'm just holding the brush.

i really wonder where this landscape journey will take me in future years.

clouds over fallow field

clouds over fallow field (own work, 2000-2010, 39 x 128 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this painting really took quite some time to finish. i worked on it (off and on) for 10 years. this is partly because i have to get used to a painting, especially when it contains something really new to me which i cannot place but which i feel is worthy of development.

lately, i have found new improvement in this process. it has become easier for me to discern in which direction i want to proceed, and which elements in a painting strengthen this direction and which elements weaken it. also, i find it easier to merge `old' work with new insights, for which i am grateful because i have a lot of `old' work which awaits finishing.

[postscript: i discovered that i already posted this painting, to illustrate an exhibition announcement. but it fits in the series of recent landscapes.]

sea, sky

sea, sky (own work, 2010, 120 x 122 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

i would like to post some fairly recent landscapes, now that i've been freed from the mathematical project `natural topology' (see one-but-previous post). however, i just realized that images will be better findable on the web if i dedicate a post to each image separately.

this is more work, but it also gives opportunity to describe the paintings separately, which should be added benefit. i just have to overcome my usual reluctance to add words to a painting.

the above painting is characteristic of my continuing resolve to paint `as is'. i don't know why a painting works or not, i just know when it does. and i know that by allowing my subconscious intuition free rein, eventually a painting will start to work. even though this may be a laborious and time-consuming process.

i think that i'm in the process of reducing some aspects of landscapes to their essence. this is probably an inevitable development, and i'm looking forward to start a new painting. each time it surprises me how strongly paint can speak, even when reduced to simple forms and strokes.

stolen drawing (art theft 1)

man (own work, 1985-2005, 40 x 60 cm (approx.), click on the image for an enlargement)

the above drawing (of which i have only a poor photograph, and which has been slightly altered since) was stolen from the corridor in my studio building, last june. by someone with a key, even, which makes it all the more painful. i have since removed my paitings and drawings from the corridor.

obviously someone thought the drawing beautiful enough to steal. but for me it is a unique work, which i created primarily in art school (art academy utrecht) and which i later retouched and slightly modified for more effect. it was not for sale, because it is a dear example of how i started out as an artist.

i cannot put into words how cowardly and callous i find this theft. perhaps i will write some more posts on art theft in general.