L'Apéritif

This is the latest of my larger still-lifes. I made it for my grandmother and everything is centered around a bottle of Noilly Prat, the local drink of Marseillan, a little village in the south of France. This is where my grandmother used to spend the summer. I am particularly happy with the bright color underneath, on which the painting is constructed in layers of calmer colors, leaving some parts open to provide a brightly coloured accent. And even with this almost fluorescent pink, the whole thing still has a classical and balanced look. I have made a short time-lapse animation of me painting this:

Apéritif on Youtube

The Classical Bouquet

I was asked to paint this classical genre in my own way. I will paint it twice, one with the traditional dark, or black background, and one with a background of my own liking. The problem is obviously the speed with which I have to paint. The flowers are gone quickly, but this truly awesome photo of the bouquet was made by Gneomar van Nispen. I put a whole day into arranging them and getting this particular lighting, that is very different in the front and the back of the bouquet. The painting is only half finished and I've set up a new set of flowers to continue with. They are not the same as the first, so the painting will have just some flowers in common with the photograph. Tulip season is over....Fortunately I had already painted those.

Television Debut

I made my television debut in January this year. I was the guest in a program, "Aperitivo" on RTL4. The whole program was about the American television do-it-yourself painting instructor Bob Ross, and I was there to give an artists view of the man, his work and the cult-status that he has acquired here. I also got to do my own interpretation of him, taking the viewers step by step through the making of a beautiful little dutch landscape in which we will put a little chemical plant overhere...., and maybe a friendly little eight-lane highway overthere... And maybe the big chimney has a little brother, there....and this little fellow also smokes big, big VanDykebrown clouds....

The White Tulip

After spending two years studying the Dutch skies and landscapes, I have now completely gotten into this other traditional Dutch genre, the flower still-lifes. I would like to some more like this, just one or two flowers in this very tall format. I really like painting within an old genre and tradition, while living completely within my own world and time and as a result of that, creating something of my own.