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Audio tour studio exhibition From landscape to shape, from painting to object, 5 to 13 September 2020.The audio clips are only available in Dutch, sorry. The text is translated with google translate.

1. Exhibition

Welcome to my studio. In the front part I have set up an exhibition with recent work: non-figurative or abstract minimalist wall objects. You see shapes that originated in the landscape but no longer have any relationship with it. They have become independent shapes. They slide on top of each other, merge, parts are removed, shape and residual shape seek balance. Freed from the frame, they take their place on the wall and enter into a relationship with each other and with the space.
Are you curious about how I came to these shapes, then take a look at the rear part of the studio. Find the numbers and scan the codes. In this way you will discover the different phases in which my work has developed and you will see how this formal language arose from the landscape.

2. Silent landscapes

Ten years ago I painted abstractions of landscapes, tranquil landscapes, inspired by the Wadden Sea, among other things. Vastness, space, tranquility, tranquility. Empty landscapes, sky and land, horizontal surface divisions, through which a horizon appears naturally.
I exhibited the work under the title Still landscapes. When I had to come up with a title for the next exhibition, I chose Verstilling. For me it was not – or no longer – about the landscape, but about the peace, the space, the stillness. I gave myself the task to let go of the landscape and from that moment on not to paint a horizon anymore.

3. Two shapes without a horizon

The landscapes I painted often consisted of two planes: an upper plane – the sky – and a lower plane – the land. Landscape elements were sometimes visible in these two planes. Abstract representations of a cloud, suggestions of vegetation or water. When I decided to stop painting a horizon, I was left with the abstract landscape elements.
I asked myself how you can make an interesting painting with just the abstract representations of landscape elements, with two shapes, which is exciting to look at. I started to experiment, painted many shapes, in all kinds of variations. Understated or more expressive, open or closed, opaque or transparent. I was looking for exciting compositions, I was looking for contrasts and balance. But still with stillness and the landscape as a starting point: a shape in the top part of the painting, the sky, and a shape in the bottom part, the land.

4. Abstraction of the shape

The abstract shapes that – from the landscape – stood one above the other for a long time started to lead a life of their own. By turning a canvas a quarter turn, the shapes stood side by side and the link with the landscape had disappeared. I started to vary with the number of shapes, sometimes many, sometimes just one. Occasionally, a shape (partly) left the canvas. I experimented with materials and walked side roads. Always looking for the right composition, a certain tension and yet also the stillness, the balance. Use of shape and material.

5. Composite shapes

When the first shape was partly placed outside the canvas, it was a small step towards my first wall object. I experimented with solitary and composite shapes, as an object but also on paper and canvas.
Several solitary shapes slid on top of each other, melting together. This created shapes that – if you took a blank sheet of paper and a pencil – you wouldn’t just draw. New shapes, looking for a certain tension and balance or imbalance, minimalist and powerful enough to exist as an independent shape.

6. Shape and residual shape

A shape exists because of the contours it has. These contours are the boundary between shape and space. I am looking for the right proportion so that the space – the residual shape – can become shape and vice versa. I delete part of a shape, which in itself shows a shape. The contours are seldom tight, the shapes seldom geometric, the surface structure shows irregularities and the movement of the brush is visible in the paint. The colors are often subdued, sometimes brighter, depending on the shape. These properties give shape to the objects and give rise to existence. They have become independent shapes, or – as was written in response to an exhibition – pronounced characters, firm and delicate.

7. Childlike freedom

On this wall you can see the first sketches of a new project. About eight years ago I received an envelope containing drawings and pastes that I made in kindergarten about 47 years ago. The envelope contained a few drawings in which I now see clear similarities with the design language I have developed. Is it a coincidence or were these shapes already in my head? I do not know. What appeals to me is the sketchy, the direct, the childlike freedom.
The challenge I take up is to apply this expression in my own visual language. A design language that I have developed over the last 10 years and will continue to develop, in search of the ultimate shape that says as much as possible with the least possible means.