And so, finally we could move into our (partly) finished new home…
I used the white chains from the set design of "Martino" as wall-curtains.
There even was a small opening ceremony (and exhibition) when I moved into the new studio. A question of warming up so to speak, to get a feel of the place.
But what I really did of course was starting painting again without the restrictions of a small studio. Out of nowhere popped up the image of small empty beds into my head. I did these works in enamel paint, something I always do when I don't want to be distracted by the beauty of oil paint. Enamel doesn't lend itself to any romanticism with the danger of becoming just a painter, instead of an artist who makes paintings. The series was called “Spanish Flu”.
“Spanish Flu”, enamel on canvas, 190 x 190 cm.
I did hang this one in the new kitchen that I built, including the dinner table.
“Spanish Flu”, enamel on canvas, 160 x 200 cm.
“Spanish Flu”, enamel on canvas, 195 x 195 cm.
The set design for "Apenverdriet" was a small apartment that could turn on its axis, thus becoming a kind of maze were two women tried to figure out how to deal with each other. That I had it paint in fire red didn't help them either, witch was the hole point of the play of course.
The Spanish Flu series evolved into another series, simply named Landscapes. “Chapel of Ease”, enamel on canvas,175 x 200 cm.
“The Gorge”, enamel on canvas, 175 x 200 cm.
“Rooted”, enamel on canvas, 135 x 170 cm.
Now I had a my new studio and more than enough space, I started some experimenting with oil paint on artificial fur again. It had been awhile. Until then all fur paintings were monochromes. Now I introduced more colors, like in “Dawn” (oil on artificial fur, 135 x 170 cm).
In the multicolored fur paintings, the colors itself weren't mixed in a traditional sense but separated by the borders that emerged through the drawing into the fur itself. Each one consisted of several layers of the same color. “Rice Fields” (135 x 170 cm).
“Golden Tree Top” (oil on artificial fur, 135 x 200 cm).
I even found the time to make myself a “Sofa” for my new studio, using the same artificial fur as for the paintings but on foam instead on frame.
A look at "Cornfields" when it was standing in my library.
And my first 'workstation' opposite "Cornfields", where I did all my set designs, graphic designs and novels...
“Cornfields” (25 x 200 x 300 cm), although a painting, it also was a part of an installation. That's why its form was curved and thicker at the bottom than at the top. Very much like a filmscreen, except this one was in artificial fur and oil paint. A video was projected into the painting.
The still empty studio garden. A lot of work has to be done, in as well as outside the studio.
Over the years, I had the habit to create series of small paintings, every time I had questions and doubts about the way forward. In each series I tried to solve a specific problem. It almost always had to do with how to work with (oil)paint in the context of my usage of the silhouette. Incase of this series called ‘Trees’, the whole canvas was painted in one specific color, after which I 'sculpted out' a form (tree) with white paint. “Tree”, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm.
“Tree”, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm.
“Tree”, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm.
The two last paintings out of that series weren't trees though. One was the figuration of a "Yūrei" (oil on canvas, 40 x 60 cm). Yūrei were figures in Japanese folklore analogous to Western notion of ghosts.
The second and last of that series was another "Spanish Flu” (oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm).
It took me several hours to finish this ink drawing of a street. (Ink on paper, 55 x 65 cm.)
Then I decided to use it in a four seasons animation.