Long time ago Archives - Page 3 of 4

16 November 2014

The final check

In my post two weeks ago I talked about portrait painting and the applause of uncles and aunts; the worthless fame. What you really need is a critical eye of someone who understands matters. Someone whose opinion you appreciate. Someone who does not give compliments just to please you. Formerly, before a painting left my studio, my daughter came to approve the product. And when she had critical points, she almost always was right. She is married now and lives in Madrid already for five years. This week she is staying with us. So I can call on her scrutiny. The family portrait, which I have shown you before, is in it´s final stage. Together we have gone over. Beside a few little things I got her approval and for her part the painting can be delivered. Of course I also sent an image to the client. They are very enthusiastic. (aside from some small comments). After these corrections the painting can be varnished and shipped.

19 October 2014

Mum, I wanna be a carpenter!

As a young child I knew what I wanted to be. Not a fireman or a pilot. I wanted to be a carpenter. My neighbour was a carpenter and it seemed to me the best job in the world. When I told this to my mother one day, she replied literally, “No, Ben, you can do more.” However, I wanted nothing else. With my very first pocket money I bought a bag of brand new nails at the hardware store. I had seen my dad always dabbling with these bent, rusty things that needed to be straightened. All that fiddling, not my thing. No. I had made up my mind. I wanted to tackle things rigorous from the start. But… I did not become a carpenter.

Eventually I went into art, portrait painting. And devotedly. It’s come to dominate my life as I wrote you last week. But besides painting I did however teach myself carpentry as a hobby. Once in Spain, I got the opportunity to build my own studio. And I seized this chance with both hands. From the first construction drawings to the building itself. The masonry, the welding work, the plumbing, the electricity, and of course the carpentry, everything done by myself, albeit with the help of my wife. It has become a perfect studio and a wonderful workplace. That was fifteen years ago. Recently we moved to an other place and I work in a different studio now. Strangely enough I don´t miss my old studio. Maybe the building process itself was more important than the finished result (traveling is better than arriving, so it often goes). Continue reading “Mum, I wanna be a carpenter!”

31 August 2014

25 years ago

Next week it will be 25 years since we left Holland and moved to Spain. Friends offered their house in Valencia. We planned to stay for a year but then never came back. We set our wings to the wind, to wider horizons. In Holland we were very happy and content, as we are now in Spain. Here was work to provide our livelihood, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we managed. We have been lucky to make many friends, and we still enjoy the simple life, in rural Spain. None of us knows what lies in store for us tomorrow. But just more of the same, that would be great.

My scrapbook of the first year of our stay in Spain

24 August 2014

Am I a bungler?

It’s not always fun in the the beast´s belly of creation. Once in a blue moon it’s doom and gloom. You always feel as good or bad as your last painting. When you have done a great job you feel invincible, then there is nothing to worry about. But once in a while you make something mediocre, no matter what you do. You feel miserable. Fear is lurking to be unmasked as a bungler, a charlatan. The strange thing is that this phenomenon of despair grows with you. If all goes well your quality as a painter improves with the years. But sometimes you realize that you might not reach the top that you had in mind for yourself. Winds of uncertainty. Then it’s good to look back, and see what you have created in the past. On the occasion you see a piece again and it can be surprising. In such a way that you think: Did I make that? It’s not really bad!

I recently came across this portrait, a commission that I made in 1999. The subdivision of the background may not be great, the person’s ear is a bit fancy but the brushwork and the atmosphere surprised me. I wish I could paint that way again!

20 July 2014

Reckless and irreversible

Recently I came across an image of a painting from the series “Portraits of Valencia “. It is called Man on the Bridge. I made some paintings with this theme probably more than ten years ago. I dedicated more time then to paint subjects other than portraits. Maybe I should resume this and make some uncommissioned work again. The painting was not bad, I guess. I say was, because it no longer exists in this form. One day I wondered if another cut would be better. With strips of paper I covered the picture to get an impression of a new crop. Recklessly I took the rash decision of putting the knife in. I trimmed the canvas! The truncated version hangs now at a friends place. I guess they do not know about the original version. But I regret the error. Why didn´t I see, I was about to commit a big mistake and ruin a good picture? So I warn you all, don´t be too quick with decisions that are irreversible.

Man on the bridge. Oil on canvas — Man on the bridge. Original version

4 May 2014

Not a lick and a promise

I like to see half finished paintings, even of my own work. It says something about the work process. Was it the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom who once said “Traveling is better than arriving”? I just found this image of a half painted portrait. Here you see: I am traveling. It is not finished; not yet at my place of destination. Often I enjoy more of the process itself then the finished product.

Also this picture reminds me of something else. I see the small statue in the background. It represents the Greek mythologic figure of Atlas who held up the celestial sphere. I added this prop at the special request of the sitter, the retiring Professor of Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. For lack of good reference material I made a sculpture in plastiline myself and painted it with acrylics to imitate the bronze patina. I really like to prepare things blow by blow. Not a lick and a promise.

16 March 2014

When are you famous?

Years ago I received a commission for a portrait that would be used in a publicity campaign for a home-decoration company in the Netherlands. Thanks to my agent we agreed to good terms and the financial settlement was very satisfactory. However, I did not know exactly what role the portrait of the owner of the company would play in the campaign. It soon turned out that the picture appeared in countless advertisements and even on the trucks of the company. I was surprised, when I once was back in the Netherlands, to find myself driving past my portrait on the highway. Then I asked myself: am I already a little famous?

30 October 2013

Watercolour portraits

Almost all my commissions are portraits in oils. In in the past I made a few in watercolour. Here you see one of a boy. The other of my daughter that I made exactly fifteen years ago. If I had more time I would pay more attention to this fantastic technique. People often ask me to teach in this. But it still has too many secrets to me. Someday maybe?

26 October 2013

Drawing from memory

Some years ago, when I often travelled in the Valencian Metro, I had the habit of studying fellow passengers. I tried to remember how the head of a particular person looked like. At home I tried, from memory, to draw the head. Today I came across a sketchbook of that period with some of these doodles. I was reminded, that I had to be careful because people soon notice when you eye at them for a longer time. I am pretty sure I did at least sometimes and it must have looked strange.

Once in a blue moon I had to draw from memory during the model-drawing lessons from Father Beatus Nijs, my unsurpassed art teacher. We had to observe the model for five minutes. Then we made the drawing from memory. A great experience! I did not preserved any of these drawings. Later I participated in more than one group to study nude models. There I proposed sometimes to do the same exercise. The drawing is from the 80s.

8 September 2013

1961 at the barber´s.

It’s 1961. I’m less than ten years old. I need a haircut. Something that I am not really looking forward to, but… at the barber´s, in the magazine rack, there is a thick stack of Panorama´s.

For me it can not last long enough until it is my turn. I handpick all editions whose covers are painted by Kurt Art. I can sit for hours examining in amazement. The images look like photographs but if you look closely you see that they are painted; illustrations! I have the idea that I am the only one who get that message, and in a strange way I feel that these covers are painted only for me. I am not even 10 years old…

It would be an exaggeration to say that this experience made me choose to become an illustrator or even an artist, but now, when I think back, I clearly rememberer that moment of sparkling light. A scintilla that would kindle a never-dying fire.

Of course by that time I never had heard of Norman Rockwell nor The Saturday Evening Post. That all came much later.

In 1987, in New York, having lunch with two fellow illustrators at the restaurant of the Society of illustrators, I was seated right under the large painting The Dover Coach of Norman Rockwell. In this restaurant you could not come in, if you were´nt invited by one of its members. I found myself inside that particular world that I began to dream of as a child, at the hairdressers in the early sixties.