Snow no. 1

Snow no. 1. 2011.
Oil on linen.
40 x 30 cm (15.8" x 11.8").

Snow no. 1. detail

Well, it IS the season.

Happy Holidays, Fijne Kerstdagen, 

Happy New Year een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar to all!

Water 5

Water 5. 2011.
Oil on linen.
40 x 30 cm (15.8" x 11.8").

Water 4

Water 4. 2011.
Oil on linen.
40 x 30 cm (15.8" x 11.8").

Water 4. 2011.
Detail

Rain releases a grain of sand from the top of a mountain, which is carried to the sea. It is buried and eventually transformed into a layer of sedimentary rock. Eons later, the stone is lifted by tectonic action. The process begins anew: erosion reveals a timeless beauty in the exposed layers. A human lifetime is but an instant when considered from geologic timeframe.

There are parallels between our lives and the hydrologic cycle; renewal and birth, energy and life, erosion and decay. The physical and often ancient or transient traces left by earth and hydrologic processes are a reminder of our mortality even as they suggest redemption through renewal, evoking the cycles of energy and life.

I am a water resources engineer and artist. The latest 'water' series brings these two halves together. (http://erikrhagen.com/water/water.html)

New drawings from the Ipad

Life drawing has never been so fun.  I work on the drawings with a big smile on my face.  Fantastic. I hope you enjoy the images!

Open Studio: Invitation to Art&Jazz May 21 and 22

As part of Art&Jazz, my atelier is open from 11 to 5 on May 21, and 11 to 3 on May 22. You are invited to  to see my studio.  I am exhibiting with another artist, Luba Fateeva.  There are many more open studios in the 'hood, so if you want to tour some other studios it is a fun day out.  I have some maps or you can see the other sites on the web (in Dutch) at http://www.artandjazz.nl/home.html.

Where: Parkweg 9a
2585JG

See you there!

Man with the broken nose. 2011.
Oil on linen.
120 x 100 cm (47.2" x 39.3")

Pink, orange, and blue layers with plastic bag

Pink, orange, and blue layers with plastic bag. 2011.

Oil on linen.

80 x 50 cm 

White layer tacked to blue layer

White layer tacked to blue layer. 2011.

Oil on linen.

50 x 40 cm

Red, black and blue layers with grass

Red, Black, and blue layers with grass. 2011.

Oil on linen.

40 x 30 cm

Having fun with paint.  And grass.

Red and Blue Layers 2

Red and Blue Layers 2. 2011.

Oil on linen.

120 x 100 cm (47.2" x 39.3"

Rothko has a bad day

Rothko has a bad day. 2011. 

Oil on wood. 

80 x 60 cm (31.5" x 23.6").

Red and Blue Layers

Red and Blue Layers. 2011.
Oil on linen.
120 x 100 cm (47.2" x 39.3")

Yellow and Green Layers

Yellow and Green Layers. 2011.
Oil on Panel.
106 x 50 cm (41.7" x 19.7").

Green and blue layers

Green and Blue Layers. 2011. 
Oil on Panel. 
106 x 50 cm (41.7" x 19.7")


I showed a partial image of this painting a while back but finally had good studio light for a decent picture. 

Purple, green and orange layers

oil on linen

30 x 24 cm

Another painting from the 'unfinished edge' series.  This little painting is small, really just a sketch.  It is fun to work through some of the ideas in smaller paintings.  

Blue, green, and yellow layers

oil on linen

30 x 24 cm

Details showing the sides of several recent canvases

A friend writes that my threshold for entertainment is low.  Perhaps you will agree after reading this post.  Nonetheless, I find myself fascinated by the edge of the canvas and how to finish a painting. Convention dictates that one scrape off the residual paint to make a nice finished edge for framing.  Instead, I am leaving each mark on the canvas as it is made, including any paint that spills over the edge.  There is no "erasure:"  these latest works are all about the process.  So, the resulting canvas edge shows something of the different layers in the paintings and how it is made.  Interestingly, the paintings become much more three dimensional, almost like sculpture.

Blue and yellow make green

60 by 40 cm

This painting was worked entirely 'wet on wet,' i.e., with wet paint on wet paint.  The horizontal stripe was the last step in this painting: it was made with a big palette knive, the kind used for drywall work.  This was painted over an older painting, I think it was a landscape.

Detail: Red and blue layers

This is a detail from a large painting called "Red and blue layers."  The original is 120 by 100 cm.

Green and blue layers

I have been busy in the studio, but there hasn't been good natural light for photos: hence the lack of weekly posts.  Finally I broke down and took photos using studio lights.  Criminy, when will spring get here? 

This small painting, 30 by 24 cms, is a good representation of what I've been up to lately.  It combines the use of pallete knives, scrapers, brushes, resulting in layers of new and old paint.  Mostly, the paint is worked wet on wet.

Green and blue

100 by 120 cm.  (about 3 by 4 feet).  

Lately, I have been using bolts to attach paintings to wood frames, and/or a thicker impasto paint: I seem to be coming back to my roots in ceramic sculpture as my paintings get more three dimensional. 

This is a very personal painting, and a bit on the dark side.  On the one hand, it is a Dutch winter:  green moss and dark skies: death.  Yet when viewed in a brighter light the moss green becomes a deep and more verdant green, with  promise of growth and summer. The black center becomes a deep blue, almost more of a northern-lattitude midnight summer sky: rebirth.  I like this painting because of the ambiguity: it is my new favorite.

  

Blue and Yellow

Recently, I've been using discarded materials like old-wood, and architectural objects. The latest set of paintings explores the way the painting is connected to the support. This painting is mounted onto a cast-off wood shutter using bolts fastened through the surface of the painting to the underlying wood, done while the paint is still wet. The paint itself is augmented with oily painter's medium, so the paint surface shimmers like a jewel. It's been too dark and rainy to take photos here in Holland using natural light, so I can only share these photos now. More soon!