wokkel

I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4

Wokkel (1972) During and after my study at the Academy of fine arts Minerva in Groningen the Netherlands I was mainly painting landscapes. Paintings so large that you almost feel as if you are standing in the landscapes yourself. My graduating project was a massive painting of a forest of nine by five meters. In 1998 I finished my study. Since then my main specialisation is painting landscapes, although I see that theme in a larger perspective now. I have to travel for my subjects. I'm fascinated by landscapes where nature is overwhelming and almost violently present. I like to be there alone so the experience gets more intense. I want to translate that authentic experience to canvas. In 2001 it was in Norway where I came across untouched nature with ice-cold lakes, melting ice and roaring waterfalls falling down mountains of might. I take pictures of that and make sketches. Back home in my studio I translate them into monumental canvasses. I try to catch the movement of such a place by throwing paint letting it drip and splatter. This is how I experience the place. The sketches and photos, but also flyers and folders, are a good help but in fact I paint from memory. This memory is much more vivid than the material I brought back could ever be. At first I painted nature as it was, but during the process the canvasses as well become landscapes of paint themselves. During two trips to Czech Republic (2002 and 2003) I came across desolate industrial areas. Silent witnesses of a broken culture. What was in the past so monumental and proud now has become sad and futureless. The link with some of my favourite artists Caspar David, Friedrich, Anselm, Keifer en Peter Doig was present there. Though their approaches vary, they also were/are in search of things beyond the landscape itself: the deeper layers within the painting. After travelling to New Zealand (2004/2005) and going back to Finland (2007) human figures got a place in my paintings. Besides the photos that I take and things I collect on my travelling I also use movie images, prints and photocopies now. The paint (and painting) itself is still very important: transparent, thick, in one stroke or very worked through, they all have a place. The new work has a lot of contradictions in itself. Forceful, tender, love, hate, victory, defeat, light, darkness, life and death. They are connected as much as they are separated. They challenge the viewer to form their own story. Let the paint do the talking!