On painting

My studio windows are made of frosted glass. I do not need to literally see the world to be able to paint. The blue sky and the clouds, which I look at through the roof window, suffice. Starting from an image I remember or come across by chance, I aim to reshape it in paint. I transform the anecdote into an image which becomes universal. I recreate an known image into something it never has been before, but as it exists, as an idea. Painting needs to move between appearance and disappearance. A painting must resemble a portrait, which at least disguises as much as it reveals. My paintings exist in the twilight zone of the imagined reality.

I aim to paint and draw in exactly the same way.

On drawing

Drawing is my first and foremost manner in which to capture an idea. It is by far the best way to grasp the unseen in heart and mind. Drawing creates order and opens at the same time the door to disorder, to imagination. It is an act of mind drawing.
The drawn line takes me on a voyage. If the first line is good, the voyage starts, without wanting to know precisely where it ends. More important than the knowledge is the quest. The direction is given by the definition and mastering of the first line. Everything thereafter evades from the ratio’s control. Drawing is simultaneously thinking and dreaming. It enables me to create another world, one of which I am only aware once it appears. Drawing feels like setting off on a journey. The point of arrival only matters when the destination has been reached. The pencil shows the route to take.

I aim to paint and draw in exactly the same way.