My Well-priced Gift to Humanity

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 19th February 2007


I told you already about my most recent portraits on commission and the resulting hunting trip through the galaxies after an eye spinning around his orbit...
I sent the photos of the portraits via mail to my clients some days ago and these two Dutch kiddies have been approved by their proud grand-parents now.
I received a very nice mail from them, expressing their happiness and gratitude about my work.



When you get such compliments, really, however much you have suffered before and doubted your aptitude as a portrait painter –and this was the case this time by one of the boys, believe me! Kevin saved the poor innocent boy more than once from the garbage bin!- you forget all that pain and just feel deeply fullfilled to have given your clients such happiness.

I never experienced in my life, in other domains where I worked such a feeling to have been „useful“, to have something important to give to humanity.
I don´t know if I told you before, but my first profession is mathematician. I initially worked teaching younger students mathematics in the University and later on, in the industry as a consultant resolving inner structural and financial problems of companies in trouble. Even if I know that what I did was very useful, for the students as well as for the companies, I never felt so inwardly accomplished as when I create a portrait which make my clients happy.
This is especially true of portraits. I already made a lot of paintings on commission –landscapes, sport scenes, flowers, animals, etc...- but the satisfaction is never so deep as with portraits.

Why is it so?
Honestly: I have no idea!
But it is almost certainly to do with the intensity with which I invest myself within the portraits when I paint them. It evolves into total identification with the subject. And of course it is quite hard to identify oneself with a dog or a flower....

Anyway: in life the satisfaction we get from some work done is always proportional to the inner effort we had to do to achieve it, isn´t it so? And everybody knows it: portraiting is quite a hard task!
So lets hope I´ll always have occasion to make this special gift to humanity... well, I know, it is a special kind of gift as it is not quite free of charges, but I am sure you will forgive me!

An Eye spinning around his Orbit...

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Goodaboom, Thursday 8th February 2007



Late, and I feel exhausted! My eyes are especially tired, after having spent the day working on the portraits of my two Dutch kiddies. At least, I have tamed them now... Well, I hope I have! I have had them here for some weeks already, it´s enough now, I can´t bear them anymore! This always happens to me when i work for a long time on a portrait, the portraited person comes alive, and almost as though he or she were living with me. When one knows me, and how I defend my privacy, one can imagine how I hate these intruders at the end!

Tomorrow I´ll send the photos of the portraits to the clients in Holland, and if they think they really are their grand-children, I´ll send them back home on the first plane! As I told before, one of them was complicated for me and I needed much more time than I thought. I had particular problems with one eye, which persisted in being too low, wherever I placed it. I noticed it very late, as the portrait was almost finished. I saw that something was wrong, but I was not able to find the reason. I looked at all the lines the light and the shadow areas, I compared all dimensions of all the elements of building a face, and the space between –something which I normally never do, as I paint portraits without taking measurements.
I never had such a problem before in my career as portrait painter, and I can tell you: this eye which was spinning around his orbit drove me mad! Above all because by the end it seemed to draw the nose tip, the mouth edges and the earlobes into its star trek!

The danger in this case is when you start changing things, little by little. Things which have nothing to do with the problem, and soon you stand in front of a stranger on the paper. Each minimal change generally has a massive effect on the expression of a face: it is true in life, and it is true in a portrait.

In such moments I am asking myself if I should really go on with such a hard profession as portrait painter. But I know the answer already; I cannot stop! Portrait painting is simply fascinating, and the happiness I give my clients is priceless (but don´t misunderstand me: my portraits do have a price!)!
Anyway I´ll publish these two new portraits in Goodaboom very soon, for the ones amongst you who have followed me on my way of the cross!

Still captured within the rainbow...

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Art Studio, Saturday 20th January 2007


No time to write these last few days... I have been, and still am, very busy painting 3 portraits on commission and preparing exhibitions. Yes, the dream of freedom will long remain a dream, I guess. But to be fair: what a nice jail within the rainbow!
The last portrait commission I got this week confirms the tendency I´d already noticed recently. People begin to prefer portraits in „black&white“, as I call them. By that I mean portraits painted in white and one other colour, black, brown, sanguine, sepia, etc. (like the Tahitian girl).
That last client put clearly into words what others –including myself!- may just feel. She said:
„You make the portraits so well, it´s almost like photography... the black&white are more artistic, somehow....“
I am not sure it is a compliment, concerning the colour portraits... making them „too good“ might indeed be a kind of mistake. One might miss the artistic, personal interpretation.... but well, I won´t worry too much about it, it is always a matter of taste and many people love my colour portraits the way they are.

But personaly, I also prefer the others. I find them indeed more artistic and romantic (and I am a hopeless romantic!).
But in the meanwhile I appear to be developing a style a portrait which seems to keep the „artisticity“ (!) of the black&white without completely abandoning the colours.

A very young lady called „Fleur“ inspired me to such a portrait some weeks ago. I had been commissioned a painting in the technique of the Tahitian girl, but in the creation process I automatically started to put in some warmer colours. I felt that it was necessary to transmit the light and the warmth emanating from Fleur.
Finally it became a portrait in white and 3 tender colours. The result was beautiful, and the clients were very happy. All the people who saw the portrait loved it, and my last client ordered her grand-child in this style.

It is almost finished now, as it was very urgent, my clients are flying home in some days for the birthday of the grandchild.
The portrait is again in a different style. I couldn´t help it, I had to let my inspiration work with the model and the idea I had from her, basing on what the grandparents told me about the girl. I´ll show you this new portrait in one of my next entries... if you deserve it!

As Kevin told it in his last entry, he was gigging and mounting exhibitions near to Mojácar (Almeria/Spain) at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately I was not there myself, but I saw some photos of the „Sport for All“ exhibition by Rolys, in Vera/Las Bougainvillas, and I am very happy with how it looks. My paintings are hanging in a nice, big salmon/green room with a warm atmosphere and well-enhanced by the numerous spotlights. Thankyou again to Mark for allowing this exhibition!

Two heads are better than one!

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Art Studio, Friday 12th January 2007


I was about to to call this entry „Slave to the Rhythm -3-“ but I didn´t want to risk sounding unthankful.
Yesterday I received a commission of two new portraits from proud Dutch grand-parents of their grand-children, two nice kiddies with „really red hair“, as the lady said, giggling (I altered the photo a little to preserve their anonymity...). Funny by the way: they came to my Studio with their own computer so we could choose the photos together, and the woman revealed herself to be a real computer buff, while her husband´s job was restricted to simply carrying the computer!. She even told me, that my Internet Security System was very bad and that people in the street could use my Internet at my cost... thank goodness it´s a standard charge!

Anyway... as always, as I asked them when they should be ready, they answered:
„Yesterday!“
Normally my clients are very impatient to see the result. In most cases it is the first time that they´ve ever ordered a portrait and they are quite excited. I have the impression that it makes them feel as though they are personally contributing to the World of Art. And in a certain sense it is true: without them the paintings wouldn´t exist. This is one of the reasons why I am so thankful for a commission: it allows me to create a new painting forcing me to push myself.
But at the same time, I feel a deep sense of responsibility. Of course I don´t want to ruin their expectations. nor simply create a good work of art. Above all I want my clients to find the soul within the portraits. A hard task, as all painters know who ´ve tried it themselves. The slightest change in a line or in a shadow can completely change the expression, and transform the person into a stranger. As a mathematician I would say:
„A wonderful example of the Chaos Theory!“

I had a nice conversation with a couple of compatriots on Sunday in the Street Gallery. They loved the portraits I was exhibiting that day. I told them that most of the time, I get portraits commissioned to give as gifts.

„Oh what a good idea! We never thought about that! Of course, it is a fantastic gift... what a pity that we didn´t meet you before Christmas!“

This is true. Most of the time people don´t think about giving the gift of a portrait. What a pity indeed! And not only from a business point of view: a good portrait is an everlasting gift, and the effect you achieve is simply wonderful!
I asked the Dutch couple, for example, if they wanted the two boys together on the same painting.
„Oh no, of course not! When they are grown-ups, and leave their parents house, they must each be able to take their own portrait, without ripping the painting down the middle!“
It is already the second time in this young year that I´ve heard that: apparently people who order a portrait think very far ahead!

A Waterproof Dog

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Art Studio, Monday 25th december 2006


Not quite a lazy Christmas for me. I am spending my day trying to capture a black wild horse, which I got as a commission last Sunday in the Street Gallery. Blue sky, blue sea, black horse: A „Night mare“! I´ll tell you the story and show you the horse when I catch him... if I succeed!

In case you are doubting: no, it is not the black horse on the photo. The dog... well, yesterday afternoon we went to the beach, with the intention to hand out the Happy Christmas leaflets to announce the birth of The New Star Goodaboom. It was not quite the right day to do it, as the weather was awful, and nobody dared to venture their noses onto the promenade. At least there were cars there and we put a 120 leaflets on them... Good Luck, Goodaboom!

The sea was rough, high waves as never seen before here. I walked close to the seas´edge to take some photos. In the background I heard Kevin consumed with laughter because some of the waves were overtaking me. By the way I´m amazed that my camera survived the shock... never mind the dog! He was there with 2 men –no respite for dog owners, they had to venture their noses!-, continuously casting stones into the sea to amuse the dog. Considering the height of the waves, the young dog hesitated to run after the first stones, but eventually could not resist. He gathered his pace.... and ran full into a wave! Within a fraction of second he had disappeared completely into the boiling foam. We all stared at the point where the dog disappeared, anxiously waiting for a glimpse of black to appear again within the big white chaos.

After one minute –I may exagerrate a little bit, but it really seemed a long time!- a black spot appeared again. At first it didn´t move at all, quite waterlogged I guess! As he finally gathered his wits he attempted to leave the sea with dignity...
Later, as the man tried to repeat the fun, the dog started running but always stopped short at the last moment before he reached the waterline. A fantastic example of how quickly dogs can learn... at least when the lesson is hard enough!
Eventually our doggy even demonstrated a certain blasé attitude to the high waves, turning his back on them... but he never went back into the sea!