Lenaers.org - Art blog

Banksy Loves NY

cedric — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:47:33 +0200

I have always been a fan of Banksy. The way he connects his work to the surroundings is astonishing. I'm almost as much a Banksy fans as I am a NYC fan.

Interested in seeing those two come together?

Faded portraits

cedric — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:53:14 +0100

I am an autodidact painter. Like with alomost everything, I like to find out stuff myself - don't know where I got that though.
Lately there has been this feeling of unhappiness about my painting. I still loved the paintings I made, but I just couldn't see myself or my technique progressing like it did in the first years. I knew this meant that it was high time to start experimenting.

People who have seen my work in real life know that I'm not very fond of thick layers of paint or coarse brushstrokes. They result in way too much light reflection for my type of work.
For a while I've been wondering if I could get it even thinner and less opaque than it already was. It took a while to find out the exact composition of my painting medium (a hint: it contains varnish, turpentine, linseed oil and a secret ingredient..) only to notice that that wasn't the only key to success.
Even the thickness and colour of the gesso underpaiting is imortant. Hell, even the charcoal sketch could be seen through the end result, so even that had to be fixed by using beige pastel instead.

All in all it's become quite a different approach to oil paint.

Painting the "Mona Lisa" was something I'd been wanting to do for quite some time. I always wondered how the painting would have turned out if Ms Lisa Gherardini had come to me for her commissioned portrait.. This was a good opportunity. The finished painting looked exactly as I intended it.

"Lisa Gherardini"

But that wasn't enough - I never know when to stop. ;)
For the next canvas I adjusted the mixture of the medium and got to an even better result. It had worn me out completely, but it was well worth it.

Faded man #1

Does this mean the 'old' style is gone and forgotten? Not at all!!
I just need to master as many techniques as possible to make sure that I can express my vision in the best possible way.

Days like these is what I paint for.

Gold - selfportrait

cedric — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:50:03 +0100

Every now and then I need to paint myself. Just because I feel like it.

Quick and dirty, but with interesting use of brush strokes.

Man

cedric — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:57:54 +0100

You can buy at least ten types of black oil paint, and if you apply any of them to a normal painting, they all look the same - black. Sounds like an interesting starting point to me.
Once you start putting them together you can easily see their minimal differences in opacity and color intensity. It is not easy to paint with black for a whole day - after a while your vision starts playing tricks with you. After finishing it I was left with a serious headache, my eyes were running and with a whole lot of doubt about the result.

Once the upper layer began to dry out and the the different shades became apparent again it started to look good.

As usual it is now temporarily in my living room, drying at room temperature. I must say it's not the most comforting painting to be around, it has a strange aura. Very odd. It changes enourmously with the lighting during the day - one of the reasons I love it most.

Closed

cedric — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:29:45 +0100

Starting 2010 with a few days off work has proven to be a good choice.

Exhibit B: "Closed"

One September morning in NYC

cedric — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:16:07 +0100

Here's the first painting for 2010.

"One September morning in NYC" refers to 9/11, obviously. But why? 8 years later?

Well, you can blame Hova, Young, Jigga, Jay-Z. Again.
I watched the Fuse TV airing of his Madison Square Garden concert last week.
Besides an excellent show he did make a good point: we should never forget about this!

I know I'm a "middleclass white boy" (if you insist on generalizing/tagging me) living across the ocean. Luckily no one I know has lost anyone because of these attacks. But it did change the world as it is. Forever.
The sheer amount of lives lost on both sides since the start of this Holy War is enourmous.
We will never learn, will we?

"One September morning in NYC"
Dedicated to all lives lost in this new Holy War.

Happy New Year!

cedric — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:04:05 +0100

Januari 1st, high time to review 2009 and have a short preview of what 2010 has in store.

Some statistics of this past year:

2009 yielded 24 finished paintings.
11 didn't make it and were left unfinished or repainted.
Out of 35 started, 19 were 60cm by 80cm - by far the most popular dimension.
The smallest was "Boskabout" at 32cm by 24cm.
1440 cm² of fine grade linen were used to create "Crossing 5th".
According to art supply receipts I bought 47 tubes of oil paint.
31 of those tubes were white(14), black(10) and burnt umber(7).

The "artwork giveaway" was also one of the highlights of 2009. Not all paintings have been delivered, but that's only a matter of time..
You can read all about it on this blog, if you're unfamiliar with the concept. ;)

The one thing that struck me most this year is the enourmous rise in interest for commissioned artwork. I'm not quite sure what's causing it, but it appears many people want their artwork to be personalized.
I tend to be very cautious with these assignments because they can feel limiting quite easily for an artist. But if all has been discussed well and the client understands my point of view, why not?
We'll see if this trend continues this year.

What will 2010 bring?

I hope I can develop my own style some more.

I'm entering the "Canvascollectie" and am really curious about the outcome. Both feet are firmly on the ground, so I can take any result ;)

I hope the Times Square to Art Square will take off this year. This is one of the most original projects I've seen in art. Please support it.

Experience has learned that resolutions don't work for me, so I stay away from that. ;)

Thank you for taking interest in my work this past year, and I wish you and all your loved ones an excellent 2010!

DJ A-TRAK

cedric — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:08:20 +0100

The man, the machines & the crowd..

This is another one (number 6) in the DJ series I'm doing.

I came across a very nice pic by Brian Goldschmied - a Canadian photographer.
As I always do, I emailed for permission to use the image as the basis for a new painting.

Then I went crazy with it..

DJ Four

cedric — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:32:43 +0100

This DJ series I'm working on is progressing nicely - lots of ideas and some even turning out as nice paintings.

I did a freehand two-tone drawing of a DJ last night - but wanted to give it a bit of 'communist propaganda' feel.
The image itself is really simple, and so is the background - but when that "all done" feeling comes up, I just know I have to stop.

Even though the painting's finished, I don't think I'm all done with the image in general. I may play a bit more with it today. ;)

"DJ Four"
60cm x 80cm

Why that title? Look through this blog. You'll see this is the fourth one in the series..

A new home for a painting

cedric — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:08:35 +0100

This is a follow-up on the artwork giveaway - another painting has been picked up by the new owner..

A few weeks ago Joeri came by the appartment to pick up his triptych. Not only did we have a nice chat about art, being IT-ers, we quickly had enough mutual interests to fill a good conversation.

This weekend I received the pictures of the painting in Joeri's living room.
It's awesome! It just belongs there!

"From Ellis Island" at Joeri's place: