Parallel Thoughts

July 01, 2020 - July 31, 2020

What does it mean to me to be an artist, a painter? It means I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want and how I want.

I paint intuitively without any pre-conceived ideas or planning. In my mind there is some form of composition.  I immediately attack the blank canvas to get some marks down. These strokes or washes then provide me with a road-map, this way my paintings become an emotional journey into my subconscious, revealing my innermost emotions.

I am not an intellectual artist, I am an abstract expressionist, emotional, painter.

I have no intention of copying nature or a person’s likeness.  A man can look at a landscape and see the trees, rivers and the ocean. What do these make him feel?

I make what is unseen, my own response to a beautiful face, a pristine or an untidy landscape, sometimes it is simply the application of the paint, the texture, printed surfaces, line, brush strokes, colours lying next to each other, partly mixed or thin washes of paint over others.  There is beauty in everything. An emotional reaction to all things.

Using a palette of few colours, I place them in such a way, so as to create the visual impression that there are many.

I have no trouble destroying an area of a painting or the whole if it appears wrong, or doesn’t hit the sweet spot. After all I am painting something I would like to own.

Artists make things they cannot afford to buy.

Some people love to intellectualize about a painting meaning this or that, or having some profound message that the artist needs to convey to the spectator. Many times, this is the case, but I generally paint because I love painting and creating something out of paint and canvas or paper which pleases my eye and excites me and if I touch the soul of one person viewing my work. That is my reward.

©André François van Vuuren 2020