Kees Koomen

Kees Koomen, Den haag (NL). www.keeskoomen.nl

Since I always found it important to live in or near my studio I have always painted in an apartment or had my bed in my studio. Art and life are the same, they feed on each other, I want them to remain connected. Another argument is that I love to have a look on my work before going to sleep to see where my activities during the day have led me.

Nowadays my wife and me are lucky to live in a house in the centre of Den Haag of which the ground floor is being used for workspace. My studio is the back-part of this floor and it has doors opening to the garden which belongs to the house. The studio is situated looking south-west, so I have the sun from noon if it shines. Usually the sun is high when it starts shining in the studio so this does not pose a problem. I have a blue-grey floor by which the prevailing light has the right color to work with. At the picture the garden is in its winter sleep, I still have to prune down the tree and the vines but it looks not as green and abundant as it can look from spring to autumn. Behind our garden are gardens of our neighbors and  you look at the back of houses in the street next to ours.
Strangely I do not like painting in the garden, I want to be alone when I work and I would be in the open too much. On the other hand everybody can come and visit me in my studio anytime, in spite of whatever I am busy with, so there is still something to resolve there.

Fuck Focus – 2014 (olieverf op doek, 95×90 cm)