Lotta de Beus
Lotta de Beus, Amsterdam (NL). www.lotta.nl
During the day I look into the Vliegenbos in Amsterdam Noord. There is a big factory next to this studiocomplex and often gusts of smoke float over and between the trees. In the night it is a mysterious world on itself. When I sleep over in my studio, the light of this lamppost always peeps through the luxaflex. Dark and light are very important elements in my work.
Carton Noir, acrylics on canvas, 200x160cm, 2014.
Frank Lisser
Frank Lisser, Weesp (NL). www.franklisser.nl
Dairy of my view
Since august 2001 I paint on nearly daily basis my view. In a gouache sketch I make a small 10×10 cm ten minutes notation of the atmosphere; like a weather report. The result up till now is a huge amount of boxes filled whit nearly 3000 pages or days. My view is just boring or nothing special. My surrounding is like everywhere in the Netherlands: an ordinary result of mass production. Like mostly all of the lives of the ordinary: you eat, work, sit before a TV and die. So my observations are like that: a row of small painted sketches or days, till it stops.
Giel Louws
Giel Louws, Vlissingen (NL). www.giellouws.com
My studio is located in Vlissingen in an old school-building. This building has 13 artists’ studios under the name of art-initiative Kipvis. I have a fantastic studio on the second floor, which I consider an artwork in itself. It is overflowing with a clear light reflected off the nearby sea. Looking out of the window, what is a large part of my art-practice, you can see the dunes. The combination of the ruthless light, the tranquility of Zeeland, and the music I play, is the birth ground of my work. That work revolves around the subject of painting. Starting from a long period of figurative painting, I arrived at a point that I became interested in the subject of the layered object that is a painting. Lately I started deconstructing these layers, and re-attach them loosely so the painting is no longer a fixed object. My most recent thoughts revolve around a marriage of my figurative work, and the more abstract recent works.
Werk; N.T. 22 x 33 cm. Acrylics on plastics and springs.
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)
Evi Vingerling
Evi Vingerling, Eindhoven (NL). http://www.evingerling.com/
Untitled, 2013, gouache on canvas, 180×230 cm
Stefan Kasper
Stefan Kasper, Haarlem (NL). www.stefankasper.nl
My studio is one of six within the artist run space Horizonverticaal. An artist collective, studiocomplex and exhibition space. Situated in a former brewery called ‘Het Scheepje’ (1608) alongside the river Spaarne in Haarlem. It’s a nice view, looking west to the old city centre. Across the river, on the left side you can see museum Teylers the oldest one of The Netherlands. In the middle two churches, the grey tower centreleft is the Grote Kerk or St. Bavochurch, the other white tower is the Bakenesserchruch.Finally on the right you can see the mill ‘Adriaan’. It’s great to have lunch or a barbecue (looking) at the river, enjoying birds, boats and of course tourists.
My work focusses on figurative drawing and collages.
F.F. van de Woestijne
F.F. van de Woestijne, Amsterdam (NL). www.iamyourgallery.com
I am so fortunate as to be able to walk from my apartment straight into my studio, both located in the middle of Amsterdam. It has split levels, plenty of windows and space and a high ceiling.
The area I use for my paintings is at street level. The windows here are covered with misty transparent paper, topped off with blinds. Why? To keep the outside spectators at a distance, so I can work in peace.
Portrait painting is what I do mostly at the moment. My models are imaginary, taken from every kind of source. I try to imagine how to ‘handle’ them, really get to know them and build some kind of relationship. Once that is established I start painting.
When I am finished doing a number of paintings I exhibit them in groups of 3 or 4, in such a way that a single new portrait or representation emerges.
I’m really happy with my studio and try to use it in as many ways as possible.
E.g. every once in a while I change it into a pop-up kind of gallery, or I organize a show for a weekend, presenting artists from my immediate surroundings. It’s worth the hassle, you learn a lot, and very rewarding.
If I want to enjoy the view outside I move to the upper level of my studio. It is a place to ponder, listen to music and watch my paintings from a distance.
Oil on jatoba wood approx. 30 x 40 cm
workandview 