the series: Stains; not facing reality
For years I've collected images that somehow moved me. News photography from newspapers, pictures from magazines, but also packaging and sometimes pictures from art history. Without naming what it was that hit me - the history, a facial expression, body language or the quality of the picture - the images have become part of a comprehensive collection over the years. The images became part of my personal history because I chose and kept them, even though they're about people or events occurring far away from me, in a time now gone by. In the series of paintings "Stains; not facing reality" I work from parts of these images. Sometimes parts, mostly figures from different images come together in a composition. I see it as a visual poetry. While working I experience the figures or elements from the pictures new, I'm touched by them again. I explicitly do not use projections to make these paintings, such as Marlene Dumas says she does when creating her paintings. For the appropriation, the 'actualising' of the picture elements it is vitally important that I undergo the experience of painting without the intervention of photographic projections. In the painting process I discover the experience.
Painted 'space' plays a specific role in this series: an illusionary space that does not exist is nevertheless experienced in the work. Is a surface painted with a gradient a space or is it not? Is it a volume, or not? Do receding lines suggest a perspective depth? The play with different forms that emerged from the series is a narrative in itself, where the forms adopt a new, iconic value. I am researching the movement of the act of painting. "Mark-making ', involuntary movements disturb the willful shape. I build the colors through many different transparent layers, thus "creating" color.
Finally, I'm researching the (im)possibillty of emptiness and if empty space can work as imbalance in the composition.
go to the essay "Ambiguity, on the series "Stains; not facing reality" (Dutch)
Painted 'space' plays a specific role in this series: an illusionary space that does not exist is nevertheless experienced in the work. Is a surface painted with a gradient a space or is it not? Is it a volume, or not? Do receding lines suggest a perspective depth? The play with different forms that emerged from the series is a narrative in itself, where the forms adopt a new, iconic value. I am researching the movement of the act of painting. "Mark-making ', involuntary movements disturb the willful shape. I build the colors through many different transparent layers, thus "creating" color.
Finally, I'm researching the (im)possibillty of emptiness and if empty space can work as imbalance in the composition.
go to the essay "Ambiguity, on the series "Stains; not facing reality" (Dutch)
Visual artist Wapke Feenstra on the series 'Stains':
"The surface of the cancas can still be seen through the thin layers of paint and therefore also the material of the carrier is of interest. With a couple of lines and planes, Ton suggests a space and there appear some figures from newspaper photography. These characters - coming from various news photos - stand now apart from their captions, and come together in this new environment. But where are they? The painted spaces determine summarily inside or outside, but much more information they do not give. The figures, on the other hand, are very precisely elaborated. Together they come to life and tell an associative story. Layered and without beginning or ending, they remain busy with each other within that room."
Gallerist Fraser Kee Scott about this series:
"It's interesting work. You've put your heart and soul into it and That shows. What you are doing is important and society needs it."
Philosopher Marieke Maes on 'Stains':
"Your essay about the series 'Stains' makes the paintings more clear for me, but they remain for me a lot harder to be won than the work from 'Hortus conclusus'. The booted garbagebag carrier or the pigs with a Jew and Muslims give me a recognizable, albeit uncomfortable feeling, about the time we live in. What strikes me in the series 'Stains', as did your work from the Hortus Conclusus, is your eye for detail and the craftsmanship with wich you paint. Maybe it shouldn't be about that right now, but I get the impression that you could draw anything you want. "
Business and organization advisor Arjan Middelkoop about this series:
"At first you think you know what you see, but Ton uses recognizable images in a way that is more abstract than many abstract painting. The remarkable thing is that the paintings challenge you challenge to look at reality differently."
"The surface of the cancas can still be seen through the thin layers of paint and therefore also the material of the carrier is of interest. With a couple of lines and planes, Ton suggests a space and there appear some figures from newspaper photography. These characters - coming from various news photos - stand now apart from their captions, and come together in this new environment. But where are they? The painted spaces determine summarily inside or outside, but much more information they do not give. The figures, on the other hand, are very precisely elaborated. Together they come to life and tell an associative story. Layered and without beginning or ending, they remain busy with each other within that room."
Gallerist Fraser Kee Scott about this series:
"It's interesting work. You've put your heart and soul into it and That shows. What you are doing is important and society needs it."
Philosopher Marieke Maes on 'Stains':
"Your essay about the series 'Stains' makes the paintings more clear for me, but they remain for me a lot harder to be won than the work from 'Hortus conclusus'. The booted garbagebag carrier or the pigs with a Jew and Muslims give me a recognizable, albeit uncomfortable feeling, about the time we live in. What strikes me in the series 'Stains', as did your work from the Hortus Conclusus, is your eye for detail and the craftsmanship with wich you paint. Maybe it shouldn't be about that right now, but I get the impression that you could draw anything you want. "
Business and organization advisor Arjan Middelkoop about this series:
"At first you think you know what you see, but Ton uses recognizable images in a way that is more abstract than many abstract painting. The remarkable thing is that the paintings challenge you challenge to look at reality differently."