The Byron Art Studio At Night

Just finished cleaning up after laying the rest of the floating floor, I was finally able to get back behind the easel and paint a little, I was showing the side effects of paint deprivation.
I thought it would be a nice moment to take a photo of the studio at night.
Also a photo of my trolley, I use one of those metal garage tool-cabinets, nice, sturdy, loads of space the perfect painters tool.

The Girl With The Purple Cushion

A classic, I painted this painting in my old studio at the Arts Factory, it is probably the warmest and most comforting to look at. we worked from 11pm till 7am in the morning. The original sold to a friend in New South Wales, was 120 x 90 cm, and painted in oils. Most of it was painted in one go, I did go back to the painting once to finish the background. For a long period, at least five years, I promised myself to finish paintings in one go, so I would learn to work fast and make instant decisions. This approach has improved my skills dramatically and filled my work with live and energy.
prints of this painting are available from my store at www.byrontik.com

The drawing of energy

To find someones true spirit it can help to focus on their energy in stead of literal translation of physical attributes. Drawing with layers of colored lines pastel, ink, markers and acrylics is an ideal way for sketching someones soul. Compiling seemingly random lines that form an unique pattern and/or reflection of someones personality.

Muswellbrook Art Prize 2007

This is my entry to the Muswellbrook artprize.

The title is:
Transparency and Sensuality, a composition in green.

A part of my studies on: ‘the narrative of motion’. In which I search for the unique movements, which define a subject’s true personality. Light, layers, transparency and body language reflect the complexity of an individual’s psyche.

This painting is painted in cooperation with Hannah who has done a lot of modeling for me in my latest work.


The painting is painted in oils and on high quality 12oz canvas, and will be for sale at the Muswellbrookart centre.
size 180x60cm
price $4750

Spirit, body and consciousness

I will start my art blog with one of my favorite paintings at the minute. you can also see this on my site www.byrontik.com

My New studio in the Byron Bay Industrial estate

My New studio, so exciting, I am halve way through renovating, at the moment. The studio is really working for me, lots of light, space, less distraction and more specific custom. all great stuff. on the photo you can see me work on a still life of a chair:) 'ye gotta do your still lives', I call them my 'painters push-ups' and loving the amount of light that i can study coming through the windows. The temperature in the studio is regulated by blinds, sun that heats up the concrete in the winter, and in summer a huge shade-cloth blind combined with roof windows creates a natural airflow and heat outlet. No air-conditioning or heating needed, it surprises me how little buildings take advantage of these natural low cost ways of heating and cooling.
The studio will be used mainly as my working space but has plenty of exhibit space and will is open for walk-ins and appointment. I am always happy to discuss techniques, concepts and show some work.
I have started using photography more and more of a tool to study light, composition and sketch, the new studio has an excellent combination of daylight and my studio lights. I will be working on the themes suspension, movement and transparency, and photography will be greatly embraced by me as a tool for formulating the concept and narrative of the new work, complementing sketching and video. The studio is set up with two studio lights, with interchangeable umbrella's and soft boxes. a large 3x6mtr backdrop will most likely be used when working with a model.
The picture on the top shows the main work space with a half finished floor. the picture in the middle shows the half finished laundry and the picture on the bottom shows the mezzanine, which is the last on the renovation list. more pictures showing the progress will go up.

My old studio at the arts factory

Hi Guys, this is my new and first Blog, Yayh :)
I will start of with some pictures of my old studio at the Arts Factory in Byron Bay.
I have spend over three years there, two and a half I slept out the back in a tent,I enjoyed the outside nature, reduced my luxuries and focused on painting. A big difference to cold and wet Holland where I grew up. I even got flooded a few times which was quite an experience.
In my time here I have met 10 live times worth of people. the best lesson I learned here was how to let go and enjoy the moment, someone new comes into your live, great, they go away great, they have entered your live and therefor never really leave:)
I came to Byron Bay after staying in my birthplace Perth for a year, I came to Perth in October 2002 to unite myself with my biological father and half brothers who I had never met before. This went better then could have been expected, I spend a year there, working with my father and hanging out with my ultra-cool brothers, developing my dip-and-groove dance.
Then the road called, I decided to pack up my canvas and hit the road with some of my dear friends. We traveled for a few months around Oz to end up in Byron Bay, I wasn't very impressed at first, but decided to give it a second chance. It seemed busy, commercial, packed, although it was the 5Th of Jan which makes it one of the busiest days of the year. I almost left, but it was running late so I managed to get the last small spot behind the toilets on the arts factories campground. I set up my small two man tent and walked into the Buddha Bar... Holly Moly, that was something else, aboriginal culture show, live music, hippies, nice people, drinks, dj's fun!!!
Spend a few months getting into my yoga, drumming and all the Byron stuff you do, but I had to paint, gotta get a studio. I ran into Jarrah Tree who was painting a huge and gorgeous mural on the outside of the historic piggery building, which is part of the Arts factory. He could use a hand, which I was happy to give. Whilst I was painting away I had my eye on this little garage, that was used as a little surf clothes shop, but didn't really run. Then the idea came to me, arts factory, hmmm, it could really do with some art:). I asked the manager Sein if I could transform the old entrance to the piggery into a studio, and in return I would teach a small live drawing class. I was ever so passionate, a three hour class, full of exercises guided by music and often two models. I regained my passion for live drawing and painting with people, and started to paint like there was no tomorrow. One person more beautiful than the next, I discovered that if you open up you can fall in love with any person or else the moment, and use this energy to create. All right, so love, emotion and creation are all linked together, what a surprise:), lets see if I am able to take that with me outside of the studio. Painting is a wonderful tool for training your non- judgemental observation skills, or as my friend 'the baron' said awakening the silent observer, you know separating yourself from your mind and all that Buddhist Jazz.
So over those three years I painted several hundred paintings, close to a thousand drawings, some murals, several live performances, teaching and organizing workshops and a small festival, called the Byron Bay arts fest, which emphasized on the exciting side of 'art' with a lot of participation for the patrons. Always having two or three jobs on the side as well.
It was time to slow down a bit, focus, work with maybe one model for a while, go in depth, think about concept, where do I want to go next, what do I really want. This is when I made the narrative of motion series, which will get it's own blog section. I started to feel cramped in the studio and was craving a light, spacious studio with no distractions. No matter how much I loved all the people walking into my studio before I needed a bit of solitude to take my work to the next level.
The new studio was starting to take shape in my head.