Why do I draw nudes? A complex question. One may just as easily ask me « who are you » ?.
Humans beings are my thing, I try to understand the underlying elements of humanity; the important, basic components that make us what we are.
I Always have done.
I became a doctor, observing humanity from a scientific point of view, looking for answers and at the same time learning to work within the boundaries that science sets us.
These answers are elusive and perhaps will never be found. However, pushing the boundaries is a challenge and excites me because a certain freedom becomes apparent. Something must lie beyond these borders otherwise they would not exist. For me, I express this „something“ with drawing. Putting pencil (or pen) to paper is a logical continuation of my search for those basic elements of human nature, using other means and from another perspective.
Drawing is defined as using lines or strokes on paper to express forms, shapes or ideas. The texture of a line tells the story: lines establish borders with an inside and an outside. A drawing dissolves this duality because a drawing makes it’s statement by defining the entire image. That which is outside the borders is as well defined as that which is within : the whole becomes apparent only when these elements interact with each other. For me this means that the positioning of the figure on the paper has great importance because the open areas around the figure work with and complement the free spaces within. Spaces are left empty or can be shaded; lines may fade to nothing or be darkened to provide focus. In this way the figure is formed into abstract shapes and spaces, and radiates much more of it’s character in this way than by limiting the figure’s form with rigid lines. When things work well I am able to sense the soul of the figure.
I work with models, people, naked bodies. Through the model it is clear in which universe I find myself. I can only draw what the model, in the smallest of details, chooses to reveal to me and which elements I can reflect and express in the image which I create. I absorb what the body tells me: I am interested in the way the body expresses itself and the aura which radiates from that body. The aim is to reduce the creatural elements of the human form. In spite of the sometimes extreme abstraction of my drawings I am still after many years able to identify who sat for which work because of the unique aura radiated by each model.
I draw without evaluation or definition, the only thing which counts is the bond with my feelings at that moment: brief periods of unity with the naked entity. My tools are paper, chalk or charcoal, water, gouache or ink an brushes. Reducing these materials to only those which are essential correlates to the simplicity of the naked body. There are no corrections, no retouching, lines and body are united in their vulnerability.
If I use colour it is often applied much later. By using colour the drawing changes, whereby my aim is to strengthen or highlight a certain aspect of the work or to take it in a new direction. I work with Casein paint because of the resulting texture; the flow of the brush is enhanced by the pigment and providing both line and body.
The stroke, the line, pigments – the nude body, all is direct and unfiltered, both touching and touched: I draw The Nude because I cannot express in words what I see and would so much like to, because it is so essentially human and has an incalculable valuable.
