Sometimes a shape keeps returning in my work before I fully understand why. These small forms have become shelter shapes for me, although they did not start that way.
A roofline.
A dark edge.
A small structure in an open landscape.
A place you could almost step into.
And that is something I actually do quite often.
In different countries, in different places, in completely different landscapes. I look at these forms. I walk past them. Sometimes I stop. Sometimes I only carry them into my work much later.
At first, I thought I was painting houses. Or greenhouses. Or small structures in the landscape. Something I had seen outside, somewhere between fields, sky, earth and glass. But slowly I began to realise it was not only about that. As always 🙂
These small forms return in many different ways. Across different series, too. Sometimes as a small Icelandic house in a vast landscape. Sometimes as the edge of a greenhouse in the Bollenstreek. Sometimes as a dark triangle, a roof, an opening, a place that seems to offer just enough shelter. And honestly, that does not surprise me
Between Being Seen and Disappearing
I live between cultivated fields and greenhouses. They have become part of the way I look. Not as neat landscapes, but as forms that stay with me. Glass, plastic, earth, light, wind.
That tension was already present in my Icelandic Houses series. Think of the seemingly small houses in an immense landscape. In my newer work, I can see that this form has come closer. Less literal, perhaps. More like a sign. More like a feeling. And there is still so much I can do with it. I will keep exploring that.
A shelter shape
I have started to think of these recurring forms as shelter shapes. They are not necessarily houses or greenhouses. More like a place between hiding and appearing. A place where something may exist for a while without having to become fully visible immediately.
A Shape I Only Understand Later
Mixed Media on canvas | 2024
Part of the Icelandic House art series
Icelandic House Red
Icelandic House art series | 70 x 80 x 2 cm
Shelter
Icelandic House art series | 20 x 20 x 4 cm | 2026
Only later do I begin to understand why such a shape keeps returning. Or perhaps I will never fully understand it, and maybe that is exactly why I keep painting it.
If you would like to see the work beyond the screen, you are welcome to visit my studio by appointment.