Categorie: Aquarel

Kees van Aalst

Said Hamlet to Ophelia: “I’ll draw a sketch of thee, what kind of pencil shall I use? 2B or not 2B?”

Zou Shakespeare nu succes hebben met een aanklacht wegens plagiaat? Ik betwijfel het.

Als je, zoals hier, een creatieve draai aan iets bestaands geeft  wil de magistratuur nog wel eens met de hand over het hart strijken.

Maar letterlijke overname, ook in de beeldende kunst, is andere koek. Hierover zijn we snel uitgepraat. Niet doen.

Ik ga het in deze ultrakorte verkenning van het thema niet hebben over succesvolle rovers uit de kunstgeschiedenis als Warhol of Lichtenstein. Ook niet over het vervalsersgilde dat louter uit is op geldelijk gewin.

Nee, ik wil eens weten hoe je inspiratie kunt opdoen uit andermans werk zonder letterlijk te kopiëren.

In de kunstwereld wordt vaak gebruik gemaakt van bestaande beelden. Niemand schept iets uit het niets. Er zijn altijd invloeden. Maar een creatief kunstenaar weet die invloed zodanig om te vormen dat hij nagenoeg onzichtbaar opgaat in het eigen werk.

Een beroemdheid als Picasso had een duidelijke mening over het roven uit andermans producten.  “Kleine schilders kopiëren, grote schilders stelen”was zijn stelling. Kopiëren is plagiaat en niet erg creatief. Maar met stelen eigen je je het werk toe en maakt het tot iets van jezelf. Originaliteit is dan kundig verborgen imitatie. Het gaat er tenslotte niet om waar je je ideeën vandaan haalt, maar wat je ermee doet.

Schaam je dus niet om andermans werk als inspiratiebron te gebruiken. Verzamel afbeeldingen van werk dat je aanspreekt. Dit kan als katalysator dienen, als stimulans om je eigen werk te verbeteren. Hierdoor raak je meer gedreven en bedreven en ontstaat werk met een eigen handschrift en karakter.

Nog een paar tips tot slot

• Leg de lat hoog. Laat je inspireren door het werk van grote kunstenaars die je aanspreken, niet door het kruimelwerk van goedbedoelende amateurs. Daar kun je niets van leren.

• Beschouw het maar als een vorm van eerbetoon als je werk door anderen wordt geïmiteerd.

 

Kees van Aalst

Failing is never any fun. Nobody likes to do it.

Fear of failure can even lead to performance avoidance. The fear of appearing incompetent prevents you from getting started in the first place. You play it safe by repeating the same old tricks, even though you’re sick of them – and others are, too.

The Facebook community doesn’t encourage you to change this and to experiment creatively. You’re among a group of people who are at roughly the same level. It’s a mutual admiration society which leads to unjustified feelings of self-congratulation and offers little incentive for creative development.

In a more professional environment you would discover that your current work is rather mediocre, nothing special. Is it because you lack talent? No, not necessarily. Rather, it indicates a lack of courage and of understanding your own potential.

When you start to experiment and take risks, you’ll discover that your work improves by leaps and bounds, and you don’t make dull pictures anymore. Not everything you try will turn out well immediately, but this ‘failure’ creates room to walk a different path towards your goal. Failures are the building blocks for success, they are part of the process of learning.

Even seasoned professionals experiment daily. A good example is a guy named Pablo Picasso, an unstoppable creative, always searching for renewal. In his quest he often discovered things about which he would later say: “I don’t seek, I find.”

A good teacher tries to be a guide in this quest, and will never force his own methods on the student. After all, the urge to imitate is a threat to creativity.

He will try to improve your strengths, rather than correct your weaknesses. The latter, after all, don’t belong to you. You don’t try to teach a dachshund to run faster so it can beat a greyhound in a race either. They each have their own qualities, and those should be trained.

Finally, a few bits of advice which may benefit you.

• Don’t take anything as gospel, question everything, including what I say in this article.
• Break the rules, if it makes for better results.
• The less you work toward a fixed result, the fewer your chances of disappointment.
• If you leave without a final destination, you can never get lost, but you may come across unexpected discoveries along the way.
• Don’t get discouraged too quickly, but be realistic. Don’t demand more of yourself than you are capable of. Keep ambition and talent in balance.

 

Overgenomen van het Blog www.edohannema.nl

Kees van Aalst is a Dutch Watercolormaster.
Watching Kees van Aalst paint, is watching a skilled artist paint.
It looks so easy when you see it, but when you try it, you end up with a painting that looks like your little brother have made! Why is that?

40 years experience for a start, and he made this style of painting completely his own, its like a handwriting, you can try to copy this style, and you will succeed with something that looks like his, but you will miss the finesse and power in the more then resolute brushstrokes.

All his painting career he makes “Less is More” a fact, and makes even less, more less!
Suggestion and abstraction of scenes and objects are the main drive he will put in his paintings. Not only he use watercolor, but also Bister (made from Walnut shells) and diluted watercolor pigment, brought on the paper with a sharpened matchstick is part of his technique.
Large washes in the start, with fresh colors, usually with no more then three pigments.
Before he paints the subject, he choose what mood he wants in the watercolor.
And then he choose his colors.
In the workshops I followed, Kees made 6 or more examples what colors you can choose, and even just as much pencil thumbnails for contrast and tone. They are not complete paintings, but just quick notes for color and you can just discover the subject.
Kees always teach, you must not paint a boat, but people have to look at your art and say “hey that looks like a boat!”

The first wash was light and Kees kept a few whites on the paper, he saw a industrial scene in it, so his second wash he made the industry coming a bit more forward.
If you see mountains after your first wash, paint the mountains, its your imagine, and your art!

After that he will refine a second wash, with the same pigments, only stronger, and after drying he finish with detailed marks, these marks are not just put down randomly, but make the viewer look, where Kees want him to look. I know for a start that these last details are the though ones, you have absolute no clue where to put them. After practicing and lots of failures I start to know how. (a bit).

But for Kees its like writing his name down, Tjak Tjak he says often, and there it is! Small dots of pigment, stripes wide and narrow, brushed down with a rigger or matchstick all in the right place.
Don’t make the mistake it looks easy, but it isn’t! All dots and stripes are highly visible, so a wrong one will stand out big!

 

These latest demos were published in the Dutch art magazine “Palet”

The above is sort of a Italian Piazza, the yellow glow, and purple haze makes you think of the Mediterranean. With a sharp matchstick Kees made some marks to give the idea from houses and a pillar in the middle. Then some accents in a cool color to give shadow-sides and variation on the buildings and all ready again! Less is More is so true here!

 

A small demo Kees made on one of his workshops.All was done in 10 minutes or less.

Don’t paint pictures, paint tones, shadows and moods. Paint to paint, not to make the best painting ever, but paint to enjoy yourself!

 

Edo Hannema

 

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