Words from Kees Goudzwaard
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Image: Dutch artist Kees Goudzwaard’s studio at home, located in Belgium due to the COVID-19
Under the circumstances of the worldwide lock down, we would to like to share how the artist is coping with you art lovers. The following is words from Dutch artist Kees Goudzwaard.
It is the fifth week of the lockdown here in Antwerp, where I live. As in most cities of the world, that means staying at home right now. I definitely need a haircut. But otherwise I feel alright. Normally I take the car as a real commuter every day to travel about 60 km to my big studio in the Netherlands. But now I can't cross the border. So I am forced to make a virtue out of necessity. That is why I immediately set up an improvised studio of modest dimensions at home. Nowadays, as soon as I get up in the morning, I can work in an area of approximately 30 m2. Working from home means that I have to limit myself to small images. And I can only work on a limited number of pieces at a time. Sometimes that is difficult. But certainly not always. It has its own advantages and qualities. I am close to the images while working in this room, close to every detail. Would the life of a medieval scribe in a monastery look like this? The images are also closer together, in a literal and a figurative sense.
Instead of using oil on canvas like I usually do, I now paint with some kind of gouache on cardboard. It is a completely different way of working. This paint dries immediately. The material gives a matte paint skin. It resembles the surface of paper. It has its own finesse. And just like on the street outside, with hardly any traffic, the atmosphere in my workspace is a lot healthier because of the new painting material.
Since I can now work a little faster on the small works on cardboard, this may be the right time to reconsider my way of making choices. When developing my oil paintings I am used to taking the time to make final decisions, to make sure I am doing the right thing. This is also easy because oil paint is a slow medium. I have come to realize that it is important to me that each image has its own individuality, its own strength, not just another part of a series. But with that in mind, I often throw out a lot of alternative options, variants that might be just as valuable afterwards. I forget them or lose them on the way in the making process.
It seems to me that the lockdown situation invites me to explore the multiple options and implicit possibilities that every image I create can contain. Working in lockdown, in forced seclusion at home, with the works and with the new materials that are now available, reduces the pressure for me to do "the only right thing" and, as it were, allows the process to take place more casually, more directly. Apparently the change of setting makes me re-evaluate my work process. This may very well have a lasting effect on my way of working.