I paint Q’s. That I call them Q is for two reasons. The first is that each Q represent roundness like the capital Q. The second and most important reason is that each Q asks the onlooker the Question what he or she experiences on watching a Q. Q’s are made to give you a private experience. That’s why I paint Q’s. There are many ways to represent roundness, so I painted already a large number of Q-series. All series exist of some to even dozens of Q’s. They vary in colour and size. I extend the number of Q-series as well as the number of Q’s within each series. All Q’s together I call my Qniverse.

I don’t want to influence your experience of a Q, so I give them numbers. The image of a Q, and the image alone, makes the difference. Not an explanation in words. Such a number is for instance QXX-3, which is the third painting of the twentiest series. Most Q’s are painted on a square canvas, some on an oblong canvas. In size they vary from 20×20 cm unto 130×130 cm. I paint all Q’s with acrylic on canvas. Only the QV-series includes linocuts on paper.

After secondary school I studied mathematics hoping to create my own mathematical universe. I didn’t succeed then. But deep in my heart I remained a mathematician searching for my own universe. That is the foundation for how I think about painting. Simultaneously I only pay attention to hów a painting is made. What a painting represents is of minor importance for me. In a mathematical logical way I analysed for decades how painters from Renaissance to Baroque painted and with that knowledge I created in the end my ultimate painting: the Q. And subsequently my own Qniverse.

I found out that painting shade off of colours gives me most fun. And I am good at it. Shade off of colours makes the most impression in pure round forms, in cirkels or spirals. Round is the most iconic way of painting shade off of colours. I decided in 2017 to paint only round forms. By painting round forms, everything I learned about how to paint, fell in place.

To my own surprise it turned out my ultimate painting wasn’t realistic as I expected, but represents mathematical forms in an abstract way. So not alone my search, but as well the result was mathematical. It wasn’t my purpose to paint abstract, my purpose was to create my ultimate painting with round forms and shade off of colours. Abstraction was the consequence. Hów I paint in the end determined whát I paint. As a painter you never know what you are looking for until you find it. I was surprised by my own Q’s, with the appearance of a modern painting, but with the inner nature of a Baroque painting.

I always call my Q’s “slow paintings”, because onlookers pay attention to them for minutes, sometimes up to a quarter of an hour. In our turbulent and confusing times in which we live, they represent the longing for the coming spirit of the age of calmness and absorption. Only looking at a real Q, gives you the possibility to experience them fully. An image as represented on this very website can only give you no more than an incomplete impression.

I was borne and raised in The Hague in the Netherlands, Subsequently I studied mathematics in Leiden and management science in Delft. Since many years I live in Doetinchem. I paint as long as I can remember and became through the years more and more fanatic in my search for the ultimate painting. In 2017 I painted my first Q and since than I never stopped painting Q’s. And I never will.