What drives me
Doing portraits is my thing. Clients inspire me greatly in discussing what they have in mind and what their motivations are. And then getting to know the 'object', often not the client. The talks, drawing and photo sessions to get acquainted. Or, in case the person has passed away, digging in a past of memories, photographic portraits, family snapshots and other documentation.
Only occasionally I feel the need to make my own 'most individual art'. I am very content already when I can please a client as a craftsman. Most painters from before the invention of photography must have thought like that. Since then the major challenge for the painter is to add something on top of photography. For me that is the 'magical' bit. Realising that is my particular challenge.
In the end it is a special thought for me that a porttrait I did on order may possibly exist for hundreds of years as the material image of somebody's ancestor. Just paint on canvas or panel rather than bits on a harddisk and pixels on a screen.
**** To the right you see a slide-show of recent work