1. Portrait

My oilpaint portraits of children are sized from 6 x 7 cm to a maximum of 100 x 100 cm.
I meet these children in the street or sometimes at schools or day-care centres and take pictures of them in a neutral face-expression.
I combine these pictures with my remembrance of this particular child. Instead of the standard expression like innocence and enconcernedness I choose for the expression of an adult person who carries its past and matching emotions.
These children look at you in a serious way and many times I experience some kind of torment in their eyes.
I also experience worry, fear, maligment and vulnurability in the children I paint.
The expression evolves out of their position, the use of colour and the small distortion or exaggerations. The shape, position and largeness of the eyes maintain also an important role in this. By leaving out details and those of texture don’t distract you from this expression.
My portraits are often described as sensitive, direct and sometimes confronting.
(This text contains phrases of the article from PZC Zeeland 2013 by Nico Out).