Pictures, Places, & Memories

Pictures, Places, & MemoriesMy drawings and paintings from 1956 to 2020 depict a wide variety of subjects. There's some technical improvement over the years (expectable I was 10 in 1956) but no quest for a recognizably personal style. The question was how to make a picture that achieved an intended visual effect. Several places and topics reappear Mt. Rainier, Breitenbush, Lincoln Beach, Leiden, churches, castles, portraits of family and friends. In the last three years Ive

My drawings and paintings from 1956 to 2020 depict a wide variety of subjects. There's some technical improvement over the years (expectable - I was 10 in 1956) but no quest for a recognizably personal style. The question was how to make a picture that achieved an intended visual effect. Several places and topics reappear Ð Mt. Rainier, Breitenbush, Lincoln Beach, Leiden, churches, castles, portraits of family and friends. In the last three years IÕve spent more time making new pictures and carrying out minor improvements on some old drawings, also going back and finishing several that were begun but had been left incomplete. While making these pictures, I've also done some research and writing on historical topics. An interesting detail in a project to transcribe and translate all archival references to art and artists in Leiden, 1475-1575, was the discovery that in the 15th and 16th centuries, almost every artist and musician had a second job, which presumably provided the financial foundation allowing for the production of paintings and music - running an inn was not unique to Vermeer. Sometimes the secondary occupation became memorable and the production of art forgotten - Jan Klaasz may have been a painter or goldsmith in his own mind, but his neighbors remembered him as an innkeeper married to Katrijn.
Jeremy Bangs, Leiden