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Karim Van Engeland
- Keez -
Abstract
The topic ? Harmony of colors and above all, matter!
My artistic approach is multi-layered: I seek the harmony of colors, textures and materials in my paintings. I'm looking for reality in my photographs. I explore the perfection of lines and shapes in my collages.
I try representing the beautiful in an abstract setting. I am inspired by stealth visions of the mind. For example, when I paint a canvas with pink and purple, the choice ofdyes is the outcome of watching how flowers’ colors blend perfectly. The recurrent choice of a black background is a way to bring out these colors. The perfect balance of colors is easier to find on large format canvases (over 40 cm square). On smallersizes, the difficulty is to express as many nuances as possible in a similar way to larger canvas.
I always start a painting by seeking to give some depth. I create the veins that willgive the final work its soul, and that will complement the colors. Coming from theParisian graffiti movement of the 90s, I try to recreate the very texture of the walls of the city, irregular, coarse, full of surprises and made up of different materials. The material comes to life on a non-smooth canvas.
I apply the colors on the canvas using all kinds of tools: plastic, rolls, tissues … They have the advantage of applying the paint unevenly and furtively, like the artistic movements of the late nineteenth century, such as the Impressionists and NeoImpressionists. The advantage of this technique is the mixture occurring between the little color touches. Harmony is created in the eye of the beholder. The colors are notreworked. It is the observer, or rather his eye, that marries the different colorstogether. Then, the colors and the harmonies of dyes become almost a pretext tomatter: they give meaning to the work, but don’t give it its essence. They support the theveins created early in the process. The aim is to give life to the canvases, to givethem an appearance, like the skin covering the body organs.
Karim Van Engeland
My artistic approach is multi-layered: I seek the harmony of colors, textures and materials in my paintings. I'm looking for reality in my photographs. I explore the perfection of lines and shapes in my collages.
I try representing the beautiful in an abstract setting. I am inspired by stealth visions of the mind. For example, when I paint a canvas with pink and purple, the choice ofdyes is the outcome of watching how flowers’ colors blend perfectly. The recurrent choice of a black background is a way to bring out these colors. The perfect balance of colors is easier to find on large format canvases (over 40 cm square). On smallersizes, the difficulty is to express as many nuances as possible in a similar way to larger canvas.
I always start a painting by seeking to give some depth. I create the veins that willgive the final work its soul, and that will complement the colors. Coming from theParisian graffiti movement of the 90s, I try to recreate the very texture of the walls of the city, irregular, coarse, full of surprises and made up of different materials. The material comes to life on a non-smooth canvas.
I apply the colors on the canvas using all kinds of tools: plastic, rolls, tissues … They have the advantage of applying the paint unevenly and furtively, like the artistic movements of the late nineteenth century, such as the Impressionists and NeoImpressionists. The advantage of this technique is the mixture occurring between the little color touches. Harmony is created in the eye of the beholder. The colors are notreworked. It is the observer, or rather his eye, that marries the different colorstogether. Then, the colors and the harmonies of dyes become almost a pretext tomatter: they give meaning to the work, but don’t give it its essence. They support the theveins created early in the process. The aim is to give life to the canvases, to givethem an appearance, like the skin covering the body organs.
Karim Van Engeland
