Energy

"Energy" 30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas, © Olivier Hijmans 2016

 

There are those days when, suddenly, a lightbulb ignites over your head, bathing you and your tired face in the refreshing light of a great new idea. Like, for example, the day I realized I should integrate my music studio with my painting studio, which had been in two separate and slightly impossible places.

It is the pure energy of creativity that lights the bulb of ideas. Like the Buddhist teacher Nichiren Daishonin said: "..a candle can light up a place that has been dark for billions of years."

New ideas are always already there, in a latent state of potentiality, stored non locally in the cosmos. We just need to resonate with them and light the bulb so we can see them... right?

Inversion

"Inversion" 40X40 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2016

In what at first appears to be a raging sandstorm, we may suddenly find a well balanced freeform symmetry. Even stillness. There is a careful yet playful mimicking and inversion of shapes in a shared space of mutual respect.. A mild anarchy perhaps. Again, there is this hint of a double horizon, and a kind of inversion layer above which directions change and color contrasts increase.
The rolling hills in the distance have seen these aerial formations assemble and disperse time and again...

There you go, another freeform analysis of a freeform painting. I enjoy my intuitive workflow.

Departure

"Departure" 30x30 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2015

Time to reflect on a painting I made last year. One of my personal favorites, actually. It may look as sad as it looks playful. There is a clear interaction between light and darkness here... there is a sense of emergence and disappearing, hope and fear, perhaps, or loss and gain... Sometimes in life, the curtain just opens to a new phase, which inevitably entails a drama of welcoming new developments and parting with current situations, tendencies, or relationships. Through our tears, we see the first blurry glimpses of a new reality.

From a deeper perspective, it is this "cycle of birth and death" of life phenomena that reinforces our vitality and refreshes our perspective. The trick is not to be afraid of the shadowy figure standing in the distance when the curtain opens, and to have the courage and seeking spirit to enter a new paradigm.

My personal conviction is that from time to time one does need to fundamentally question one's World view, and therefore also reconsider the anatomy of one's inner World as well. Even the hardest rocks on Earth were completely morphed and moulded by the immense forces of the elements, time and transformation. Likewise the thickest of walls in life can be broken through by the power of determination, courage and wisdom.

Are you prepared to see what's on the other side?

Dragonfly

Dragonfly, 30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans 2016

It has been a little quiet in my blogosphere, as I've been away for a bit. A short journey to the beautiful and peaceful island of La Palma (Canary islands) has deepened my resolve and perspective as an artist. At one point, while taking a swim in a pool there, I was accompanied by an elegant deep red dragonfly of a type I had never seen before. It seemed to follow my movements back and forth the pool, examining me as I was examining it.

Anyway, now I'm back in the blogosphere, and I'm very happy to present to you a work called 'The Dragonfly', that I had mysteriously made shortly before that encounter on La Palma. Very curvy and abstract, it combines and elaborates upon various elements in my previous creations. Aesthetically, I'm trying to find the sweet spots in the realms between smooth and jagged lines, gradients and carefully articulated colors, space and congestion, abstract and figurative, movement and stillness.. and so on. It's all there, and again, it leaves enough room for interpretation.

Still, many people immediately seem to identify an dragonfly in this scene. And once you've seen it, that is what it becomes. Very interesting, because aesthetically there are many parallels between this painting and 'Blue Morpho', which I made three years ago.

I particularly like the idea of a dragonfly being depicted in this work, because like in Blue Morpho, the scene seems to integrate the shape and movement/behaviour of the flying creature into a singular entity. You and how you walk are one and the same, aren't they? The curved wings become the swirling flight path and vice versa...

The dragonfly is incidentally one of my favorite animals. Apart from their obvious beauty and color, I find them very interesting because they are of very sturdy and old evolutionary design. They were among the first winged insects that came into being around 300 million years ago. Also they have amazing flight capabilities.. a great source of inspiration for artists and engineers alike.

It will shortly be for sale on Saatchiart.

Blue Morpho

Blue Morpho, 20x20 cm acrylic on panel © Olivier Hijmans, 2013

Some years ago I found myself walking along a hidden coastal forest trail at the far end of the island of Bocas del Toro, Western Panama. The heat was blistering, cicadas' chirping was deafening, huge waves were crashing on the deserted beach. Just when I thought nature couldn't get any more intense, a wonderful shiny blue creature suddenly appeared out of nowhere, dancing through the air, right past my face, to disappear before I could even attempt to follow it. It was a big Blue Morpho! A beautiful butterfly that is featured in many myths and legends in Latin America. Then another one appeared and vanished even more swiftly...

Back home I decided to try to capture the impact of my encounter with these Blue Morphos in painting. Their swift and gracious choreography, their intense blue hues, and their effortless symbiosis with their surroundings. While painting this I realized that sometimes shape and movement truly become one.

I now cherish this small painting at my desk as a personal favorite.

Prints are for sale at Saatchiart.

Reach Out

Reach Out, 60x60 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2016

I do enjoy painting wide landscapes and horizons. In the early days, it was hard to believe or understand that another land might exist beyond the horizon. But we had a strong sense that there would be something there, though we had no idea what those lands would look like and who their inhabitants were. Ships sailing to the edge were destined to fall off of the face of the Earth, many feared.. a now very illogical scenario to us of course, freely flying around the globe and across the continents.

Still, I imagine we cherish the same perspective when gazing at galactic horizons in outer space.. Some of us do have a hunch that ET civilizations might exist, and some believe we have been visited by some of them. Yet many will claim our ships, or theirs, would never be able to break through the light-speed barrier, let alone safely cover any intergalactic distance..

This I find to be a very fascinating paradigm. Are there other Worlds out there? Will we ever be able to reach out to them? And when we do, who and what will we find? Our interaction with an ET civilization would most likely not be very linear. It would probably be mind bending, uncomfortable, exiting, and deeply transformative to both. Their World may somewhat resemble ours, or it might be a completely upside down experience to us. Even the most deserted desert might contain a hidden wealth of life, and the cosmos might turn out to be teeming with life, like a fresh green forest in spring. Maybe one day our Blue Marble will be their Blue Marble and vice versa. Fundamentally and playfully engaging in the struggle to reach out to each other, all connected in the eternally flowing river of existence...

For sale on Saatchiart.

Undefeated

Undefeated, 40x40 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2016

 

This was no easy painting, and I did almost give up halfway on this one. So I'm glad I decided to persist and struggle. We can see a little smiling candle flame courageously trying to burn it's way through several layers of obstacles. Or we can see a couple of fragile wings trying to lift a pile of basalt blocks and a giant teakwood table into the nightfall. From another angle it might be a bunch of thoughts frantically trying to cling together... Either way, this is a scene of friction and possible breakthrough. An homage to the spirit of 'never be defeated'!

With a touch of Cubism..
And for sale on Saatchiart.