Future music

My studio

 

Last summer I moved my electronic music studio into the atelier I'm grateful to be able to use. It has transformed into an inspiring art space, where I compose and paint, looking out over the historic city center of Leiden...

I took the above picture on October 13th, which is a very significant date for me. My father, from whom I inherited my interest in music, passed away on October 13th 1996... A composer, father and socially committed person, he will always remain a great example for me, standing tall like a majestic mountain in the uncharted landscape of my life.

Now, exactly 20 years later, I finally summoned all my courage to start composing music on a daily basis. For real. For the first time. Ever.

So I decided to dedicate to my father the piece I'm working on right now. It will embody my World view, my gratitude toward my father and my mentor, and my resolve toward the future.

It is called "Indara-Mo", which is Japanese for "Indra's Net". This is a Buddhist metaphor expressing the fundamental interconnectedness of all life and the universe. Do check out the story, it's so beautiful, and its implications so important...

My wish is to compose music that transcends what I have learned, expresses a new paradigm of interconnectedness, and resonates with people's hearts...

I will write more about this in the near future.

The Wing

The Wing, 60 x 60 cm acrylic on canvas, © Olivier Hijmans 2016

Flapping feathered wings, making wind, moving and navigating through a complex World, breathing life into stillness..

Silver light is shining at us from a distance, revealing colors in a clouded realm..

There is a particular depth and dynamism in this painting, that I'm trying more and more to achieve. The warped triangular shapes are a recurring entity in my work. I find them to be elegant and vibrant elements from which to build harmonic structures and movement. The jagged line in the center adds to the gestural contrast as it disappears into the distant shimmer.

For sale at Saatchi Art.

Saatchi Art

It's been a while since my last blog post..
But I am very happy to share with you that my painting 'Reach Out' has sold to a collector in Scotland, and that my work 'Desolate' was featured in a collection by Saatchi Art's chief curator Rebecca Wilson. I am very grateful.

It is a wonderful thing about this age to be able to share one's art online with so many people around the World.

You can check out my space on the Saatchi Art gallery here

I'll be back soon with more updates!

Mont Sainte Victoire

"Mont Sainte Victoire" 30 x 30 cm acrylic on canvas © Olivier Hijmans, 2015

Cézanne's famous series about Mont Sainte Victoire has been a great inspiration for me. Having attended many Buddhist summer courses over the years near the village of Trets, overlooking this beautiful mountain, I have formed a deep connection with this area. The specific herbal scent, the dry summer heat, the sounds from the valley, the ever changing color and lighting of the mountain... It really is a very special place. Cézanne knew that, and I also experienced it very much.

Though the mountains in this painting are not quite the shape of the actual Mt Sainte Victoire, this scene is an expression of the area and everything I experienced there, as projected from my heart and observation.

For sale on Saatchiart.com 

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?