EYE

Glance into the world behind the art

Flip Gaasendam:
FLIP GAASENDAM / Apr 5th, 2019   


Flip Gaasendam knows how to stop time with his impressionistic oil paintings. It is no coincidence that he often chooses a setting that precisely matches this moment of silence: a figure along the tide line, and salt marsh in the Wadden landscape, or the interior of Hotel van de Werff on Schiermonnikoog. His works give the impression that you can be part of an intimate scene on the painter's retina, which he has recorded at the same time with pencil and sketchpad.
 
Beautiful scenes
Flip Gaasendam (1957) can no longer be ignored from the scene of contemporary Impressionist painters. He is also referred to as a precursor of the new impressionism. The popularity of his works is mainly due to a combination of unmistakable craftsmanship and the familiar atmosphere that his paintings evoke. They look like memories, a moment in time when our gaze was caught by something commonplace. A waiter, who serves a drink in the barroom, or a squatting woman on the beach, holding up her dress while she picks up something from the sand with her hands. These are beautiful scenes, which at the same time arouse nostalgia and wonder.
 
Real Groninger
Born and raised in the city of 'd'Olle Grieze', Gaasendam stayed close to home for his art education. He graduated in 1982 from the Academy Minerva. As a true 'Grunninger', his inspiration does not have to go far. Most of his scenes take place in the city, such as the well-known series of paintings he made of the Groninger station restoration, the Hogeland and the Wadden Islands, and in particular the island of Schiermonnikoog. Gaasendam paints the places where he himself likes to stay. He always has his sketch pad within reach. He discovers a beautiful scene, he can capture it immediately, to decide later whether it will be further developed into a painting.
 
   
Transparency and light
That Gaasendam once started as an aquarellist, can still be clearly seen in the chosen color palette. There is a transparent touch over the colors, with a lot of use of sea and earth tones. The lighting effect is used to give depth and dimension to the painting. The fact that the color green often predominates is due to the fact that, as he himself calls it, he makes the paintings 'blond' with cobalt and ocher. Although his paintings are usually classified as post-impressionistic, Flip Gaasendam, in his own words, forgets everything about art styles once he is engaged in a work. He therefore does not use a fixed method to apply the paint. During painting, wipes, palette knives, brushes and even his own hands are used. The painting is not finished until, according to the painter, there is no longer a dot between it. Which he does not mean by any means, that every detail is worked out to perfection. It is the total impression, the correct representation of atmosphere and setting, which makes him decide to put down the brush.
 
Nostalgic desire
According to Flip Gaasendam, his longing for nostalgia springs from his childhood: as a child he already found the veil effect of the morning mist beautiful, something that often recurs in contemporary paintings. "Poetry in paintings" is a statement that is often used when it comes to Flip Gaasendam's paintings. Yet he really sees himself as a contemporary artist and rejects every longing for the past. He sees his poetic style of painting as a means to stop time, a counterpart to our busy existence. So perhaps a touch of melancholy to a time when the clock tapped just a little bit slower ...
 

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