I’m very proud to announce that my new exhibition at Herberg de Waard in Ternaard (Friesland, NL) will be arranged next Thursday. After a few weeks of doing (almost) nothing because my (only) eye was hurting too much, I need to take some steps and make some decisions.

As always there will be the question: Which paintings will be in and how can I match them together as a good collection representing me at this very moment? And then, of course, who am I at the moment? Well, I’m glad I made a lot of new work at the start of January, so I can take all those artworks with me. They’re bright, green, ochre, orange and all look very well together. I have the right color palette set and many older works do good with these new ones too.

And… I want a special new one, as Emmy, who arranges the exhibitions at De Waard asked me to join the ‘Flax route’ (Vlasroute) as well. From the moment the question rose, I had a bright idea of a woman coming out of the flax field, surrounded by the blue lilac flowers. She asked for two canvases in June, but if I could bring them coming Thursday it would be even better.

So I started working on one piece since last Monday, the girl in the flax. Today, I can tell you I’m sure I will finish this one. Earlier this week, I had some big struggles though. It’s never good for me to work with deadlines. Where I can flourish in a world without time, and if I’m having enough energy I WILL produce! But, still recovering from a heavy pain in my eye, I’m not able to work for more than 4 hours a day, spread out over the day with many moments of rest. And, there is some pressure, cause there are other things that need to be done, like taking pictures of the new paintings, making a price list, sending out newsletters and printing a flyer. But, all these things are so hard when the ‘figurehead’ of the exhibition is not finished yet! Everything depends on the girl in the flax now. And that’s a pretty stubborn one…

This week I read somewhere (I think it was Art Inc.) that the process of creating a painting is always going in a form of a U. Starting a work is easy, the middle part is the hardest. Many details are getting in and the painting is becoming to messy or full. There are more voices shouting in it… There are things that are not right. It’s in the continuous search for what is right and what doesn’t need to be in at all where you find the only right thing back. In my case, it meant painting a piece all over again, with pain in my heart. It was the only right thing to do. I killed a beautiful face and I am sorry for that.

And I started all over again, but now with the right proportions, with the right dress of the flax girl and another, beautiful face! By now I know I didn’t need to be scared at all. I could be confident about my skills and power to make something good – even better! – and I am proud! I am going up in my U. There’s no doubt I can finish this one and I can do all other things need to be done.

Now, back to the couch and shut my tired eye…