Rob van Hoek

Born 1957 The Hague, The Netherlands.
Autodidact
Professional artist since 1993
Numerous exhibitions in leading Dutch galleries, as well as in galleries in the United Kingdom (London, Oxford, Newcastle, Worchester), Ireland, Denmark, Austria and France.
My paintings have frequently been shown at International art fairs.

Artist statement

I have been inspired by the landscape for years. Patterns, lines, rhythm, surfaces and colours, a line of trees along the road or lonely tree in a field. The countryside is my greatest source of inspiration. And of course, the horizon and the spectacle above.

It is evident that I do not use a linear perspective in my paintings as standard. Sometimes I do, but often I use a bird's eye view or a flat representation of the space. But these ways of looking are usually combined to create my paintings. This alters the sense of details; in this respect, I feel a lot of kinship with naive painters. I have to say that I am completely opportunistic in this, ultimately the character and composition of the painting are what matters.
After always having worked in my studio in the city, I have immersed himself in the landscape of the Dutch countryside of Achterhoek and the IJssel in recent years. This has had much influence on my landscape imagination, but my way of composing his landscapes has not changed.

Painting techniques:
On the canvas I apply underpaint in approximately 5 to 6 layers, in such a way that a nice structure of brush strokes is created. It is quite time-consuming but adds a lot to the painting in terms of atmosphere. The painting itself is done with oil paint mixed with Liquin and a little Cold Wax Medium.
I paint with fairly large flat brushes, for the details I use the back of a brush, cotton swabs, kitchen paper, everything that is suitable to get the right l mark-making, lines and shapes. The use of beeswax is an advantage here, the paint is a bit thicker and this works much easier.

The Titles
All the titles I use are lines (or parts of lines) from song lyrics. Mostly from pop music, sometimes a title of a jazz song. There are so many references to the landscape to be found, (and the sky, the weather, the time of day, the time of year, and so on), which I thankfully use.
Usually I give the title to the painting when it is finished, browsing through my collection of songlines and selecting the most appropriate one. But sometimes I make a painting with a particular songline in mind.
Working from this concept is inspired the novel “The Songlines”, by Bruce Chatwin.
Some titles that I like very much: “A hilltop paved with gold”, “Through fields all wet with rain”, “Caught in a sudden shower”, “The birds fly south across the autumn sky”.