When I was living in Armidale, NSW, Australia, until 4 months ago, I had the pleasure to meet Andrea Gledhill, the Curator of The New England Regional Art Museum. I showed her my work and she liked it. Some time later I was invited to participate in a 'local artist's exhibition' with as theme something like: 'How are you now or feeling'. Could have been: 'How do you see yourself now'. I cannot remember the exact description.

But I had been in Armidale maybe two months and was feeling very good. So I did a portrait of a stifled man holding his 'fear' symbolised by the cat and the creature illustrating the sadness on his shoulder. Then I had a family in front of the canvas, made out of old bed sheets, as if they had stepped out of the painting into the world. The real world, with a nicer cat, the bunny still there but not threatening, a kid, mum and dad. In other words: a real world. I did this 'project painting?' with the help of some of the kids in Freeman House. What amazed me was how shy these otherwise pretty worldly people were because they were naked bodies. To think they sometimes used language that would make a sailor blush. I tell you, my vocabulary widened that year. Look at the self portrait I did in 2005, only a month before I went to Armidale and Freeman House and look at the difference.

What an empty and sad man I was then.

Well, that is all in the past.

Today I met a very kind lady, now the person on the curatorial staff of the Cairns Regional Gallery.

We had a very nice and long talk and I promised Susan I'll send her my biography and wishes for a possible show there in the future. Like so many museums and galleries they are fully booked for the near future but we'll see. I am ready.

paul

I couldn't sleep last nite and started thinking about something that often plays on my mind: This crazy unbalanced world and where do I fit in it. The craziness, some call it unfairness or injustice, is everywhere. I live in that group of highly privileged peoples. No bullets hissing passed my ears, food enough to share with a cat and four kittens and I can walk down the street without being picked on because I might represent a different Tribe. During the day.

What we feed our cat, 'special' milk and soft and dry food that could easily feed some starving people in Somalia or some maimed kids in the Congo. It is highly nutritional and healthy.
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Often I see a few people huddled together talking intently about something. What? Probably money, sex, food or holidays. I'll never know, but I think it was Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde who observed: Nothing is read more carefully and with more interest than a menu.

Paintings are a little the same. Either they are looked at without any interest whatsoever or with such an interesting interpretation it would make the creator laugh, cry or blush!

I am often asked why I paint the men and women naked. My standard answer is because I don't want to worry about the latest fashion.

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I went to my art school, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, Holland, established some 4 centuries ago. Only the art school of Bologna is older.
I didn't even shave yet then. I think it is a great privelege when one can start to study art while still a kid. Our teachers were demi-Gods in our eyes. Old men, maybe late 30's. Some even older!.

What does an artist do? Nobody is waiting for them but as I often say with tongue in cheek: They don't build museums for dentists or brain surgeons.

To be an professional artist one must exhibit. So am I an exhibitionist? Yes, for sure.

On this web site Clemens created a gallery called Meetings.

One piece in this gallery is called 'Meeting Dien'. I was a little down, literally too, as I was helping a friend in her garden. Suddenly I looked back and saw this lady standing in a doorway. She was the sister of a good friend of mine. Her name was Arendina or Dientje for short.

It was love at first sight but I took some time to pluck up courage etc etc.

A few days ago we were sitting talking when I saw a reflection of light in a vase on the fridge.

I certainly saw a human and asked Clemens to photograph it.