A look back at 2017 + my main goal for 2018

We are already 'on the road' for four days in 2018. But I still like to take a look back at 2017. What a year was 2017! I was in the fortunate circumstance to sell a fair amount of paintings. There were also a number of interesting commissions. And, as the proverbial ‘cherry on the cake’, I was selected for publication in of some nice art publications.

Highlights 2017

Let me show you some of my highlights of 2017, in chronological order;

Best wishes for 2018

I hope 2018 will be better, more beautiful and with more success for everyone! And all in good health ofcourse! Follow your passion and try to do things that matter to you as much as possible.

My main goal for 2018

One advice all the entrepreneurial guru's tend to give is to set goals. Small one and big ones. I have at least one goal for 2018: 

At least five of my artworks are shown in a reasonable gallery (not my own Mr. Upside gallery) during a period of more than two weeks.

I have my strategy to get me there already worked out, but if you have any thoughts how to reach that goal, please let know! Use the comments below or feel free to send me an e-mail.

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Finished: commissioned painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

The two painted sliding doors are finished! I talked about the work-in-progress of this awesome commission by Eva Lebens and family here. The doors close off two bathrooms in their newly renovated and soon-to-be open beautiful Airbnb location in Voorburg, the Netherlands.

In the past few days, after we brought our kids to bed, I would drive back to my studio to apply layers of varnish to the doors. This way my well-respected studio neighbours would have the least problems with the smell of the glossy varnish. 

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PICTURE 2 of 12 - One of The finished sliding doors with a blue background and pink side hanging in one of the bedrooms available in the airbnb location in voorburg, the netherlands 

Yesterday I delivered the doors at the two-bedroom Airbnb location.

Refurbished

Eva took the opportunity to show Janette and me around and show the progress made in the past few weeks renovating and decorating the bedrooms, kitchen and living room. The interior is really unique and has an 'eclectic' vibe to it. Almost every object has a story and many of them are painted or refurbished. 

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Picture 3 of 12 - One of The finished sliding doors with a orange background and pink side hanging in one of the bedrooms available in the airbnb location in voorburg, the netherlands 

Continuation of the painting process

The pictures below show the painting process where I left off in this previous blogpost on the sliding doors. Personally I always like to see how an artwork is made so I hope you like it that I am sharing lots of progress shots here.

For more work-in-progress shots, follow my Instagram account.  

As with many of my paintings, the layers I started with aren't visible in the final artwork anymore. It also took several layers of paint to find the appropriate colours.

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Picture 4 of 12 - The finished sliding doors WAITING TO GET THEIR VARNISH. 

The Gap

When I see final paintings I always think of an article I once read, about the creation of art.

An experienced artist described how he, as a beginning artist, experienced a large 'gap' between the vision in his head and the things he actually produced. Most beginning artists struggle to re-produce their vision in their first few years. But as the experience of the artist grows, the gap between imagination / vision and the final end result gets smaller and smaller.  

Three visible layers

My initial idea was to combine three visible layers. A coloured background, a middle layer with extra large, semi-transparent Bold Lines and a top layer with white 'regular' Bold Lines. But while I applied the final layer of white lines, I noticed that the middle layer probably wouldn't be recognisable anymore. No problem at all, but certainly different from what I had envisioned.

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Picture 5 of 12 - the orange version of the sliding doors on the improvised bench - the doors are too large to paint standing up

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Picture 6 of 12 - The first layer of the bold lines in the sliding doors together with two other paintings i am currently working on

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Picture 7 of 12 - Nice overview of various steps in the painting process of the sliding doors. 

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Picture 8 of 12 - Progress shot while I am applying the final layer of white paint

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Picture 9 of 12 - CLOSE UP OF THE BLUE VERSION OF THE finished sliding doors

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Picture 10 of 12 - CLOSE UP OF THE ORANGE VERSION OF THE finished sliding doors

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Picture 11 of 12 - THE SIDES OF THE DOORS PAINTED PINK. 

Pink sides

I remember seeing the sides of a door painted in a neon color once in an interior design magazine. Really cool because of the small area that's covered in a striking color. Not to obvious but enough to attract a bit of attention. The small strip of striking pink coincidentally happend to also match some of the interior accessories. 

Glue

Although the pink sides are just a small part of the painting, pulling the tape off that protected the front and back side of the doors, still was an exciting moment. I wasn't sure the tape that I had used would leave glue residue. Or worse, would damage parts of the painted surface. Fortunately none of this happend and I had more trouble brushing away pink paint on the front and back.

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PICTURE 12 OF 12 - ME TAKING A TERRIBLE SELFIE WHILE PREPARING TO APPLY THE VARNISH LAYERS

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The finished sliding doors

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Work-in-progress - 8 new abstract paintings in the webshop soon

While working on a painting, I use my paint left-overs for other paintings. Common practice, I believe. It saves paint, improves the consistency between paintings and allows working on multiple paintings at a time while paint dries.

So when I was working on the sliding doors for the Airbnb location, I had various unfinished paintings nearby for using the left-overs.

Tomorrow Eva, the owner of the Airbnb location, will join me in my studio taking pictures and film me putting the final layers on the sliding doors. Therefor, in the past days I couldn't work on the doors and I had some time to spend on the progress of the paintings.

It thought it would be nice to share some insights on the process of making the paintings.

Painting 1

- Above left: white lines on black background

I really liked the larger (black) border around the white lines, the boxed feel, in this one. Hard to see on the picture but the background consists of a gradient, going from dark blue on the top to black on the bottom. Nice, but it makes improvements more difficult, :)

Painting 2

- Above right: white lines on a red brown and blue background  

Is a smaller one (50 x 50 x 4cm / 19.6" x 19.6" x 1.5") and almost finished.

It is exactly what I envisioned for larger paintings, and inspired by the popular 'Drone' painting. Just like many of the other work-in-progress paintings, I started this one with a first layer of white paint on the color background using a Molotow 60mm acrylic paint marker. Because this never gets me solid lines, I added a second layer of the Molotow acrylic paint / ink, applied with a Liquitex brush. 

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Picture 2 of 4 - Work-in-progress on several abstract paintings by Dutch artist Michiel Nagtegaal in Leidschendam-Voorburg, the Netherlands

Painting 3

- Above left: white lines on a pink and light blue background  

I started this painting in portrait orientation but during the painting I decided to switch to landscape. For some reason I have been making portrait orientated paintings since I started painting four years ago. Strange, because people buy horizontal paintings just as much as vertically orientated ones. 

Because of the larger contrast in that part, I expected the lines to work better there. But today I re-discovered all the details and all the layers of paint in the right part and decided that right part has way more depth and is in fact much more interesting.

The right part looks more like a recently sold painting, Soft Skin. And I have been trying to repeat the process behind Soft Skin many times since it sold but with unsatisfactory results so far.

Painting 4

- Above right: white lines on a light and dark blue background

This painting is made, exceptionally, on wood. The wooden plate is part of a set of two plates, bought several years ago. The first one was used for the colorful illustration 'Mad men' and this second, blank one has been moved around our house, shed and my studio for years. 

The plate already has several layers of paint as a result of my attempts to re-create the process used with the 'Drone' and 'Soft Skin' paintings. I am still not happy with it, so I leave it for now. Inspiration will come.

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Picture 2 of 4 - Work-in-progress on several abstract paintings by Dutch artist Michiel Nagtegaal in Leidschendam-Voorburg, the Netherlands

Painting 5

- Above left: white lines on a blue and purple, toned down background

I really dig the composition on this one. The margins are fine. And I like the layered background. So far so good.

First, this painting had some dark layers of paint on it, before I decided to treat it with a 'white wash' to make the background brighter and lower the contrast with the white lines. It already had a first layer of extra bold white lines but this layer has been partially covered with layers of colored paint. Today I added the top layer of bold, white lines. In the next few days I'll make the contrast of those lines a bit higher, by adding an extra layer of white.

Painting 6

- Above right: white lines on a blue and pink background

The white lines I added today are, in fact, layer 5 or 6. Below the white lines you see, there is a layer of a 'blue wash' with a layer of white lines and a layer of pink lines beneath it. But I like the composition and just the right amount of complexity. 

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Picture 2 of 4 - Work-in-progress on several abstract paintings by Dutch artist Michiel Nagtegaal in Leidschendam-Voorburg, the Netherlands

Painting 7

- Above left: white lines on a black background

Painting 7 and 8 are a continuation of the previously made 'Back in Black'-paintings. In those dark paintings I explore a minimum of contrast between dark lines and a black background. Check out the Instagram posts here and here on the subject.

I really like the 'white space' in the painting. And I intend to leave it like this. For months I have had ideas to leave the concept of a 'fully covered'-painting. This way the set of lines itself forms a shape, a composition. And this makes the painting way more interesting. Especially if I add extra layers of (colored) lines to the shape. Can't wait to proceed on this one!

Painting 8 

- Above right: white lines on a dark blue background

Although I am not fully satisfied with the result so far I still consider this as a successful experiment. As I said in the comment on painting 7, by leaving spaces open, the painting becomes more interesting. But I am thinking of adding more color to it. To be continued!

 I'll keep you posted on further progress, on my Instagram account.

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Work-in-progress - Painting sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Let me give you a look on the creative process of painting two wooden sliding doors. It’s a super nice commission by Eva Lebens and family. The doors close off two bathrooms in their newly renovated and soon-to-be open beautiful Airbnb location in Voorburg, the Netherlands.

Eva is one of our neighbours and a few weeks ago she walked in the Mr. Upside Gallery, wondering if I would be interested in painting two sliding doors of her soon-to-be-ready Airbnb location in our street.

Ofcourse I couldn't refuse such an awesome request! So later that day, she and her husband Joost gave me a tour in their newly renovated apartments behind their house.

PICTURE 1 of 16 - THE TWO BLANK SLIDING DOORS - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

In the picture above you see the two bathrooms with the doors open. The Airbnb apartments are super cool and stylishly decorated. With underlayment wooden plates on the floor and the exposed brick walls, the apartment has a contemporary and cosy feel. 

Picture 2 of 16 - Preparing the doors by painting Gesso on them - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Eva and Joost had the idea to work to collaborate with local people as much as possible. The first idea of Joost was to use a local graffiti artist but they decided they needed a less 'busy' and more toned-down image. 

Eva had seen my work hanging in the gallery before and gave me carte blanche with the art on the doors. I thought of adding a more figurative, local or bathroom theme but decided to keep it abstract. It would leave more to the imagination of the visitors of the Airbnb location. 

Picture 3 of 16 - Taping the sides where I don't want paint to touch the wood - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

I started by applying a layer of white Gesso to both doors, to improve the adhesion of the acrylic paint. Then I added some color, knowing that this color probably wouldn't be visible in the end result because of all the layers of paint on top. 

Picture 4 of 16 - First layer of paint and the first set of Bold Lines on it - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

I liked the idea of layering, of another layer of Bold Lines shining through the top layer. During the painting, the concept of combining the 'old' (house build in 1922) with the 'new' (renovated Airbnb apartments), popped in my head. 

So I decided on a toned-down background with an 'old', less organised feel and a 'new', more structured and tighter top layer with brighter Bold Lines.

The images in this work-in-progress article show only the layers that form the background of the paintings. Somewhere in the next two weeks I'll be posting images of the finished sliding doors with the Bold Lines top layer here.

In the meantime, I'll keep you posted on the progress on my Instagram account

Picture 5 of 16 - Overview of painting I am currently working on - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 6 of 16 - Extending the first Bold Lines on the sliding door - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 7 of 16 - Preparing the second sliding door with orange paint - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 8 of 16 - The first under layer of thicker Bold Lines is finished - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 9 of 16 - Statusupdate - The painted sliding doors next to eachother - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 10 of 16 - Added some paint to the blue sliding door and prepared the orange door - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

Picture 11 of 16 - Painting the Bold Lines on the second sliding door - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

PICTURE 12 OF 16 - Thicker BOLD LINES on both sliding doors - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

PICTURE 13 OF 16 - I USE THE LEFT OVERS OF PAINT FOR OTHER PAINTINGS - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

PICTURE 14 OF 16 - CLOSE UP 1 of ONE OF the painted sliding doorS - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

PICTURE 15 OF 16 - CLOSE UP 2 of ONE OF the painted sliding doorS - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

PICTURE 16 OF 16 - CLOSE UP 3 of ONE OF the painted sliding doors - Work-in-progress - Painted sliding doors for bathroom Airbnb location

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Moved into my new studio in Leidschendam

Although I received the keys to my new studio earlier, I moved my canvases, paint and other stuff today. And as with many of my projects, I properly underestimated the amount of work involved.

A week earlier I had made a fair deal with Jeroen, one of my 'neighbours' in the old building, to help me move four large pieces of furniture while I helped him out moving his stuff.

So how hard could it be? All the heavy stuff had been moved already.

Easy

Confident this would be a piece of cake, I envisioned a nice early start at 09.00h. After which it would take just 'a few' hours around my old studio to load 'a few' canvases, a bit of paint, two office chairs and some random other stuff in the chartered van. Then it would take four kilometers, a five minute drive, and two hours tops to unload all the stuff into my new creative sanctuary. I even would have an hour or two in the late afternoon to do some work. Easy!

It turned out a little bit different.

Stairs and large paintings

First, the paintings. Apparently I had been a bit more productive in the past three years than I remembered. Second, quite a few paintings did have a size that seriously limited the possibility of handling more than one painting at a time. And third, I severly underestimated the amount of doors and stairs in the new building I had to conquer to get to my new studio.

Satisfied

When I finished it was diner time. My legs felt I had run the New York Marathon after a night out with a few drinks too many. But I was satisfied. The old studio was emtpy. My new studio a chaos. But with all the stuff on the right location, I locked the door. Tired but satisfied.

Another upside

One other advantage of moving stuff is the re-discovery of some old stuff you forget you had. Sometimes it's a trip down memory lane. Sometimes it brings extra inspiration. The latter is the case with the artworks shown below. Most of them are unfinished but I still see why I choose to make them and why I should be making more, :)

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Good bye old studio and hello new studio!

The Mr. Upside studio is moving! Due to the planned demolition of the old building 'De Verlichting' in The Hague and the construction of garages, Mr. Upside has to move the paints, canvases and brushes to former office building Sector V in Leidschendam.

Too bad. The high ceilings, the natural light through the large windows and a unique, relaxed atmosphere were awesome. 'De Verlichting' offered startups and smaller companies nice units in various buildings which together felt like a small campus.

Sector V. Leidschendam

The new location, called 'Sector V' is also a former office but much larger. My estimation would be that it is build in the mid 70's. And those years didn't end up in the history books as the most creative years architectural wise. The smaller windows, low ceilings and the larger number of units, giving it a distinctly different look and feel.

 

Alternative location

The organisation behind these renovated offices, Conceptors, was also very surprised when the city of The Hague announced the plans for the necessary decontamination of the soil under 'De Verlichting'. Fortunately they where able to find a good alternative in the form of Sector V.

Ofcourse it is the tenants who make a certain vibe in a building. That's why I am confident that eventually it will all turn out fine.

You are invited

Come get a look at the new studio! I have plans for a permanent Open Studio Day every week. Probably Wednesday. But ofcourse you are always welcome. Call, email or send a Whatsapp message and I'll get the coffee or tea ready!

New address

Mr. Upside Art
Sector V Building - Vlietweg 15
2266 KA Leidschendam

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Typical Dutch lunch setup for artist Mr. Upside

Due to the lack of the luxurious company restaurant at KPN I enjoyed the past year, this typical Dutch lunch setup will have to do for me today, as I am finally starting for a few intense months in my studio today.

The harsh life of an artist sure isn’t easy, :)

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After months of absence I returned in heaven

After months and months of absence I finally returned to my studio for one single day of painting. It makes me sad to know I won’t return soon due to lots of paid ‘pixel pushing’ ahead. I find it quite a challenge to balance full freedom personal projects on my Mr. Upside project with digital design projects on Designia. Anyway, started with painting some old, unfinished abstract works white. It feels so good to pick up the brushes and smell the paint!

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