This one is a special edition, I made it to celebrate my exhibition of freshly made French paintings. It's fun to paint food, especially abroad. It is as if you have a closer look on everything and as a painter the whole fun of what I do is already zooming in on everything I encounter.
The artichoke is like an art object with its uniform structure of sturdy shells that, like scales of an armadillo, neatly fall over each other. It has a hard stinging exterior and a very soft little heart tucked safely inside. That in itself seems to be a methaphor for the way many people live their lives. Hardened, armed even by all the events that took place in growing up but mostly with the same soft, loving heart like when you were a baby.
Let's try to open up a little today, and show your surrounding a glimpse of your tender inside.
'Arti-Chock'
acrylic on canvas 5x5cm 2x2"
This little painting will be a gift for one of the lucky visitors of the French Connection Exhibition in Amsterdam. So consider it...
