Artist Statement

Artist Statement

There are several aspects to my artistic practice (painting) which are important for understanding my work. I believe we are at a significant time in the history of painting because of the advances in digital technology. Myself, and thousands of painters around the world are unknowingly part of an unnamed movement in painting. This movement is best defined by the heavy uses of digital media as part of their painting process.

The uses of technology in art is not new. The history of painting reflects the history of science. Artists have been employing the latest technological advances since the dawn of the medium , A few examples of these technologies are as follow. brushes, pigments, geometry, math, psychology, the camera obscura, photography and so on.

My generation of painters are the first in history to develop their skills from the beginning with full access to powerful new visual tools, Computers Cameras, Printers, projectors and software are some examples of the tools I am using to create my paints. I don't use all these tools for every painting but they have all become intertwined with my discipline.

The significance of using these tools can be found in the tools themselves . Personally, the employment of these tools has given me a visual agility that I wasn't necessarily looking for be seem to be adapting to. I can capture, create, find, or modify an image quickly which then becomes the source for a painting. Although generally I do very little intentional manipulation of an image on the computer, I prefer to affect the image as it's being created, This is done by manipulating the camera or by combining and layering these digital tools in order degrade the quality of an image where by exaggerating the structural photographic signature of the particular tool, i.e., camera , monitor, or file format. I find this very interesting because may most of these visual signatures exists also only in digital form and are vulnerable to becoming lost to history. This is why I choose to paint these images in oil. I'm also finding my self painting directly painting form the computer screen In order to save time and resources. The rapid output from modern visual equipment has also given me an attention deficit in regards to subject matter. This is a condition that I hope will become more severe with time.The internet has also been a huge influence on my work.

To list all of the ways my art has been affected by technology would be too much for the scope of this statement. I believe there has never been a better time to be a painter and I feel very lucky to be painting now.

Ben van Netten