Steven Nederveen
Artist Statement
Steven Nederveen combines traditional Japenese painting ideas with contemporary materials and methods. The ancient Zen like imagery of panoramic mountain vistas, gnarled trees and swimming fish are adapted to today’s artistic techniques. His explorations are on the aesthetic of beautiful melancholy, a sensibility best described by the Japanese term Wabi Sabi.
Wabi Sabi is a vague expression used to describe the beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay and death.
However the techniques he uses are quite opposite – the virtuosity of computer editing is used to erase, blur and mimic authenticity. Assembling multiple photographic images and coating in resin. The painting then occurs on top of the edited photograph, which in turn pulls back the element of authenticity in order to maintain tension between the two ideas.
Wabi Sabi is a vague expression used to describe the beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay and death.
However the techniques he uses are quite opposite – the virtuosity of computer editing is used to erase, blur and mimic authenticity. Assembling multiple photographic images and coating in resin. The painting then occurs on top of the edited photograph, which in turn pulls back the element of authenticity in order to maintain tension between the two ideas.