Ben van Netten

These paintings represent the latest chapter in my on going exploration of painting, photography and motion. All the works are painted with oil on canvas, using supports which I design and build. I chose to alter the construction of a traditional canvas in order to enhance the effect of the subject matter on the viewer.

The unique shape of the concave canvases serves two purposes. The first is to create an illusion which heightens the paintings sense of depth due to the viewer's initial assumption that the surface is flat. The second purpose is to smoothly confine and capture the speed and flow of the image. In a few of these paintings I have subtly departed from the traditional flat lines, and square corners of the perimeter of the support. I favor slight curves to create the illusion that the image is larger than the canvas. The curved sides allow the viewer to see slightly past the actual edge of the canvas and deeper in the periphery of one's vision.

Many of these paintings could be considered "photo realism" based on my own experimental photography, with others appearing to be closer to abstraction (I consider all of them to be representational). Most of the source images are from my neighborhood in Victoria as well as my travels around Vancouver Island and I have named the paintings appropriately. I favor colour and flow over form and descriptive accuracy in order to allow one's mind to experience the feeling of a place through subtle suggestions.