General News
4 August, 2022
International artist calls Tarnagulla home
While most residents are sound asleep, the late night hours are when one Tarnagulla resident is making magic happen — with Dutch-born artist Philippe de Kraan working meticulously on his internationally renowned art work. Born in Amsterdam...
While most residents are sound asleep, the late night hours are when one Tarnagulla resident is making magic happen — with Dutch-born artist Philippe de Kraan working meticulously on his internationally renowned art work.
Born in Amsterdam, Holland, Philippe moved to Australia at a young age before moving back to Europe, where he exhibited his works extensively.
Moving to Tarnagulla around 12 months ago, the artist works through the night to create his colourful and inward-looking paintings — a time he feels gives the clarity needed to paint.
“I do all of my work late at night, if I’m feeling good I’ll start at around 10 pm and work through to 5 am, but sometimes less,” he said.
“It’s quiet at night and still, it allows me to think straight and the paintings I do require a lot of concentration because I use fine brushes and there’s a lot of fine detail in my work.
“I like to be isolated with my music when doing art, I do and create what I want with it.
“One large painting could take three or four months to complete for example and the one I’m working on now has already taken me four-and-a-half months and still isn’t finished.
“That work in particular is a really important one, it’s called The Path of Consciousness which is an expression around surviving and achieving.”
Philippe first exhibited his work at the age of 21 in Holland and has since gone on to exhibit a total 48 times, including 26 internationally, with his 49th taking place later this year.
Over the years, he has created more than 400 paintings with the largest, The Gathering, taking more than three years to complete and standing over seven feet tall.
“It grew and grew from my first exhibition,” he said.
“I’ve been making art all my life, I was never very good at school but art was my forté.
“I used to paint impressionism which is more on the realistic side but now I do more expressionism and abstractism.
“That still identifies figures, normally, but in a more expressionistic way.”
Philippe expresses awareness of his subconscious and extends it into his character studies through his unique form of expressionism.
In recent years Philippe’s works have been noticed in America, with the artist having his first exhibition there in 2019 at the New York Art Expo where the Saphira & Ventura Gallery in picked his work up to show permanently.
Philippe’s paintings have also been shown at the high-end Hampton’s Fine Art Fair in New York, as well as sold at the Palm Beach Show in Miami.
While many artists draw inspiration from others, Philippe said his inspiration came from a different place.
“I think artists would normally say their inspiration comes from other people but it’s not so much like that for me,” he said.
“I’m inspired by a lot of artists but for my work, I make up a story or subject and I formulate that into pictures.
“I do like other artists like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Gauguin and Monet but its mainly their lifestyle, not so much their art — they’re all suffering to produce their work and painting by candlelight.
“My work has got a lot to do with survival on earth and that sort of thing, that really interests me.”
