Theo Overgaauw
Born in the Hague, attended the Vrije Academie and attended a workshop of a week by Jörg Immendorff (Rijks Academie).
Work owned by municipality, companies, national and international private collectors.
Now living in Sellingen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Could you tell us more about your background and how you began creating art?
I started drawing from an early age using mainly oil pastels on anything that was available. Not even wallpaper was save. My parents didn’t mind as long as I only drew on the wallpaper of my own room. At school, from a certain age, we had a weekly art class where we worked with watercolours. After graduation, I went to the Vrije Academie where abstract work was the main thing, so I started working realistically.
What does your art aim to say to its viewers?
I always like to connect the two worlds of abstract with figurative. I don’t think there is any difference in the feeling/emotions you can get from either and therefore, I like the viewer to see that you can be very figurative in abstract work and vice versa. But also important I like them to recognise the pleasure/fun in paint and painting, its structure and flow, the combination of color and that it’s not only about the finished product.
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?
I start working in the morning after walking the dog and continue for as long as it takes(hurray for led’s). I make very little preparations and very little to no preliminary studies. It kills the mood and the surprise that paint and painting must have. That also means that mistakes are involved, and correcting mistakes is challenging and that can lead to surprising new effects or views.
What is the essential element in your art?
Essential in my work is that there always has to be something unsettling, a twist. And what I mentioned before under two is that the fun that I had in painting should be visible to the viewer.
In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?
To those that look for it there can be a connection when they recognise something of themselves in art that can acknowledge an emotion or experience. To me that is the sole purpose of art.
