Sunday scribbles #25: Celebrating thirty years old with my Thriving Thirties vernissage.

So, as many of you have already seen, I have organized an exhibition of my artwork. They are on display in the church of Bellem from the first of December until the thirtieth. This is my first exhibition to the public, so I couldn't not hold a vernissage. On the 30th of November I celebrated my thirtieth birthday by combining a (modest) birthday party with a private showing of my exhibition. What a birthday I had this year! At first I thought there would be about 40 people attending this vernissage, but what I hadn't foreseen are both the marketing and social skills of my girlfriend and her mom. A total of 90 people actually came to raise a glass to...well...me. When I was younger I loved being the center of attention, but having an event of this size based all around me, did feel strange from time to time. I like meeting new people and talking to them, but it wasn't the easiest to divide my attention to that amount on one night. There were even attendees who I could only greet, and thank for coming when they left. Luckily these were mainly friends who I frequently see or hear, so they understand. Talking to that many people about what I have created was really enlightening. I have received lots of feedback. Most of it was positive, which is a motivator to continue putting in the work. Seeing as it is hard to describe how I felt during the evening, I'll continue with two stories behind sold paintings, to end it off with the important meaning of acceptance when creating paintings the way I do.

A first painting I have sold was to an aunt of mine. Now you would expect that she would've bought it just to support me, I mean, she's an aunt of mine. That's what family does, right? Well, in the beginning I often thought this true. When I started selling paintings for somewhere between 50 and 150 euros, I believed many people bought something just to support me. To whom I am eternally grateful because it gave me the chance to improve both the paint and canvasses I was using. During the vernissage I was displaying three sizes of paintings: 80 cm x 80 cm, 100 cm x 100 cm and 120 cm x 120 cm. These came along with a price of 220 euros for the 80 by 80, 350 for 100 by 100 and 610 for 120 by 120. Seeing as she bought the middle size, I can't believe this is only to support me. I don't know about you, but spending 350 euros isn't something I would do just to support someone. Now this isn't even the best thing about this sale. This is an aunt, who at the beginning my artistic career wasn't interested at all. When asked about her opinion back then, she replied the famous words that 'anyone can do this'. Yet she attended this opening because it was also to celebrate my birthday, but she ended up buying one of my latest paintings. How cool is that?! Maybe that's one of the best parts about it: surprising people who weren't interested at first. I don't want to say skeptical or negative, because as a loving person she is, she has never bashed on what I'm doing, even though it wasn't her cup of tea.

A second painting I have sold pretty much straight away to some of the first attendees. When entering the church from the left side of the building, you can see all my paintings set up in the right wing. It is set up in a way that you can see every painting upon entering, with one painting standing out: my masterpiece. Just one week before the vernissage I had created 29 paintings just for this exhibition. Seeing as I wanted to display 30 paintings, I still had one to be made. I noticed myself experiencing a certain feeling of anxiety thinking about creating this last piece. For weeks a canvas of 120 cm by 120 cm has been resting in my room upstairs. Every time I passed there I was reminded I had to create something stunning with this one. It had to be different, had to be...my masterpiece. I'm always sharing with you that you just have to do it, that you can't postpone. Well, with the creation of this one I found myself a bit stuck. I was scared to start because I felt the pressure of creating a thing of artistic beauty. So, just about a bit more than one week left and I had to start. With this size of a canvas the paint will take roughly four to six days to completely dry. There wasn't really any time left. When looking at my rack of paint and deciding which colors to use, I knew I wanted something colorful. Many pieces by now have been consisting of two or three main colors. This one needed more. It had to display a joy of life. What better colors to use than very bright ones, combined with... fluorescent colors. Yes, no gold or silver this time, but fluorescence. First time trying them out, and boy, what a result. I am definitely creating many more with fluorescent colors! Now back to the vernissage. One of the first attendees were a couple for whom I have worked at events in the past. This is also the guy who inspired the subject to Sunday scribbles #15. After introducing them to my paintings, I left them to talk to some other people. When he signaled me to come over, he told me I could tell people my masterpiece was sold. Only about half an hour in to my vernissage and my favorite painting has already been sold. A harbinger of a successful evening! About a handful people asked my if this masterpiece was still for sale, only to find out it was already sold. I was surprised by how many people who I expected to be more sober, were blown away by this colorful masterpiece. A sign to continue this path in creating paintings which spread the joy of life (yes, that's why it's called Joie de vivre, which is this expression in French).

To finish off this post I would like to tell you something more about acceptance. I wasn't the one who invented this technique. I encountered this on Instagram from Callen Schaub, after which I was inspired to try it out myself. One thing led to another, and now we here. But what does this technique mean to me? I don't just want to copy what someone else does, so I had to find not just my own style, but also my own meaning. After a year of painting I finally know what the major factor behind my creations is: acceptance. When I am upstairs in my arena, I start with selecting the colors I want to use. I then dilute them to the right viscosity with a pouring medium. The viscosity can differ: if I want to keep the colors fairly separate I dilute them just a bit less, and if I want them to mix more easily on the canvas I dilute them a bit more. In the next step I put down the cups on the floor, next to the canvas. I press record on the camera, and start pouring the paint on the canvas. At this point I am not thinking anymore. The first steps consisted of thinking what color I want my painting to be, but right now I let my feeling guide me. Since the camera is recording and I want a decent video, I want to keep a steady flow of pouring paint on the medium. Yes, I can cut out parts of the video, but it's a good motivator to let the moment guide me. When there's enough paint poured on the canvas, I start to do something with that paint. Whatever I do right now is the deciding factor for the result. When this part of done, I get up to the pedal and start spinning the canvas. This is where acceptance comes in. Up till now I have controlled everything that happens, either by thinking or following my feeling. From now on I have to let go, and step into the unknown. Whatever happens now, is out of my control for the most part. The only thing I control right now is the speed of spinning my canvas, which does have an important effect on the result. But, even when controlling this speed, I still have no idea what the painting will look like exactly. So there's a very big external factor which is out of my control. Here's where acceptance comes in. Usually we are very concerned when external factors come in play and we try to influence them. A vain thing to do. I believe we should start to not only be comfortable with the unknown, but also embrace it. That is what I am trying to do using this technique: embrace the unknown and use it for something good. It's what the stoics have been telling us to do for a long time. Don't worry about external factors which we can't control. I want to go a step further and thrive in those unexplored waters.

Now I'm off going to walk my talk and try and create something beautiful for a friend.

Enjoy your Sunday!