On the canvas I put at least 5 or 6 layers of white, gesso-like paint. The brush strokes of these layers give a nice structure. Because I use transparent oil paint in several very thin layers, the structure remains visible, adding much atmosphere to the painting.

Instead of adding the paint precisely with a brush, I work the other way around; I put on a lot of paint and then I carefully remove some of it, while “drawing” in the wet paint with a brush, the backside of a brush, a cloth, a tissue, a Q-tip or whatever is suitable for making the lines, the forms, the dots etc.

All the titles I use are lines (or parts of lines) from song lyrics. Mostly from pop music, sometimes a title of a jazz song. There are so many references to the landscape to be found, (and the sky, the weather, the time of day, the time of year, and so on), which I thankfully use.

Usually I give the title to the painting when it is finished, browsing through my collection of songlines and selecting the most appropriate one. But sometimes I make a painting with a particular songline in mind.

Working from this concept is inspired by the novel “The Songlines”, by Bruce Chatwin.